Nice CV! You Will Hear From Us: Canadian Labor Market and the Phenomenology of the Marginalized Ethnic Professional Migrant

Abstract

Abstract: Problem statement: In the last several decades, the quest for human capital has meant that Canada's consideration of potential migrants hinged largely on the needs of its labor market. Applying the human capital theory espoused by Schultz (1961) Canada, like other industrialized countries shows interests only in those migrants who it strongly believes will make exemplary contributions to the economy. Approach: Whereas migrants of European descent have run the gauntlet of Canadian labor market integration, Visible Minorities especially have experienced and share narratives of unprecedented devaluation of their education, training, skills and lived experience. At the pre-migration stage, most of these migrants were highly qualified professionals in various fields. At the post-migration phase they are cleaners, cab drivers, nurse's aide, telemarketers and despondent citizens. Results: This study evaluated international lived experiences of some ethnic migrant professionals to Canada; provided a comparative analysis of the migrant professionals and resident or non-migrant types. It examined systemic barriers to full integration, including the intersectionality of race, ethnicity and gender in the integration or exclusion of migrants from the labor market and participation in the economy. Conclusion: It proffered research-based policy approaches to full integration of migrants into the labor market, economy and citizenship participation.Key words: Immigration, ethnic/visible minority, race, gender, employment, exclusion, integrationINTRODUCTIONWith the globalization of enterprise, such industrialized economies as Canada have increasingly and diligently sought out and admitted a large number of points-tested professionals and skilled migrant workers from across the globe. To this extent, 59.6 percent of new immigrants to Canada in 2004 have arrived with the status of economic migrants (NSO, 1995). Canada's visible minority population includes the following groups: Chinese, South [Asian East Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan]; Black-including Africans, Filipino, Latin American; Southeast Asian [Cambodian, Indonesian, Laotian, Vietnamese]; Arab, West Asian [Afghan, Iranian]; Japanese, Korean and Pacific Islander (NSO, 1995). Inasmuch as Canada has delighted from the importation of this human capital, its purveyors on landing have remained on the margins of socioeconomic integration.(Li, 2001; Krahn et al., 2000) all speak to the Canadian government's decades-long practice of applying the human capital theory (Schultz, 1961) to enlist the immigration of a large pool of highly skilled immigrants to Canada. With the opening up of immigrations in recent years to previously undesirables, (Frost, 2005) most of these imports are increasingly ethnic minorities, who ostensibly are for the purposes of promoting growth and competitiveness of the Canadian economic system. MacBride-King and Benimadhu (2004) estimate that about 73 percent of internationally educated professionals in Canada, are ethnic or visible minorities, a lot of whom face labor market exclusion. Highlighted the interview by the New York Times with Joe Volpe, Canadian Minister of Citizenship and Immigration. The minister confirmed the existence of an esoteric network of professional bodies and licensing organizations, whose activities figuratively hold the integration into the labor market of highly qualified and skilled immigrants at a full nelson.Girard and Bauder (2005) argue that most immigrant professionals upon landing in Canada immediately find that gaining admission into the corresponding professional field was contingent on legal eligibility for employment in professions that are highly regulated. Worse still, they realize that their credentials, skills, training and employment experience must be evaluated by licensing professional bodies, which always, as if by default, deem the international credentials and work experience of immigrant professionals inadequate, unacceptable, or even inferior to those of their Canadian counterparts (Goldberg, 2000). …