Majority of immigrants struggle to get ahead in the workplace, one-third face discrimination: OMNI Poll

For Rosalie Di Lollo, helping newcomers find a job in Canada is personal.

Her dad moved here from Italy when he was 18, and she has lived vicariously through him the challenges faced seeking employment.

“I wanted to do something about it,” she told OMNI News. “It’s not something that leaves me cold.”

Di Lollo sees many barriers to professional success facing newcomers at the Centre Génération Emploi, a Montreal employment agency. She thinks that sometimes there is a lack of understanding between employers and immigrants.

“We ask [newcomers] to be Canadian before they even have a chance to understand what it means to be Canadian,” she said. “And on the other side, there is also the social responsibility that employers have.”

In an exclusive poll commissioned by Leger for OMNI, more than half of immigrants (56 per cent) say getting promoted or growing in a Canadian workplace is harder. The survey found the sentiment especially true for those who have been in Canada less than six years, younger individuals, and those who identify as BIPOC, particularly those of South Asian descent.

‘Their Canadian dream is already dead’

Many waiting to see their qualifications recognized are forced to work survival jobs as they try to manage school or professional development courses while maintaining a roof over their heads.

“Their Canadian dream is already dead because of that lack of credential recognition,” said Austine Gaqui, a Filipino nurse who waited 15 years for an Ontario license. “They need to study, they need to upgrade, they need to take extra courses in order to meet the gap for education.”

The OMNI-Leger poll highlights that the lack of recognition of foreign credentials is a crucial issue faced by immigrants looking to advance their careers in Canada. Furthermore, two in ten immigrants report additional barriers related to their accent or language proficiency.

Speaking to OMNI News last week, Immigration Minister Marc Miller said that while the system values foreign experience when people apply to Canada, it’s “unfortunate” that the same is often not true when they get here.

“That’s not a good way of doing business,” he said. “That’s not fair for the individuals that we’ve made promises to.”

The minister added that some progress has been made. Still, the recognition of foreign credentials is “almost entirely” under provincial jurisdiction, and it’s “wildly misleading” to suggest that “the federal government can wave a wand and make it happen.”

“It’s important to put pressure on provinces to make sure they are competing with each other to reduce the barriers,” Miller said. “But we have too many professions that are far too heavily regulated, sometimes by organizations – self-regulating organizations – that probably, absolutely have to do a better job in making sure that there are more seamless ways to get qualified in Canada.”

At MOSAIC, a British Columbia-based immigrant-serving organization, Olga Stachova agrees, adding, “as a society, we haven’t figured out how to utilize the expertise and training that immigrants bring fully.”

But she told OMNI News that some barriers don’t just make it hard for newcomers to enter the job market. They persist throughout their careers, even in a province where new Canadians comprise a large percentage of the population.

“Immigrants represent a very small fraction of senior leadership positions in B.C.,” she said. “We are talking single-digit numbers. In particular, racialized immigrants and racialized immigrant women, who represent less than one per cent of our leadership positions.”

‘Racism is there, and so is discrimination’

The OMNI-Leger poll also highlights that over a third of immigrants have faced discrimination at work – with the majority citing ethnic, racial or cultural biases as a top reason for difficulty advancing their careers. These barriers are more salient amongst younger immigrants and those who identify as BIPOC.

“Racism is there, and so is discrimination,” Harinder Mahil, former chair of the British Columbia Human Rights, told OMNI News.

“When you find two candidates who are equally qualified, the preference generally will go to somebody who’s Canadian, who’s white, and that is there. It’s difficult to prove that the person has been a victim of discrimination, but it does happen,” said Mahil.

The OMNI-Leger online poll was conducted between August 28th and September 9th among a random selection of 1500 respondents who were not born in Canada. A probability sample of this size would have a margin of error of 2.5%, 19 times out of 20.