And it was a tough one to write (seven drafts written and deleted!). As difficult as walking away from a baby you created, breathed life into and nurtured. But this baby is all grown up and has fulfilled everything that any proud parent could want.

From the very first issue, the magazine got heartfelt thanks from so many immigrants. Immigrants whose lives changed. Immigrants who responded when I scolded them for giving up. Immigrants who reached out and sent me hundreds of thousands of emails over the years. You don’t know it, but every single one of your emails touched me and made me more determined to overcome obstacles. My sincere apologies for not being able to answer all of your emails, but you can rest assure that I read them all.

So, as I sit here wistfully looking out the window, I ask myself “Any regrets?” And the answer is a resounding “No!” The magazine has allowed me to speak to all of you every month. Allowed me to create content and events like the first national awards recognizing immigrant excellence — the Top 25 Canadian Immigrant awards. Allowed me to meet corporations and talk to them about the value of hiring immigrants. Allowed me to speak with the highest level of politicians to try to make life just a bit easier for every single one of you. On the way, I received recognition, awards and accolades, all because of you.

But there is perhaps one thing that weighs on my mind as I leave the magazine that I designed and glued together — and that is there are still many immigrants out there who are not succeeding. Immigrants who are working in jobs below their expertise. Immigrants who have given up and that hurts me. Immigrants who have stopped believing in themselves. And that is why my work is not done yet.

So let me rewind to the birth of the magazine. Some of you may have heard it before, but here it is for the last time from me on this page.

It all started with a 3 a.m. dream on March 25, 2003. I dreamed about a magazine for immigrants. I then sat at my computer and wrote out what my dream for this magazine would be. I was excited and couldn’t go back to sleep. That day, at work I spoke to some colleagues and they, too, found it a great idea. From then on, every free moment was spent on scouring the internet on everything to do with Canadian immigration.

The magazine was officially launched in Vancouver on April 28, 2004, with a gathering of friends and well wishers. With a small circulation of 7,000 copies, we received scores of letters from immigrants, educators and stakeholders alike. I also received our first offer to be bought out!

The magazine grew by leaps and bounds adding advertisers and circulation in its first three years. We also added a scholarship to help immigrants called the Lilian To Scholarship. As a new magazine owned by a relatively new immigrant, it was difficult to manage the growing need for additional finance and, in December 2006, it was acquired by the Toronto Star.

Shortly after, we launched a Toronto edition. The magazine has evolved physically as well. From a tabloid newsprint in the first year to the glossy one you now hold, it has been a great journey.

The magazine could not have happened without a great team and others whom I wish to thank. First of all my wife, Sabrina, who believed in me when many thought the magazine would never fly. My editor, Margaret Jetelina, who has been the editor from the first issue and with whom I have spent many hours arguing content! My business adviser at the YMCA, Debbie Catherwood, who has been a mentor, friend and guide all rolled into one. Praveen Varshney, my mentor, who always had time to give me his advice even though he was busy himself. Steve Mayall, for giving me a boost up when I needed it most.

After today, I will spend more time with my speaking career and other consultancy work. Hopefully, I will also complete my second book.

As I leave I know I pass on the baton to an extremely capable team and have confidence that the legacy I have created will continue to grow in the years to come. Those of you who wish to follow me may do so from my website nicknoorani.com, my Facebook account and Twitter.

I may have left the magazine, but you can be sure I won’t leave my life passion of helping immigrants.

Goodbye for now.

I am however excited about the future as I go back to my roots as a social entrepreneur working to make life just a bit easier for immigrants to this wonderful country. I will of course continue my blogging on my website www.nicknoorani.com.

Keep in touch!

Exclusive interview with Minister Jason Kenney on changes to the 2010 immigration plan

Sometimes doing the right thing may not be a popular step, but it is the right thing to do. After a quick announcement last Saturday, not many media carried the true story. In a 45-minute phone call, Minister Jason Kenney cleared many misconceptions about the changes.

“Canada is adjusting its 2010 immigration plan to put even greater emphasis on economic recovery and further reduce the federal skilled worker backlog,” reads the official press release from Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney.

The minister clarified at the outset that these changes were not in any way a reduction of immigration numbers, but a way to bring in more transparency, controls and lastly a speedier more efficient processing system.

One of the most important factors contributing to an immigrant’s economic success is the ability to speak one of Canada’s official languages. Under changes to the federal skilled worker program and the Canadian experience class, all new applicants are required to include the results of an English or French language test as part of their application. The language requirements themselves, however, are not changing.

Previously, applicants had the option of proving their language ability through a language test or a written submission. The written submission was intended for people whose first language was English or French. However, non-native English and French speakers frequently used this option — in many cases, using someone else’s writing sample — making it difficult for visa officers to perform an accurate assessment of the applicant’s true language ability.

According to the minister, “With the results of a language test, FSW applicants will know before they apply exactly how many points they will be awarded for language ability on the federal skilled worker selection grid. Canadian Experience Class applicants will also know in advance if they meet the minimum language requirements necessary as part of their application.”

He added: “In keeping with the Action Plan for Faster Immigration, processing times are expected to improve because the visa officer simply assigns points based on the language test result instead of taking the time to review a written submission. Finally, many regulatory bodies and industry sectors require language testing or other proof of language assessment, so in taking the test, applicants are one step further on the path to integration into the Canadian labour market.”

The fact is a large number of immigrants who do not have language proficiency simply are unable to get a job in their field and end up with low-paying positions and as the minister rightly put it, “We are not doing them any favours.” This is a great step and will help immigrants succeed!

On the federal skilled worker category, Canada still receives thousands more applications each year than can be processed and accepted. This is true even when you consider that Canada has the highest relative level of immigration in the developed world, with a quarter million permanent residents admitted every year.

Effective immediately, to be eligible to apply as a federal skilled worker, applicants must either have a job offer, or they must have experience in one of 29 in-demand occupations. These occupations were identified through analysis of updated labour market information and consultations with provinces, territories, stakeholders and the public.

For those applying under the occupation list, the government will limit the number of applications considered for processing to 20,000 per year as a way to better manage the supply of applications with labour market demand.  Within the 20,000 limit, a maximum of 1,000 applications per occupation will be considered.  The limit does not apply to applicants with a job offer. Minister Kenney assured me that these files would be processed within six to 12 months and if they had applicants within these categories who had arranged employment in Canada, they would be processed even if the cap had been reached. The balance of 105,000 immigrants needed to maintain the targets would come from the backlog of 540 files that are made up of the old backlog of 380,000 files and 160,000 new files. “It is irresponsible to have six-year wait times,” said Kenney, and it is hoped that these changes will bring wait times down.

Arranged employment is one of the six factors under Canada’s new points system for selecting immigrants under the skilled worker category. It is essentially a genuine job offer by a Canadian employer that is approved (validated) by Human Resources & Skills Development Canada (HRSDC). According to the minister, this category ensures that immigrants are not stuck in the “survival job conundrum” and will be given priority at all times.

The minister also confirmed that there would be a comprehensive review of the provincial nominee program in conjunction with provinces to design a more standardized program that would benefit all provinces. Additionally, the Auditor General has asked for more information on the program as there is a lack of data on whether it meets its objectives and whether immigrants who come in under this program get jobs commensurate with their education and previous careers and lastly whether they move out of the province after landing.

The government is also proposing new eligibility criteria for the immigrant investor program so it makes an even greater contribution to the Canadian economy.  Proposed regulatory changes will require new investors to have a personal net worth of $1.6 million, up from $800,000, and make an investment of $800,000, up from $400,000.

The minister confirmed that there would be no changes or impacts on the family reunification class.

Subject: The immigration consultant problem

The body that was formed to regulate the consultants have failed to rectify the issue as they continue to have internal power struggles and a lack of will to self regulate themselves.

As we all know, unscrupulous consultants continue the rape of prospective immigrant dreams and besmirch the image of Canada. All kinds of measures have been proposed, but the bottom line is that if one can become a consultant for $6000 or less, all one needs is one or two clients to pay for this so called education. Compare it with the many years and hundreds of thousands of dollars lawyers have to pay and it becomes obvious why there are no or very few problems with immigration lawyers.

How then is it possible to regulate people who have so little to lose?

To me, the answer is obvious. Levy a bond of $50,000 on every consultant. They will have to have the bond number attached to every case they submit. If it is erroneous it is rejected and the client is informed about it. Without a bond no consultant can submit a case.

Those consultants who are hard working and ethical should be happy to do this as it will show them in an ethical and professional light, and will mean that they have government recognition as well.

I sincerely hope you will consider this suggestion.

Sincerely,

Naeem (Nick) Noorani

Founder/Publisher

The Canadian Immigrant Magazine

Interestingly, this report comes at the same time as a report from TD Bank that says seven million baby boomers are set to retire in the next two decades, which accounts for more than one-third of Canada’s labour force. The report says Canadian employers will be hard-pressed to find skilled workers as the labour force shrinks. And, seeing as the residential construction industry is an instrumental force in B.C.’s economy, it’s no stretch to say the housing industry will be hit hard by labour shortages.

This isn’t exactly surprising news. Before the economic downturn, the cry about labour shortages in every field from construction to trades was heard loud and clear. But the recession put that discussion of labour shortages on hold for a while, as companies faced layoffs. But, like any demographic trend, that was a short-term situation in a long-term problem.

While Canadian post-secondary institutions and apprenticeship programs are doing their best to entice the next generation of builders, electricians, plumbers and so on, and training them very well to boot, the reality is that the numbers just aren’t there.

To make a long, meandering story short, this is where immigration comes in. More than 250,000 immigrants land each year, and many of them are highly skilled professionals and workers that can fill these shortages. But they are often faced with numerous barriers to employment and settlement. Some need to improve their English; some need help in understanding Canadian ways and workplace culture; some simply face discrimination.

Nevertheless, most immigrants come here with hopes and dreams to make Canada their new home, and want to work hard, make use of their skills and succeed personally and professionally.

Unfortunately, until a couple of years ago, Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s emphasis was on bringing in highly skilled professionals, many in regulated fields, who ended up driving taxi cabs or mopping floors because the barriers to getting relicensed or hired in Canada were too great. Things are improving in this regard, and the Immigration department is also paying closer attention to who it brings in. In 2008, the department consulted with stakeholders across the country and created a national occupations list of jobs facing labour shortages. The idea was that immigrant applicants in these fields would be the ones who get into Canada.

Today, as the economic recovery gains momentum, the department is launching a new set of consultations to re-identify Canada’s newest emerging labour market needs.

The consultations will be held with national and regional stakeholders, provinces and territories and the general public until April 16, 2010. If you wish to provide input, visit the online consultation www.cic.sondages-surveys. ca/s/cons-p/langen.

Even though there’s effort being made to choose the right immigrants to meet our labour needs, note that the job of integrating these immigrants isn’t done. The numbers clearly indicate that hiring immigrants and visible minorities will no longer be much of an option, so it behoves employers and industry professionals to find ways to incorporate diversity into your company well. I admit that having staff from various cultural backgrounds is not without its challenges. But workplace diversity will be a given, and employers will need to start understanding the necessity of adapting to different cultures in all spheres of their working environment.

With the housing industry only set to grow, it makes little business sense to ignore this latent pool of workers. Immigration must be seen as an opportunity, not an obstacle. And, as Canadians, it’s important for us to ensure that, as our country grows, no one is excluded from this growth or left behind.

Wollesen’s story is not unique and represents the experience of many professionals that have immigrated to Canada.  All too often, professors, engineers, doctors, and other learned immigrants have to struggle to be recognized as qualified professionals by their Canadian peers.  They also fight to be accepted and welcomed in their new communities.

Nick Noorani, the founder and publisher of The Canadian Immigrant, a magazine for newcomers to Canada, says that Wollesen and her family might have been more warmly received than others.  Noorani came to Canada in 1998 from Dubai and quickly established himself as a successful entrepreneur and advocate for new immigrants.  “It started when I came to Canada, and I said that there was so much that immigrants needed and it was just not there,” he says about how he got involved in immigrant issues.

“In 2003, I had what I call my epiphany,” claims Noorani. “I woke up at 3:00 am one morning and said, ‘Everyone says Canada is a country of immigrants.  There are magazines for welding broken furniture and for daffodils, but you don’t have a magazine for immigrants’.”  He did some research and found that one in five Canadians were born outside Canada.  With that market niche in mind, Noorani started The Canadian Immigrant to share success stories, tips, and other relevant information.

“Last year, we started for the first time Canada’s Top 25 Immigrant Awards,” says Noorani about The Canadian Immigrant.  “Canada is a country of immigrants, but there is no national award for immigrants.  So I said, ‘We can start an award that recognizes immigrants!’”  The awards were a great success, gathering nominations from every province and most of the territories.  About 10,000 people participated in the voting and the top immigrants in the country were recognized with distinction.  During the awards ceremony, a young Chinese girl ran up to Noorani and said, “You have no idea what a difference you have made to my life.  I have been in Canada for five years, and for five years I have read every single issue of your magazine.”

Despite his ups and downs, Noorani has done better than most university educated immigrants, who usually have to work for a decade before reaching the same income levels as their Canadian-born peers.  Furthermore, immigrants in Canada are twice as likely to fall into poverty, and many never recover.  Some would say that for a country that prides itself on its multiculturalism, Canada fails to facilitate the entrance of talented immigrants who offer valuable skills and expertise.

“We are very much aware that there are people that come into the province with very high qualifications that are not able to put those skills to use,” says Michel Payen-Dumont, a spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration.  “Unfortunately, some people encounter challenges.  We have all heard stories about doctors who end up driving cabs, and that does not do anybody any good.”  Payen-Dumont explains that the government does its best to ensure that the skills of foreigners are recognized and applied as soon as immigrants arrive in Canada.  “If they come with high qualifications, they should be able to work in their own field, for their own satisfaction.  If they succeed, Ontario succeeds as well.”

For many immigrants, the optimism of Payen-Dumont is difficult to grasp.  Patricia Wollesen, the German immigrant who had trouble finding work as an educator of disabled children, found it difficult to adjust to life in Canada.  “We got used to a different way of living,” she says.  “I worked in Italy, as a psycho-motor re-educator.  But [in Canada] I became a mother.  I had my children from 1985 to 1993, so I was at home, with the kids, being a mother and so on.”  Wollesen would search for work, but her credentials were ignored.  “My studies of physical health education were not accepted here,” she says, explaining that she had to essentially pursue another degree.  “I went back to the University of Toronto and did some courses so that I had my Bachelor’s degree in Physical Health Education.”

Many professions in Canada require not only certifications, but also hands-on experience from within Canada’s border – foreign experience is not applicable.  Noorani explains that this is a problem he has tried to deal with in the pages of The Canadian Immigrant.  “I met a cardiac surgeon in Toronto in a restaurant and he wasn’t eating with me,” Noorani says sadly.  “He was washing dishes in the kitchen. This is a man who has held a beating heart in his hand, and now he’s holding dirty dishes.”  It’s almost impossible for these doctors, however, to get the experience they need to get the jobs they want.  It’s a catch-22 without a solution.  “These doctors have taken the Canadian exam and have passed the Canadian exam,” explains Noorani.  “But they’re not being allowed to get into an internship, because there’s limited seats out there.”

Wollesen’s experience echoes the story told by Noorani.  “I do have to say that everyone that I went to were very kind to me,” Wollesen says coyly, pausing to remember her struggle. “But my degree was in physical health education and I wasn’t an occupational health therapist, I was not a physiotherapist, and it was a very closed-knit community.”  Unable to break into the established career track, she started volunteering with handicapped youth at Metro Toronto Community Living.  “At MTCL, some mothers got to know me, and in that way I started to work,” she says with pride, noting that she finally reached her goal of working with Canadian children on a one-on-one basis.

But Wollesen faced further challenges as she tried to set up her business.  Associations for children with disabilities would not allow her to advertise her private practice, and more established firms would not cooperate with her.  “I would ask them, ‘May I put some fliers up here?’  They didn’t want that!” she says.  Eventually she started getting references from doctors’ and paediatricians’ offices and was able to do the work she had dreamed of doing since arriving in Canada years earlier.

Deena Ladd, the Executive Director of the Workers Action Centre, sympathizes with Wollesen’s experience.  “Regulatory bodies for each profession make it very difficult for someone to get into a profession,” she says, asserting that the overlapping regulations are the major roadblock to success for immigrants in Canada.  “There’s a need for a lot of advocacy work and policy work to challenge those regulatory bodies to change and make access to those professions easier.”  Ladd’s organization tries to overcome these barriers by providing temporary jobs that ensure that immigrants get the “Canadian work experience” that they desperately need to hold upper-level jobs in Canada.

Nick Noorani, the publisher of The Canadian Immigrant, is also very familiar with the barriers erected by professional organizations. He hears enough tales of success and failure to put him in a positive mood, then a terrible mood, several times each day.  So what motivates him to work to make life better for Canadian immigrant communities? “My focus is to help immigrants. I don’t have any political leanings. I don’t have any political ambitions,” he says.  He still offers new immigrants his book, widely distributes his magazine, and accepts speaking engagements regularly.  “My focus is how to help immigrants succeed in the country that I have adopted.”

In his magazine and in his speeches, Noorani puts the most effort into expressing the commonalities between immigrants to Canada from around the world.  He finds that almost all immigrants are of the same mindset in terms of three key issues.  First, their desire for success:  “The professional associations talk about how immigrants just want to integrate,” says Noorani.  “But no, they don’t want to integrate, they want to succeed.”  Second, all immigrants want role models who have done well in Canada: “They leave their role models behind, and the media keeps talking about doctors who drive cabs.  So they need to hear about who succeeded and how they succeeded.”  Third, most immigrants face identical challenges: “You may come from Chile, Brazil, India, Pakistan, China, or Korea – your challenges will be the same.”

With these three key issues in mind, Noorani and his researchers and writers keep The Canadian Immigrant focused on a neatly expressed mandate: “to inform, educate, and motivate.”  They also keep the magazine multi-ethnic, and stand fast to their belief that all immigrants in Canada desire success, want role models, and face the same challenges.  Noorani and his team believe the last aspect of their mandate – to motivate – is the most important.

But sometimes The Canadian Immigrant acknowledges that educating new immigrants is more important.  Noorani tells a bittersweet story that is amusing, but sadly true of so many immigrant families:  A Korean family that had just arrived in a major Canadian city were touring a house that they wanted to purchase when the real estate agent informed them that “there were no skeletons in the closet;” ashen-faced, the family bolted down the street in search of a less ghoulish residence.  “Think about that phrase,” says Noorani.  “They just didn’t understand that it doesn’t mean it literally.”  In addition to including anecdotes like the one about the superstitious Korean family, The Canadian Immigrant offers feature articles about Canadian customs like Halloween, to psychologically prepare recent immigrants for that night of witchery and evil.

According to the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration, even if immigrants are functional in English or French, they frequently lack the professional jargon necessary for a successful career.  “We put those people in a class where they can learn the language of their profession here in Canada,” explains Payen Dumont, noting that these programs are usually developed in conjunction with universities or non-profit organizations.  “We are constantly responding to needs. These programs are developed based on what proposals people make,” she says.  “It’s for when they just need a bit of help to get over the last hurdle, to bridge that last gap.”

And even if immigrants speak English well and have a solid grasp of professional jargon, they still need to learn how to mingle and socialize with their new colleagues.  “Networking is so alien to so many immigrants,” says Noorani.  “What they do in their country of origin is someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows someone.”  In Canada, he explains, it’s about creating your own network and finding ways to give to and take from the contacts you make over the course of your career.

The last gap to succeeding as an immigrant in Canada is often the most difficult, especially when the immigration system itself sets up ambitious newcomers for failure.  The Canadian government uses a point-based system to evaluated potential immigrants; so many points are assigned for education, language abilities, work experience, being of employable age, and other criteria.  “The point system is flawed,” says Noorani.  “The government gives minimal points for language and they give high points for education and higher points for your work experience. As a result you have someone in Canada who is coming as an immigrant with a Ph.D. and several years of experience, but cannot speak the language. How is that person going to succeed?”

Deena Ladd from the Workers Action Centre agrees with Noorani.  “How people are brought into Canada is a challenge,” she says, explaining that most immigrants are confused as to their own qualifications by the time they have arrived in Canada.  “The only way they can come in is through these draconian immigration rules that say they have to come in without any real status, and then they are vulnerable to the types of exploitation we see,” she says, referring to the poor employment with offensively low wages being offered to highly educated professionals.

“It’s been the slowness of the staff, the unnecessary paperwork, the lack of trust in people’s credentials,” Chan says, explaining that he has been living and working in Canada for three years, but only received his residency permit a week ago.  He tells a story about a colleague from India who studied in the Netherlands and worked for several years as a professor at George Washington University in the United States.  After successfully applying for a teaching position at York University, the immigration services blocked his work permit application until he could provide evidence of his ability to speak English – despite the fact that he had been working at an American university for years.  In Chan’s case, the government is almost as difficult, being adamant about only counting one year of the last three towards his resident status.  “It’s a large source of stress and frustration,” he says.  “As a result, there is an under-utilization of skills.”

In many cases, says Noorani, the under-utilization of the skills offered by immigrants has contributed to the vulnerability of the Canadian economy to demographic and social shifts.  “The fact of the matter is that Canada has a declining birth rate and an ageing baby-boomer population,” he explains, noting that until the most recent recession, industries throughout Canada had complained about a labour shortage.  “So the fact is that we’ve got to start working on getting our immigrants to start succeeding faster in Canada.”

Noorani explains that some employers capitalize on the under-appreciated and under-utilized immigrant communities in Canada, recruiting loyal employees from tight-knit cultural and national groups.  “The top employers, the banks or the wireless corporations, they get it,” he says.  “But Canada is comprised of these small and medium enterprises that don’t have a human resources department,” says Noorani. “All of [the professional organizations and smaller employers] – I’m going to go out on a limb here – all of them are protectionists.”  These smaller companies are less likely to take a bet on the unfamiliar qualifications of foreigners, preferring instead to opt for more established, more conventional – and perhaps even less qualified – citizens of the country in which they do business.  To remedy this problem, Noorani speaks to companies and professional organizations across Canada, encouraging them to put faith in the skills of immigrants.

Deena Ladd from the Workers Action Centre is less delicate than Noorani in considering the factors that discourage small businesses in Canada from hiring immigrants.  “There are systematic racist barriers in the labour market that target newcomers,” she says.  “It makes it impossible for immigrants to get into their field.”  Nonetheless, she mentions that she has seen progress over the years, with domestic employers becoming more accepting of qualifications issued abroad.

Despite these encouraging examples, Noorani points out that sometimes immigrants are their own worst enemies when it comes to making themselves employable.  Too often, immigrants have the qualifications and the experience needed for a job, yet they lack the charisma to market themselves effectively.  “[Job searching and networking] is a paradigm shift for immigrants and they’re still not getting it,” he says.  “Even if immigrants are overqualified – employers could be getting a Mercedes for the price of a Toyota! – immigrants don’t have the expertise to convince employers.”

Most would agree that immigrants coming to Canada have a hard time, but gain access to a plethora of opportunities.  They might not be confident that their professional qualifications will be recognized, and they might doubt their own ability to join their new country’s workforce.  Their language skills might be rudimentary and their ability to communicate ambitions and ideas might be lacking.  Their cultural habits might clash with those of native-born Canadians, and they might find it difficult to meet more established Canadians who are not fellow expatriates.  The government and various agencies might be unsupportive or indifferent to their struggle to create a new life in a new country, far from the place of their birth and education.

Although some have been successful, these challenges have proven too great for too many. Over 20% of immigrants to Canada leave within a year, unable to bear the humiliation and hardship of starting a new life.  The unexpected welcome they receive, which is an amalgamation of a lack of challenges and opportunities, is not only disheartening, but also economically and socially crippling.

Wollesen, the immigrant from Germany who works with handicapped children, can recall many friends who could not persevere as immigrants in Canada.  “I say that Canada is a great country, but I know a lot of people that came to Canada to work and do things, and they did not have the strength,” she says, explaining that many people arrive hoping that it will be easily to achieve their dream, not realizing how hard they will have to fight just to get by.  Other colleagues of Wollesen’s, however, have persevered; one of her friends went through medical school in its entirety for a second time in order to be allowed to practise in Canada.  “Who comes here to Canada,” she says, “we have to be of a special breed, we have to be very strong people.”

With that said, Wollesen wouldn’t trade her Canadian identity for anything in the world.  “Once you live here for a certain time, you really get to appreciate the freedom and the beautiful things that this country has to offer.”  She explains that the multiculturalism of Canada never loses its appeal, and its value to Canadian society is unquestionable.  People like her form a loyalty that can’t be tarnished.  “Going back to your own country – it is then not even your own country, because things change, and you change,” says Wollesen about the various times she has returned to Germany since moving to Canada in 1985.  “What we have here is something that I don’t think you can find in other parts of the world, but you really have to fight for it.”

For many newcomers to Canada, learning English or French is just the first hurdle.

To secure their future in their new land, they need to become fluent in another vernacular — the language of the workplace.

When the boss greets you by your first name, do you respond in kind?

If you choose the standard voice mail greeting over a personalized one, what kind of message does that send?

Is this Roberto Luongo who is mentioned so often across the desks a statesman or a deity?

No matter your qualifications, fail to understand the nuances of this language and you could have trouble finding and keeping a job, in your field or otherwise.

One set of immigrants with backgrounds in the key sector of information technology recently emerged from a ceremony in Ottawa with the right to tell interviewers: “I speak office.”

They’ve learned about report-writing, telephone skills, even table etiquette. They’ve been grilled in mock interviews and served placements in real workplaces.

But their most important acquisition could be a new attitude.

“For most of them, it’s self-confidence,” says organizer Ying Xie.

The course is administered by the Ottawa Chinese Community Service Centre, where Xie is employment support program director, but is open to all nationalities. Since its start in 2008, it has helped newcomers from Brazil to Liberia to the Asian subcontinent in their search for a career footing in Canada.

These workers must compete for jobs with applicants who have years of Canadian experience. And because the security clearance required for government jobs can take years for immigrants to obtain, their options are fewer.

Yet IT is at the heart of the “knowledge economy” meant to supplant a Canadian manufacturing sector under growing global pressure. And with Canada and other western countries hoping skilled immigrants will take over the swivel chairs vacated by retiring boomers, demand for such workers is expected to rise.

Future prospects, however, won’t pay the rent for Mohamed Hamail and Gang Zhang, two participants in the career-bridging program. Both are on work placements at Ottawa’s Titus Labs, where they hope to demonstrate skills that could earn them permanent jobs.

Both hold master’s degrees and both worked for major companies, Hamail in Egypt and Zhang in China. And both say their biggest surprise is the informal atmosphere at Titus, which produces security and compliance software for e-mail and documents.

“The environment here is more loose, more friendly between colleagues. There’s more chance for an employee to develop himself, to bring out ideas,” says Zhang, who came to Ottawa with his wife on Christmas Day 2008 to escape Shanghai’s pollution and raise a family. They have a six-month-old son.

Hamail, 38, with a science background, is puzzled by the apparent tendency of interviewers to rely on assumptions about foreign workers instead of reviewing their abilities objectively. Married and with six-year-old twin boys, his goal is to persuade an employer “to give me a chance to transfer my logic, my skills to different fields.”

The federal government is woefully unprepared to deal with the looming shortage of skilled labour, and business leaders and government need to get their heads out of the sand before it’s too late, business leaders were told recently.

The warning came from Carleton University professor Linda Duxbury, and from Rosemarie Leclair, CEO of Hydro Ottawa, during a two-day leadership summit. The summit brought business leaders and senior managers from the public sector together to learn about recruiting and retaining skilled immigrants.

While the City of Ottawa predicts that immigrants will be needed if every new job is to be filled after 2011, a large proportion of newcomers are unable to find work. Of the immigrants who join the Ottawa workforce every year, approximately 83 per cent have a university degree, but the unemployment rate among recent immigrants is eight per cent higher than for non-immigrants. Among those who have jobs, more than half are not working in their intended field.

Duxbury, professor of organizational health at Carleton’s Sprott School of Business, warned this week of a “profound disconnect,” arguing that employers haven’t caught up to the fact that simple demographics are propelling them rapidly from a buyer’s market to a seller’s market. “We have simply not procreated in sufficient numbers to sustain our labour force,” said Duxbury. “For every two people retiring, there is only one person in the pipeline to replace them.”

Those retirees are workaholic baby-boomers, Duxbury said. The young people coming into the job market reject that generational addiction to long hours and poor work-life balance, “so really, we’re going to need three people to replace two.”

Duxbury argued that the attitude in business and in the public sector has long been that newcomers must adapt to the Canadian workplace. Now, says Duxbury, employers who hope to thrive will have to turn the Golden Rule on its head.

“It used to be, ‘treat people the way you want to be treated’,” said Duxbury. “But diversity means ‘treat people the way they want to be treated’ ” — see beyond cultural differences to find what they have to offer, and don’t be afraid to make adjustments to the way you work.

A Scotiabank senior personal banking officer told her tale of struggling to find work. A trained banker with a master’s degree from Carleton University, Ghanaian immigrant Alberta Lawson spent four years and almost all her savings on the search, until she attended a networking event a year ago, and met a Scotiabank recruiter who “really listened to me, and saw what I could do for the company.” Lawson was hired for a position at a level higher than what she initially applied for, and now works at the bank.

Adjusting the way employers recruit and retain immigrant talent “isn’t the nice thing to do, it’s the only thing to do,” said Leclair.

New Canadian research suggests that, contrary to previous thinking, rising diversity doesn’t erode trust and social ties — and in some cases it might enhance them.

The study looks at how diversity and city size affect social capital, a sociological concept that refers to the connections between people and networks — ties that help people fit in and find jobs and places to live.

The findings fly in the face of previous research that suggested social capital declines as multiculturalism and visible minority populations increase, and they spell good news for a nation facing a future of unprecedented diversity, says Ravi Pendakur, an associate professor of public and international affairs at the University of Ottawa and co-author of the study.

“If what they’re arguing is that as diversity goes up, all those things associated with social capital go down, Canada is in trouble because we have no choice but to see greater and greater diversity,” he says. “A lot of the work in the past has really suggested a negative impact on social capital based on minority status. We’re not finding that.”

Last month, Statistics Canada released projections suggesting that by 2031, at least one in four people in this country will have been born elsewhere and nearly one in three people will be visible minorities.

Researchers have mostly focused on diversity and social capital on the United States and concluded that as diversity increases, trust and social connections decline, Pendakur says. But based on his own research, he believes the effects of multiculturalism were masked by the realities of big-city life.

People who live in large cities teeming with strangers are less trusting than those in small towns, he says, and big Canadian cities are where the diversity is. Previous research in the field didn’t separate the city characteristics from the effects of diversity, he says, but when he did so in this study, he found the impact of multiculturalism on social capital is minimal — and sometimes positive.

Pendakur’s study looked at three aspects of social capital: trust, measured by asking people questions such as how likely they think it is that a lost wallet would be returned to them; interaction, or the frequency of contact with family, friends and neighbours; and participation, or membership in organizations and clubs.

He found that those of French, East Asian and Latin American background are least trusting, and people of Southern European, South Asian, Chinese and aboriginal origin are less likely to participate in groups. But overall, the differences were small once he took into account the effects of city size, Pendakur says, and he found that a bigger visible minority population means more interaction among citizens.

The study was released by Metropolis British Columbia, an immigration and diversity research centre.

One in every three Canadians will be non-white by 2031, Statistics Canada said Tuesday. In Toronto, the country’s most diverse city, nearly two in three faces will be non-white.

“A larger share of the visible minority population will be born in Canada, so they will be children of immigrants or grandchildren of immigrants,” said Laurent Martel, a Statscan analyst. “So it is the face of the Canadian-born population that is likely to change over the next two decades.”

Overall, between 29 and 32 per cent of the Canadian population could belong to a visible minority group in 2031, double the proportion recorded in the 2006 census, Statscan said in a release.

As well, at least a quarter of the population could be born outside the country in 20 years, with more than half of those from Asia. This would be the highest proportion ever of foreign-born Canadians, surpassing the 22 per cent level seen between 1911 and 1931.

Canada has one of the highest foreign-born populations in the world; only Australia and New Zealand have higher proportions, Mr. Martel said.

The foreign-born population is expected to increase about four times faster than the rest of the population, driving much of the country’s growth.

In addition, diversity will also increase among the Canadian-born population due to visible minorities’ younger age structure and slightly higher fertility rates.

The country could have between 11.4 million and 14.4 million visible minorities by 2031, depending on the growth projections used. In 2006, the country had 5.3 million non-whites. By contrast, the rest of the population will grow by less than 12 per cent.

Visible minorities are defined as “persons, other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour.”

Almost all visible minorities will live in large cities, with 71 per cent calling Toronto, Vancouver or Montreal home. By 2031, 63 per cent of Torontonians would be non-white if current demographic trends continue. Vancouver would be 59 per cent non-white while Montreal would be 31 per cent.

The national statistics agency developed the projections using several growth scenarios based on different immigration, fertility and mortality assumptions.

Newcomers settle in urban areas because the sheer size of the cities means more job opportunities, which then leads to the creation of ethnic communities, said University of Toronto professor Jeffrey Reitz.

“(They) become kind of magnets in themselves for people of similar backgrounds,” said the ethnic and immigration studies professor. “The existence of the communities in the cities sort of tends to become a self-perpetuating process.”

As is the case now, South Asians would still be the largest group, representing 28 per cent of the visible minority population. The community would more than double from 1.3 million people in 2006 to between 3.2 million and 4.1 million in the next two decades. The Chinese population is expected to grow from 1.3 million to between 2.4 million and 3 million. Overall, however, the share of Chinese would drop to 21 per cent from 24 per cent.

Statscan said the black and Filipino populations could double in size. The fastest growth is among Arabs and West Asians, groups that could more than triple in 20 years.

By 2031, Statscan said 47 per cent of second-generation Canadians would be non-white, nearly double the proportion of 24 per cent in 2006. Second generation means people who are born in Canada to at least one foreign-born parent.

The country’s increasing diversity will also mean changes in Canadians’ religious affiliations. By 2031, the number of people who are non-Christian would almost double from 8 per cent in 2006 to 14 per cent. Of those, about half would be Muslim, up from one-third in 2006. Conversely, the number of Christians would decline to 65 per cent from 75 per cent.

With a report from The Canadian Press