The Ugly Truth About Newcomers' Careers in Canada

For reasons unknown readership to riffs and ripples has exploded this month, from a usual readership of around 1,200 to over 8K already! When I started blogging in 2011 I anticipated readership would mostly be fellow Canuck poets, and maybe a few politikos. Not true. Monthly Canuck readership is far below U.S. readership, and most readers come from around the globe, many from unsuspected countries. Special thanks to the Singaporeans who have participated in this stratospheric increase!

As by far most readers are international, I think it's important to let foreign readers who may be thinking of immigrating to Canada to know the truth about the job market here.  

  

from Judy Haiven's blog  Another ruined dinner party...
The Ugly Truth about Newcomers’ Careers in Canada
 

   
judy haiven
Jun 13
 

How can it be better to have barely a high school education – or less – than to have a Bachelor’s degree or even a Master’s?  Well according to Statistics Canada, it is.  Employment in Canada looks like an hour-glass—there are thousands of jobs at the bottom of the hourglass, and quite a few at the top -  but there are a dearth of quality jobs in the middle.   And the job seekers in the middle often get sucked into the bottom.

Low end service jobs in retail, bars, restaurants, hotels, cleaning, and even personal care in nursing homes are going begging.  In this province these pay anywhere from $15 to $23 an hour.  Bear in mind the minimum wage in Nova Scotia was just raised to $14.50  an hour while the Living Wage in Halifax is $23.50 an hour .  

But middle range jobs that require a university degree and start people on a career path  are hard to come by.  It seems employers are still trying to squeeze educated and talented people into the low paid, lower skilled ranks.

At the top? Well professional jobs – accountants, dentists, doctors, university professors, teachers, managers generally demand more than one degree.

That could be why your friendly barista not only has two or three jobs in order to make ends meet, but also holds a university or college degree.

It’s one thing for low wages, and few prospects to affect average Canadians.  We are worn down by COVID, made frantic by the skyrocketing price of rent and housing in almost all urban areas of the county, and ready to risk it all (and incur significant debt) to upgrade, get another degree or find a new career.  

But the effect of poor wages and limited chances for immigrants means it’s almost impossible for them to hang on to a place in the middle class.  An article in the Toronto Star recently revealed that up to 20% of immigrants leave Canada permanently within the first decade of their arrival here.  Only 45% of permanent residents (compared to more than 60% in 2016, and 75% in 2001) bother to take out Canadian citizenship.  Maybe they don’t stay here enough years to apply for citizenship, or maybe they are fed up with obstructed (and limited) career paths they face, low pay and racism.

Some immigrants say the hype about great opportunity in Canada is vastly overrated.  Apparently, there are billboards in India advertising the opportunities and freedoms available in Canada. We know that students from India probably represent the largest group of international students on most campuses.

"I respect myself too much to stay in Canada." 

KOMAL MAKKAR, ARCHITECT
In the Star article, Komal Makkar a woman architect in her 30s, is from India. She immigrated here after working as an architect in Dubai for six years. In Dubai her skills and experience were recognized and rewarded. She (and her husband who is also an architect) spent more than $4000 in application fees, taxes and medical exams before they got the nod they could immigrate to Canada in 2021. Once here they found the jobs they could get were not the jobs they deserved. In Toronto they became architectural technicians -- steps below their qualifications. On average technicians earn $62,000 a year compared to about $125,000 that architects make. Unless the couple had the financial means and interest to return to school, there was no chance their professional or career situation would improve. "I respect myself too much to stay in Canada," said Makkar. After a few years in Toronto, they decided to move back to Dubai.

"I wanted a contact who was an architect from another country to validate my degree – [ISANS] sent me a girl from Iran to speak with.  I asked her is it hard to work here? She said it was hard – you have to learn on your own.”   
 

WOMAN ARCHITECT FROM SOUTH AMERICA WHO NOW LIVES IN NS
They are not the only ones.  Equity Watch is a nonprofit organization that fights discrimination, bullying and harassment in the workplace in Nova Scotia.  I’m one of the founders.  I’ve heard a similar story from one woman, an architect from South America, who lives near Halifax.  Despite her years of education, her excellent English, and her decade of work experience in her home country, she is paid just over $19 an hour to render drawings for a local architect.   She works up to 45 hours a week, often including weekends, but she’s an “independent contractor” and basically she does piece-work.  She has no savings, no benefits and no dental plan.  She told me she has been in touch with ISANS (Immigrant Services Association of Nova Scotia) “since last year. I wanted a contact who was an architect from another country to validate my degree – They sent me a girl from Iran to speak with.  I asked her is it hard to work here? She said it was hard – you have to learn on your own.”   

The South American émigrée told me there are two options open to her.  

First, she could apply for EI (Employment Insurance), if she can persuade her boss to say the work has dried up.  She could then use the time to look for a better job.  

Or she could return to school, and complete the two year course to be an Architectural Engineering Technician.  Thinking about it, she laughs ruefully – it is going backwards to get ahead --she notes. At least with the diploma there is the hope of getting a better job.  But the average pay for an Architectural Technician is $44,000 to $54,000 a year – less than half of what an architect earns.

But her daughter is settled in school, and her husband has a job just outside of Halifax. She can’t see her way clear – let alone find the money – to take the technician diploma.

Many, many newcomers who come to this country are subject to highway robbery.  For example, we have more than 800,000 international students.  Many of their parents and relatives have taken out huge loans to finance their children’s Canadian education.  The cost of tuition for international students is usually two to three times what Canadian students pay.  


Carolyn Olson - Grocery Cart Disinfection Worker, for more on artist Olson read this
When the students come here, they need more money-- to pay rent and to buy groceries --so they end up working  minimum wage jobs for as many hours as they can.  It used to be international students could work only 20 hours a week, but in 2022 the federal government eliminated the 20 hour rule.  The government also  allows students’ spouses and working-age children to work almost as many hours as they wish.

The robbery continues throughout the two years (for college), or four years (for university). Once the students graduate, their job searches reveal that despite their education and training, they find it very difficult to land good jobs or establish careers in Nova Scotia, or in Canada.  

We hear of many grads who deliver pizzas, drive taxis or do other minimum wage jobs. The students who once battled high tuition fees-- as adults in the workforce now have to fight, language issues, racism and poverty.  

Featured image above: Detail from We Are The Youth, Keith Haring’s mural at 22nd and Ellsworth Streets, Philadelphia. For more about Haring's work, read this.

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