Immigrate to Canada. Nick Noorani
in transferring work experience from different countries. Concurrent with a reduction of points for foreign work experience is an increase of ten points in the adaptability category for one year of Canadian work experience.
• To achieve speedier processing objective-testing services will be required for both language proficiency as well as educational credential evaluations. Applicants will need to include a language test as well as an education credential evaluation at the time the application is submitted.
• Permanent Labour Market Opinions (LMO) are now called Permanent Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIAs).
2. How Immigrants Can Succeed in Canada
I’m often asked by immigrants, social workers, government officials, and members of corporations how immigrants can succeed in Canada. Every year, approximately 250,000 immigrants come to Canada with dreams of a better life. Most of them have educational qualifications exceeding the Canadian populace but are unable to get employment commensurate with their education and work experience. Some arrive here, but they have to start from the bottom, get retrained, and suffer in “survival” jobs at first.
Corporate Canada, with a few notable exceptions, has not been successful at integrating immigrant talent into its workforce. Part of the challenge has been a shift since the 1990s from European-based immigration to an Asian- and South Asian-dominated immigrant base, which has resulted in companies struggling to understand new immigrants’ cultural nuances. With the risk-averse nature of Canadian employers, it’s easy to see why professional immigrants are often on the outside looking in. However, some immigrants do make it. So what is the difference between those who do and those who don’t?
Having worked with immigrants for the past 15 years, I have observed huge differences between immigrants who succeed and those who fail. While I often talk about success secrets for immigrants, I want to look at this question from the flip side: Why do immigrants fail?
Here are a few pointers that I hope will prompt a better understanding of what can actually help create positive outcomes for immigrants:
• Know before you go! I have met immigrants who say, “I am deciding between living in Toronto or Ontario.” Toronto is a city in the province of Ontario! This statement demonstrates a clear lack of understanding about the country this immigrant wants to call home! I find it hard to accept that a professional immigrant lands here without having done adequate research not only about the cities, but the professional barriers he or she will face. This is precisely the reason we decided that if you are thinking of moving to Canada, you should have information on your new country (see Chapter 15).
• Have realistic expectations. Most immigrants I have met expect to land a job immediately in a company at the same level as their home country. I tell them to be realistic and to think about how long it took them in their home country to get the position they had.
• Understand your strengths and weaknesses. I’m talking about language proficiency, soft skills, and corporate etiquette. Note that many immigrants come to Canada with a 90:10 ratio of technical skills to soft skills (see section 2.1 for more information about soft skills). Canadian employers want 40 percent technical skills and 60 percent soft skills but many newcomers can’t seem to accept this reality.
• Embrace change. I have met hundreds, even thousands of immigrants, and what amazes me is their reluctance to use their geographic change to create other changes. What worked “back home” will probably not work here. A study conducted in 2013 at York’s School of Human Resource Management found that immigrants who embraced change were more likely to succeed.
• Do not become a victim! The honeymoon period for immigrants lasts a few weeks, which are typically spent sending résumé after résumé in response to job postings. Immigrants go to a settlement centre and learn about Canadian résumé writing and networking. While they are going through this, the immigrants look at their shrinking bank balances and the fear sets in. That fear leads to anger and, in a short period of time, immigrants get into a “victim” mentality, full of anger for a system that doesn’t recognize immigrant qualifications.
• Avoid rearview mirror driving. The next stage is when an immigrant takes a job not commensurate with his or her qualifications. The immigrant now gets frustrated with his or her lot in life and in order to redeem some of his or her waning self-esteem, he or she spends time talking to everyone about what his or her life was like back home. Often this leads to the person packing his or her bags and leaving Canada.
• Move out of ethnic silos. Unable to deal with the newness of interacting with Canadians, many immigrants gravitate toward their own communities where they feel more secure in their language and culture. These ethnic silos hold immigrants back, preventing successful integration with the larger populace. More importantly, it disallows immigrants the ability to work in a multicultural environment.
• Create new networks. When immigrants migrate, their networks in their new country are primarily either relatives or friends they know from back home. Most immigrants tend to be unfamiliar with the concept of networking, but without it, they are missing out on key information and potential opportunities.
• Canada is different. Canada is not the United States of America. It is also very different from your home country. You must understand that what worked in your home country will not work in Canada.
There is good news! The labour shortage propelled by an aging population and a declining birthrate was put on hold for a while because of the economic downturn between 2008 and 2010. The shortage hasn’t gone away, however, and corporations and businesses across Canada, especially in the natural resources category, are facing a huge demand for skilled labour. Immigrants will continue to be the leading source of labour for Canada in the coming years.
2.1 Language barriers and soft skills
When I immigrated to Canada, I had a distinct advantage as English was my first language. I went to a good private school so my basic grounding in grammar and writing skills stood me in good stead. However, I spoke a different dialect of English when I arrived in Canada. I now speak Canadian English. There are several words we pronounce differently in India because of the obvious British influence.
From the time I started on this roller coaster journey working with immigrants 15 years ago, I saw that language (or lack thereof) was the single largest barrier for immigrants. I met with engineers, accountants, human resources specialists, among others. Yes, they “spoke” English, but not at the level that their professions needed. When an employer had to choose between a native English or French speaker and someone who obviously struggled with the language, no prizes for guessing who won!
However, it wasn’t just about the language skills. It expanded to soft skills. Research showed that Canadian employers wanted more soft skills than technical skills as the latter people always picked up on the job. A research study conducted some years ago between immigrants and Canadian employers showed a marked disconnect in how employers view immigrants and vice versa. While an overwhelming majority of employers found language skills and soft skills were a barrier for immigrants in the workplace, immigrants did not see this as a problem!
“Soft skills” is a term you will hear quite often in Canada. What does it mean? To help define it, let’s first look at the term with the opposite meaning, “hard skills.” Hard skills are all the technical know-how, credentials, and experience you have in your field of expertise. For example, if you’re a chef, your hard skills are cooking, know-how with kitchen equipment, and so on. An employer looking for an experienced chef will want to know the candidate’s abilities in the kitchen, where he or she studied and trained, and any other important credentials.
What would the chef’s soft skills be? They are all the intangible qualities that aren’t as quantifiable. For example, how does the chef work in a team? Does he or she have good leadership skills? Is he or she organized, dependable, punctual, and friendly? When we