New U of M study supported by the Canadian Race-Relations Foundation examines discrimination in the job market
Hour What drew you to study the difficulties facing educated women immigrants in Quebec?
Marie-Thérèse Chicha I have been working on these questions of discrimination, pay equity and immigration for a long time and first approached the question at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in France, where I read statistics that in Canada the de-skilling of women immigrants was much higher than for men. I was surprised and wondered why this de-skilling was happening. (De-skilling is when you have a university diploma, but you can only find a job or work that requires less than a diploma, so you lose your skills.)We often hear of immigrants who used to work as doctors and now work as taxi drivers or women who work in clothes factories... I wanted to understand why women were in this situation and why women (especially of a visible minority) are unable to work in their chosen occupation. What makes the difference between those new immigrants that succeed in finding work in their field and those that don't?
Hour Many new immigrants, men and women, arrive in Montreal highly educated in their chosen field, but are unable to find appropriate work. Has this situation worsened over the years?
Chicha We have tended to think that by sheer luck, skilled immigrants will succeed after five to 10 years, to integrate into the workplace, but this is no longer true. Previous studies have concluded that after a few years, immigrants generally succeed in finding occupations that meet their qualifications, even if not immediately. [But when I] analyzed stats by Stats Canada, it soon became apparent that today, for immigrants new to the province (in the past eight years), their de-skilling hasn't disappeared. While maybe 20 years ago de-skilling used to disappear for new immigrants after a few years, now it remains.
Hour Your study is one of the few that explores job discrimination experienced by visible minority women. How did you set up the study and what did you conclude?
Chicha [One of our] criteria was that women arrived with university diplomas and spent a few years here looking for work in their field. We used qualitative research methods and focused on 44 immigrant women from Latin America, Haiti, Africa, West Asia and Eastern Europe, who before their arrival in Montreal were all professionals, spoke French and had university degrees.
Before arriving, many new immigrants don't know all the requirements for work in their given field and [the rules and regulations around] recognizing foreign diplomas are complicated, unclear and always changing. So immigrants find themselves surprised - they come to a new country and it turns out to be far more difficult to find work in their field than they thought. I also looked at the role of professional associations in determining the validity of diplomas earned abroad. Medicine and engineering is regulated, but finance, journalism or communications are not. The regulations and recognition of foreign diplomas vary according to professions [and this is a huge problem].
Another factor is [systemic] discrimination in the work place and hiring processes. "Canadian experience" is often listed as a requirement for getting work, but just as often it is used as a filter to exclude immigrants. Often this experience is not specific. When employers ask for it, it is not objective. We call this a modern racism. The real reason behind this "Canadian or Québécois experience" is actually prejudice, and the fact that employers find it's risky to hire people they don't know, that may have different diplomas. Employers don't make the necessary effort to know how it corresponds.
Hour How is the Quebec work force affected by the fact that highly educated female immigrants to Montreal can't find work in their field? How does it affect these women?
Chicha It's a double loss. It's a loss for the country of origin that has invested, often scarce resources, in these people, and a loss for Quebec, because immigrants come here and don't find skilled work. This is the reason I called the report "The Mirage of Equality." Most new immigrants come from countries where women don't generally work as engineers or in sciences, so these women have often done a lot to advance equality.
They usually have a lot of hope in Quebec, because it is well known as a leader in terms of women's equality, because of pay equality and affordable day care. But they encounter a regression in the quality of work opportunities here compared to their country of origin, and they are not on an equal footing with Quebec women. How can we accept two classes of women citizens here? We are creating a class of women who cannot benefit from the equality that is included in the Charter and legislation. It's inconsistent.
Hour How many women immigrants are de-skilled?
Chichas Two-thirds of women are de-skilled, and only one-third succeed in finding work in their field. Even those who do succeed, however, say it's very hard for them. Some of them told me if they had to do it again, they wouldn't. For those that don't succeed, they are caught in a vicious circle, a Catch-22, because the obstacles for finding work and integrating into a new country are compounded.
Hour How does Quebec immigration policy play into this?
Chicha When women come here, they often come with a companion or husband, and most of the time it's the man who is given priority to work on his profession or career. Many immigrants don't have enough money to help two breadwinners find employment in their respective fields, and women are forced to take any work offered: housekeeping, etc. After a few years, if you don't use your skills it becomes very difficult to reintegrate into the work force, especially in certain fields. You can't apply for a job after working in housekeeping or at Costco, because then employers will question your experience and its relevancy to your field.
There is a lot to learn upon arriving in a new place and often these families don't have much money. There is a lack of general information provided to new immigrants about basics: how to look for work, where to learn French, how to access day care. As for foreign diplomas, they can be a double bind or handicap - for skilled jobs, foreign diplomas are often not considered, and yet they can disqualify a new immigrant from menial labour.
Hour What are the study's major recommendations? How does Quebec improve its treatment of skilled women immigrants and ease their integration into Quebec?
Chicha The first problem is with the selection criteria for new immigrants: Women aren't treated as independent. Points are given for diplomas and experience, but the principal applicant in a family gets more points and is weighted more than a secondary one. Very few women are considered the principal applicant if they apply in couples. So even in the demand process, there is a build-in inequality. Fiscally, socially and in legislation, women and men are placed on the same footing in Quebec, but in terms of immigration, this is not so. When a woman's qualifications are treated as secondary, it can have a very important influence.
Points are also given for families with small children who migrate, but for women who have small children it can be a very big challenge to emigrate. This double bind isn't recognized by the system.
The process of getting foreign diplomas recognized also needs to be less expensive for all immigrants and is far too time consuming.
There is a myth that earning a local diploma makes the obstacles to finding work disappear, but this is not so. Many recent studies in other countries and other provinces show that having a local diploma and studying in Quebec does not help new immigrants find work and takes them further into debt. As for their orientation in a new career, they don't get much help with this either.
There must also be programs that force employers to hire new immigrants. This is not the case in Quebec for the most part, especially in the private sector. As long as the private sector doesn't have an obligation to diversify their workforce and hire new immigrants and change these practices, things won't change.
Source : http://www.hour.ca/ - September 2009
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