Immigration is Hardest for Foreign-Trained Professionals

Slice of Life

This is fact.

And it’s a fact disclosed to Filipino professionals – lawyers, doctors, accountants, architects, engineers, and many others — before they ever embark on a plane to Canada to claim First World lives.

But too often, these foreign-trained professionals refuse to believe it. They can’t believe all the hours they’ve spent in school, training, and work will ultimately mean nothing. They can’t believe their lives will change that dramatically, or that they won’t be given a chance, at the very least, to show what they can do.

Until they get to Canada, that is. Suddenly they are confronted with a new demand for Canadian experience, and following this, rejection. Their credentials, which meant so much to them (mainly because of the time and difficulty involved in getting them) are suddenly dismissed as mere scraps of paper that have to be “evaluated” before they can be taken to mean anything. Often, this “evaluation” also means paying new fees and clocking in more time (often years) of even more schooling and exams. In the meantime, they are urged to take a survival job and suffer through underemployment simply because they need to feed their families.

The stories are well-known. Lawyers who could not get a job interview for a legal assistant or paralegal position, accountants who could not get hired as anything by a bank, engineers working as servers in fast food outlets, doctors going to nursing school or working in retail, architects at neighborhood supermarkets toiling as cashiers or greeters.

Some got stuck.

According to writer Travis Lupick, “skilled immigrants to Canada arrive with a sense of adventure and optimism, only to be beaten down by sometimes insurmountable barriers to meaningful employment. As rejection notices pile up, frustration can build to the point of depression.”

Very recently, however, the government of Canada turned its spotlight on foreign-trained professionals. Through its “Foreign Recognitions Loans Pilot Program” launched just last week, the government’s longstanding promise to make it easier for foreign-trained professionals to have their credentials recognized finally became a reality.

According to Diane Finley, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development, who made the announcement alongside Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, at the SUCCESS British Columbia office located at West Pender Street, “[this is] part of the government’s commitment to making it easier for immigrants to join the Canadian labour market. We want newcomers to be able to use their skills as soon as possible in Canada and work to their full potential. It’s good for them and good for the Canadian economy.”

The government should be commended for finally turning its sights to Canada’s untapped potential. If implemented properly and fully, this program could lessen the financial burden of many Filipino immigrant families and do much to help them.

Many Filipino professionals have languished in the sidelines for far too long, their potential untapped, their morale diminished. The dollars they could have earned and taxes they could have paid have gone unrealized. If this program succeeds, then Canada, already a haven of diversity and multiculturalism, will also be a country where dreams can finally come true for so many.

And so we wait, with bated breath.

Article by Issa. Illustration by Danvic.  Copyright 2009-2012.
website: www.YouWantToBeRich.com
email: issa@youwanttoberich.com

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