If newcomers can’t find the right jobs, lack “Canadian experience” and are struggling with the high cost of living, what’s to keep them from giving up?
He had come to Canada six years ago, with the expectation that everything would fall into place.
“I never would’ve thought I would have to struggle in my life professionally or financially,” he says. A conservative estimate of 15 to 20 per cent of immigrants leave the country within 10 years, according to Statistics Canada.Do immigrants get a fair opportunity in Canada? But the harsh reality sank in soon after he finished his fellowship. He applied to more than 50 jobs related to public health but only got two interviews. Both were unsuccessful; one employer was looking for different skill sets, while the other had a better candidate.
Even among longer-term economic immigrants who have been in Canada for more than a decade, 31 per cent were in these so-called survival jobs. His older son had grown comfortable in Canada, and now Sagar also had a Canadian-born baby daughter to feed.The issue of “deskilling” highly skilled immigrants is not new.
“In the contemporary situation, not just the traditional immigrant-receiving countries like the U.S., U.K. and Australia are looking for highly skilled migrants. Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, U.A.E. and every country are all waiting to receive highly skilled migrants,” she says. The two countries from which Canada gets the most immigrants — India and China — don’t recognize dual citizenship. That has likely had an effect on Canadian citizenship uptake as newcomers are afraid Beijing and Delhi will strip their Chinese and Indian citizenship.
“Are they just using Canada as a stepping stone? Are they moving to the U.S., where there are more opportunities, or are they returning home?”Komal Makkar, who is in her 30s, had never been to Canada before she landed in Toronto in January 2021. But back home in Punjab, she was raised surrounded by billboards and signs that painted the country as a land of opportunities.
She was advised to remove her master’s degree from the resumé and shave off some years of her work experience and high-profile projects in her reference, so she wouldn’t be overqualified for entry-level positions. Suggestions were also made for them to explore job options that use their skills in other ways.
“I was already working up the ladder. I was working on big projects. My goal was to go for even bigger projects. Should I start again from where I started?” Makkar asks. “We don’t see this country as a permanent home.”
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