Time to Act on Solutions For Immigrant Jobs,
Time to Act on Solutions For Immigrant Jobs,
The plight of Canadian immigrants who can’t find suitable work with proper pay is becoming publicly acknowledged. Their reality is stark. Many immigrants to Canada arrive here to find themselves marginalized; unable to find the skilled positions they were invited to fill. Solutions exist but they require rigorous involvement from all parties.
Most Canadians, like myself, have an immigrant story in their family or among their relatives. However my point of view is also that of an industry insider.
Like you I want to live in a prosperous country. This means every member of our society ought to be able to have the money (and time) for homes, cars, and leisure. When I learn of a doctor or engineer who can’t practice here or a former senior executive driving a taxi after emigrating to Canada, it doesn’t make me a proud Canadian. Rather, it deprives our society of able talent and diminishes opportunities for educated professionals to give their best.
Today’s immigrants aren’t the same as yesterday’s, who arrived penniless, young and unskilled with dreams of a better life. They are educated, they’ve achieved success back home, and arrived under immigration criteria designed to address our emerging shortages of skilled workers. They are not refugees, supported by welfare and OHIP, fleeing dictatorships or war regimes. They are working professionals like many Canadians..
Operating funds given to social agencies that aid immigrants, create employment first for their organization, not necessarily their clients. Canadians fill the first employment positions created by government solutions for fast-tracking professional credentials. This won’t alleviate the urgent realities of immigrants looking for jobs, renting apartments and risking eviction because their money has run out, or working for a $7 minimum wage in a janitorial job because that’s all they could get.
Companies, recruiters and HR. Departments can:
Hire immigrants as a priority and implement affirmative action policies for immigrants
Remove hiring barriers that screen out immigrants needlessly or could be discriminatory like requiring Canadian experience and education for regular non-professionally accredited jobs.
Focus on needed skills and whether your candidate can do them. With today’s turnover and loyalty, hiring immigrants makes sense.
Remove offensive notices about Canadian work papers. Say it without stigmatizing.
Manage the hiring process for fairness. Many people involved may not have strong Human Resources backgrounds or Human Rights knowledge.
Pay people adequately. Can your workforce afford to live on what you give them? Recognize how a diverse workforce, and one that includes immigrants, can improve productivity and innovation.
During job interviews try to accomodate different presentation styles. Bragging about accomplishments could be considered rude in some cultures.
Immigrants can:
Avoid complaining and commiserating with other immigrants about all the discrimination you face. It’s not productive for your success. Know the other issues. Realize you’ve arrived after a tough job market in a soft economy and are competing with experienced skilled Canadians who’ve been down-sized, younger Canadians looking for their first job (with difficulty too) and others who are dissatisfied with their job.
Prevent discrimination through knowledge. To be boldly direct, attach this Notice to your application.
“The Canadian Human Rights Code protects all people from discrimination on the basis of “ethnic origin” and “place of origin”. If the job you are recruiting for routinely asks immigrants whether they have Canadian experience when that particular kind of job is done fairly similarly in other areas of the world, this could be discriminatory. Similarly if you don’t recognize academic credentials of a candidate because they obtained their education outside of Canada and this education is not a required, tested and validated professional credential or license requirement, you may also be practicing discrimination.”
If you’ve suffered discrimination file a complaint with the Human Rights Commission.
Precedent setting cases that test the Charter of Rights follow through to the Supreme Court level.
Professionally re-write your resume to suit the Canadian market that details and sells your experience in a relevant context. Customize your cover letter for the job you are applying. Send it to the company directly rather than through a job board. Though 20% of applicants inflate their qualifications, be honest, getting caught in a lie could ruin your career after you’re hired. Get interview coaching so you are well prepared to handle Canadian style interviews with confidence.
Don’t succumb to despair. Keep your hopes and dreams alive. Have a vision for the future you see yourself living. The workforce is going to change a lot over the next 6 years.
Change your first name (if willing) to a one syllable name that’s easy to pronounce. (advice from a now successful immigrant).
Make Canadian friends outside your ethnic community. Most will care enough to help if they know you. Then, they can refer you to positions and network for you.
Don’t work for an employer that doesn’t comply with labour laws: namely wage, vacation, holiday, overtime pay or health and safety. These laws were made as a result of the brave people who fought for them in the labour movement. Learn about them. Help is via a phone call or complaint filed with the Provincial Ministry of Labour. If government responds slowly, find an employment lawyer to file charges in court. Community legal clinics can provide resources.
Employers who don’t pay immigrants properly could also be practicing discrimination, which provides other legal remedies to settle complaints through provincial human rights commissions.
The worst offenders can often be members of your own ethnic community who see an advantage in preying on your circumstance. Stop this with open conversation and support from temples, mosques, churches, community and cultural organizations. Don’t do business with companies that do this to your neighbours, friends and relatives. You can organize peaceful demonstrations, with picketing, posters and information to protest as allowed by Canadian law.
Know the power of the internet. Web-sites like internalmemos.com and vault.com give workers powerful communication tools and organizing capabilities in an age of emerging corporate transparency.
University education does not guarantee good job performance. Employers allocate points to candidates who have one because it has become a norm. In truth, aside from professional designations and highly skilled scientific jobs, most jobs can be done well without it.
The biggest problem with employees today is that their bodies are “present” on the job but their minds are not. Jobs aren’t engaging their highly trained mind or don’t fulfill them. Successful job performance still depends mostly on attitude, the ability to learn, and good management. Most immigrants have these along with wisdom and character developed through their experience.
Work-related skills training, if required can be obtained through Intuita’s (www.intuita.com) affordable on-line tutorials for employee/management development. These are for anyone, not just immigrants.
Governments can: create searchable web lists of employers with unsettled pay claims, legal and employment resources, contract young lawyers/interns to settle claims quickly, publish articles in ethnic/community newspapers advising on immigrant rights.
Lawyers and community legal clinics can provide services specifically targeted at immigrant employment issues, provide resources to effectively support discrimination claims including Charter tests, and filing employment claims in court.
There has been enough consciousness raising about immigrant jobs. Now we need to act.
Do your part. Give a copy of this article to every immigrant you know and bring it to the attention of every person you know who has a hand in the hiring process. And maybe it wouldn’t hurt to hold the federal government accountable for making false promises and raising expectations for immigrants until the situation is reversed.
Time to Act on Solutions For Immigrant Jobs - To learn more about this author, visit Arupa Tesolin's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
By Arupa L. Tesolin, copyright May 24, 2004,
The plight of Canadian immigrants who can’t find suitable work with proper pay is becoming publicly acknowledged. Their reality is stark. Many immigrants to Canada arrive here to find themselves marginalized; unable to find the skilled positions they were invited to fill. Solutions exist but they require rigorous involvement from all parties.
Most Canadians, like myself, have an immigrant story in their family or among their relatives. However my point of view is also that of an industry insider.
Like you I want to live in a prosperous country. This means every member of our society ought to be able to have the money (and time) for homes, cars, and leisure. When I learn of a doctor or engineer who can’t practice here or a former senior executive driving a taxi after emigrating to Canada, it doesn’t make me a proud Canadian. Rather, it deprives our society of able talent and diminishes opportunities for educated professionals to give their best.
Today’s immigrants aren’t the same as yesterday’s, who arrived penniless, young and unskilled with dreams of a better life. They are educated, they’ve achieved success back home, and arrived under immigration criteria designed to address our emerging shortages of skilled workers. They are not refugees, supported by welfare and OHIP, fleeing dictatorships or war regimes. They are working professionals like many Canadians..
Operating funds given to social agencies that aid immigrants, create employment first for their organization, not necessarily their clients. Canadians fill the first employment positions created by government solutions for fast-tracking professional credentials. This won’t alleviate the urgent realities of immigrants looking for jobs, renting apartments and risking eviction because their money has run out, or working for a $7 minimum wage in a janitorial job because that’s all they could get.
Companies, recruiters and HR. Departments can:
Hire immigrants as a priority and implement affirmative action policies for immigrants
Remove hiring barriers that screen out immigrants needlessly or could be discriminatory like requiring Canadian experience and education for regular non-professionally accredited jobs.
Focus on needed skills and whether your candidate can do them. With today’s turnover and loyalty, hiring immigrants makes sense.
Remove offensive notices about Canadian work papers. Say it without stigmatizing.
Manage the hiring process for fairness. Many people involved may not have strong Human Resources backgrounds or Human Rights knowledge.
Pay people adequately. Can your workforce afford to live on what you give them? Recognize how a diverse workforce, and one that includes immigrants, can improve productivity and innovation.
During job interviews try to accomodate different presentation styles. Bragging about accomplishments could be considered rude in some cultures.
Immigrants can:
Avoid complaining and commiserating with other immigrants about all the discrimination you face. It’s not productive for your success. Know the other issues. Realize you’ve arrived after a tough job market in a soft economy and are competing with experienced skilled Canadians who’ve been down-sized, younger Canadians looking for their first job (with difficulty too) and others who are dissatisfied with their job.
Prevent discrimination through knowledge. To be boldly direct, attach this Notice to your application.
“The Canadian Human Rights Code protects all people from discrimination on the basis of “ethnic origin” and “place of origin”. If the job you are recruiting for routinely asks immigrants whether they have Canadian experience when that particular kind of job is done fairly similarly in other areas of the world, this could be discriminatory. Similarly if you don’t recognize academic credentials of a candidate because they obtained their education outside of Canada and this education is not a required, tested and validated professional credential or license requirement, you may also be practicing discrimination.”
If you’ve suffered discrimination file a complaint with the Human Rights Commission.
Precedent setting cases that test the Charter of Rights follow through to the Supreme Court level.
Professionally re-write your resume to suit the Canadian market that details and sells your experience in a relevant context. Customize your cover letter for the job you are applying. Send it to the company directly rather than through a job board. Though 20% of applicants inflate their qualifications, be honest, getting caught in a lie could ruin your career after you’re hired. Get interview coaching so you are well prepared to handle Canadian style interviews with confidence.
Don’t succumb to despair. Keep your hopes and dreams alive. Have a vision for the future you see yourself living. The workforce is going to change a lot over the next 6 years.
Change your first name (if willing) to a one syllable name that’s easy to pronounce. (advice from a now successful immigrant).
Make Canadian friends outside your ethnic community. Most will care enough to help if they know you. Then, they can refer you to positions and network for you.
Don’t work for an employer that doesn’t comply with labour laws: namely wage, vacation, holiday, overtime pay or health and safety. These laws were made as a result of the brave people who fought for them in the labour movement. Learn about them. Help is via a phone call or complaint filed with the Provincial Ministry of Labour. If government responds slowly, find an employment lawyer to file charges in court. Community legal clinics can provide resources.
Employers who don’t pay immigrants properly could also be practicing discrimination, which provides other legal remedies to settle complaints through provincial human rights commissions.
The worst offenders can often be members of your own ethnic community who see an advantage in preying on your circumstance. Stop this with open conversation and support from temples, mosques, churches, community and cultural organizations. Don’t do business with companies that do this to your neighbours, friends and relatives. You can organize peaceful demonstrations, with picketing, posters and information to protest as allowed by Canadian law.
Know the power of the internet. Web-sites like internalmemos.com and vault.com give workers powerful communication tools and organizing capabilities in an age of emerging corporate transparency.
University education does not guarantee good job performance. Employers allocate points to candidates who have one because it has become a norm. In truth, aside from professional designations and highly skilled scientific jobs, most jobs can be done well without it.
The biggest problem with employees today is that their bodies are “present” on the job but their minds are not. Jobs aren’t engaging their highly trained mind or don’t fulfill them. Successful job performance still depends mostly on attitude, the ability to learn, and good management. Most immigrants have these along with wisdom and character developed through their experience.
Work-related skills training, if required can be obtained through Intuita’s (www.intuita.com) affordable on-line tutorials for employee/management development. These are for anyone, not just immigrants.
Governments can: create searchable web lists of employers with unsettled pay claims, legal and employment resources, contract young lawyers/interns to settle claims quickly, publish articles in ethnic/community newspapers advising on immigrant rights.
Lawyers and community legal clinics can provide services specifically targeted at immigrant employment issues, provide resources to effectively support discrimination claims including Charter tests, and filing employment claims in court.
There has been enough consciousness raising about immigrant jobs. Now we need to act.
Do your part. Give a copy of this article to every immigrant you know and bring it to the attention of every person you know who has a hand in the hiring process. And maybe it wouldn’t hurt to hold the federal government accountable for making false promises and raising expectations for immigrants until the situation is reversed.
Time to Act on Solutions For Immigrant Jobs - To learn more about this author, visit Arupa Tesolin's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 | |
 |
No article feedback found. |
| |
Leave Your Feedback |
 | |
| |||
John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
|||
Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
|||
Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
|||
|
To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us. | |||
 | |
|  |
Subscribe to Arupa's articles
 | |
|
|  |
 | |
|
| |
 | |||||||
|
 | ||
|
||
 |
||
 |
||
|
| ||
 |
| Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details. |
|
|
 |
| Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media |
|
|
 |
"Learn straight from Evan how you can Make a Full Time Income (And More) from a Website"
Click Here To Learn More |
|
|
|
|
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
|
|
|
 Make Attitude Your Ally The Leader’s Edge Home Party Plan Mistakes Life Purpose Instant Press Release |
|
 | ||
 |
Top 50 HR Blogs 2009
Top 50 HR Blogs 2009 | |
 |
Top 50 SEO Posts - 2007
Top SEO Posts of the Year | |
| ||
 | ||||
| ||||
|
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
|
|
|
| ||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||