Factors in Immigrant Employment

1293 Words6 Pages
Factors in Immigrant Employment The experience of moving oneself and one’s family across the globe in search of a better life with more opportunities for success and the chance to find health and well being in a new country is a daunting and formidable endeavour. The increased occurrence of global immigration has marked the last two centuries, and helped to populate North America with the world’s diasporas. In recent years, the immigration experience into Canada has become the focus of a good deal of attention from academics and policy-makers, in no small part as a reaction to the high-water mark numbers of foreign born individuals currently residing in the nation, approximately 18.4% according to recent statistics (Sweetman, 2004: 1). These recent changes to the character of immigration in Canada make for several factors which both limit and increase the opportunity for immigrant employment in Canada. This essay argues that the key limiting factors in the immigrant employment experience in Canada are language and credential recognition, whereas the key factors for increasing immigrant employment are policy shifts and urban co-ethnic communities. This argument shall be explored through a description of each of these key factors and the impact that they have upon the Canadian immigrant employment experience with reference to scholarly articles and several government websites which indicate aspects of Canadian immigration policy and conditions. The significance of these four factors shall be indicated through their direct influence upon the immigrant employment experience in current day Canada, for better or for worse. The first key factor in the employment experience for new immigrants in to Canada is also one of the most obvious and immediate: language. Noted by the Government of Canada Foreign Credentials Referral Office (2009) as one of the primary

More about Factors in Immigrant Employment

Open Document