Notes
Community organizations: n/a
Integration timeline: not defined
Key findings:
1) Neoliberalism greatly influences available services and funding, although many respondents reported the need to go past funding mandates and engage in more advocacy and anti-racism work.
2) Immigrant professionals grappled with arriving in Canada and having unrecognized and/or undervalued credentials, and the option of returning home due to misinformation on how their credentials would be viewed in Canada.
3) Although similar concerns regarding labour market challenges were reported by both settlement workers and immigrant professionals, service providers paid less attention to systemic issues compared to the immigrant professionals.
4) Comparing different economies and political climates in Alberta and Manitoba can be used to determine what is helping/ not helping to address labour market exclusion and resulting policy implications.
Key recommendations:
1) Expand anti-racist work at the systemic level.
2) Increase the transparency and honesty of information provided to immigrants in pre-arrival orientation.
3) Develop educational campaigns and interventions such that employers will become anti-racist, rather than focusing on how immigrants and conform to Canadian systems.
4) Reduce other labour market barriers, such as lack of accessible child care, professional networking, language training, etc.
5) Persist with advocacy efforts despite limitations in organizations and funding created by neoliberalism.
Location: Edmonton, AB & Winnipeg, MB
Future research / gaps identified:
1) This thesis focused on qualitative data from 2 large cities that may not be applicable to service provision in smaller locations.
2) Focus was specifically on immigrant professionals and not the broader immigrant population.
3) The author acknowledged that they are White, Canadian-born and English-speaking, and that their allyship may have had limitations as compared to a racialized person doing anti-racism and immigration work.
Key populations: immigrant professionals seeking employment, and service providers in the settlement sector
