Immigrant Unemployment
The goal of legal migration is to leave one’s home country in search of greener pastures, in search of social and economic development.
That dream might be far fetched for African immigrants moving to Canada. The job market does not encourage the growth of immigrants rather we are either underemployed or unemployed. Immigrants are constantly overlooked and our educational qualifications most times does not seem to matter.
Canada is a developed country and its residents (citizens and non-citizens) benefit from its resources. The health care she provides is great, there are no constant problems with electricity, the roads are all in great conditions, the country is safe, and most amenities are available to all (I mean as long as you pay your bills everything should be great).
What more are we asking for, you might say? Well we are asking for equal employment opportunities. We are asking that you do not discriminate us based on our names but that you actually take a good look at our resumes and invite us for interviews and go ahead and hire us. While in school, immigrants (international students) pay twice the fees domestic students pay (without the benefit of loans). But when we graduate we are still not seen as solid candidates? I really would like to know how employers justify this because a lot of us constantly juggle school work and part-time jobs and the strength involved in adapting to a new environment while juggling a part-time job and school cannot be over emphasized.
A lot of immigrants come into Canada from high school and get their university degrees here and still this isn’t enough. Others come into Canada after getting their university education in their home countries and get post graduate degree or masters here and still are not seen as suitable. What more can we do? What is this prejudice against us? Employment in immigrants is measured but the statistics lie! It’s just not about getting a job, it is about getting a suitable Job. The jobs available for us are labor jobs (in the factory), sometimes servers (in restaurants, coffee shops etc), if you are lucky you might get a job at a call center.
These jobs pay the minimum wage or slightly above it. While such jobs may be good for a short while it certainly isn’t good enough for people with university degrees; It is different if the people given these jobs are without degrees or are lazy, but our only crime is that we are immigrants. We are not even given a chance. Our origin betrays us, yet the cost of living rises without discrimination. We face a high cost of living here sometimes higher than the citizens, but we are not even given the opportunity to earn income fairly.
Canada is known for its diversity, but is the diversity not affecting the workplace too? Why aren’t immigrants given a chance to show that they can indeed add value to the company? We are here for a chance at a better life, but most immigrants never achieve this because the opportunities are not provided to us. Most immigrants are even more skilled than some citizens but because our names sound different, our accent is a little twisted and our skin color is not “normal” we are not given the opportunities. Some have said that the most effective resolution to this problem is anonymous hiring; where firms choose suitable candidates based on qualifications only. So that the resumes would not indicate applicants’ names; just skills and qualifications.
Though this might get candidates through the front door, the interviewing part of the hiring process would show again that this bias still exists. Racism is not dead and job applicants face its adverse effects everyday. Employers might argue that they are diverse, and they are inclusive but how much of top management shows this inclusion. The diversity that they are so proud of stops at operations and sometimes middle management (okay, let’s not forget the generic office picture showing one black man and 2 Asians which is supposed to depict “diversity”) with the immigrants having little or no chance to grow within the firm. We feel stuck even when we get into these firms, not because we do not show a suitable work ethic or are not hardworking but because our skin color and place of origin is different.
So I searched and concluded that these might be some of the reasons employers do not give us chances:
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English speaking- Employers assume our we do not speak English correctly (that is our oral and written communication is bad). A lot of immigrants are actually bilingual, and they speak English very well but with an accent. It is the year 2018, are we supposed to lecture employers that accents do not necessarily mean that we cannot speak well? Are employers so lazy that they cannot put in effort to actually hear what a person is saying even though their accent is different? Accents are admired when its from Britain or Spain or Italy but mocked when an African accent is detected.
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Knowledge of the Canadian environment: some employers claim that immigrants are not aware of the Canadian market. We are not asking to be employed just when we and of course we know that we still need to find our footing, but 2 years is enough to become used to the system. Also in the age of globalization, countries hardly differ. The system put in place in Canada might be similar to that in our home countries. Also, most companies have training programs for new recruits, isn’t the purpose of training programs to learn about the company and its operational environment? Immigrants can be part of this training programs and learn what is necessary to add value (or can’t we?).
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Unsuitability of international university degrees: A lot of Employers see the resumes of immigrants and assume that that university degrees gotten internationally is not enough. Immigrants understand this bias and that is why a lot have gotten their university degrees here and the ones that didn’t, came to Canada and got additional qualifications like masters or post graduate diplomas. A lot of immigrants actually have valuable experience from their home countries and if employers would just get over their bias then maybe value would be gotten where it is least expected.
Bravo to companies that take a chance and hire us, we need more companies like you
Immigrants are people.
We deserve to be treated fairly.
We deserve to be employed in suitable jobs.
We did not move here to be 21st century slaves; serving you coffee and food and being that person you scream at when you call customer service with no chance of moving forward. We actually have degrees and we are very intelligent and we deserve better.
The Bias has to stop!
Kimberly Ehigiator (first published on my blog)
