Konferenzbericht (PDF-Dokument, 3 MB) - SID

Wissen wandert
ployee would wait to be spoken to by a superior,
would await the superior‟s instructions and would not
usually try to take charge. For usurping hierarchy
would be considered disrespectful. By contrast,
Western organizations often look for type A, entre-
preneurial, innovative thinkers who are out-going and
willing to show initiative. In other words, there is a
mismatch between what the employer expects from
a prospective employee and the way the employee
conducts her/ himself when faced with a superior or
just about anyone who is already with the organiza-
tion.
In their countries of origin, the way you find a job is
different. You normally find a job through connec-
tions or friends. Once you are offered an inter-view, it
is not normally to “interview” you but moreless to in-
troduce you to the company. In other words, receiv-
ing an “interview” in a source country usually means
that one already has the job. Immigrants often do not
realize the very different nature and purpose of an in-
terview when coming to Canada, nor do they know
what to expect and how to respond. So, there is a
different understanding around the “interview” proc-
ess – which only further exacerbates the immigrant‟s
disappointment when s/he does not end up being of-
fered the job.
- Immigrants are not well acquainted with the Cana-
dian job market. As a result, they have a poor under-
standing of the differences among organizations,
companies, etc. So, they have a difficult time looking
for a job and often do not or are not able to conduct
solid research on an organization or a company be-
fore applying. Ergo, they are often not well prepared
for the interview (because they do not know the or-
ganization) or if they are offered the job, they find out
that the organization and the job are not actually
when the immigrant thought it would be, thus caus-
ing great frustration for both the employee and the
employer.
knowledge migrates
- Other barriers include the cost associated with train-
ing and re-training for certification, the time needed
to get re-certified, and that further education and
training did not necessarily increase the chance of
finding suitable employment
- Canadian employers habitually reject immigrant
applicants for lack of “Canadian experience”. And
since immigrants often have an exceedingly difficult
time to secure employment in their profession, “Ca-
nadian experience” becomes a vicious circle: You
have to get Canadian experience to land a job but
you cannot obtain Canadian experience because no
one will hire you. Sooner rather than later, your
scarce resources run out and you end up taking a
much lower-paying and lower-skill job just to pay the
bills. Once an immigrant takes such as job, employ-
ers often assume the immigrant‟s skills must not be
what he claims they are and so only half of all immi-
grants end up working in their profession.
However, it turns out that “Canadian experience” is a veil
that masks completely different concerns. When Cana-
dian employers are polled with respect to employing
immigrants, they consistently rank three elements as
key:
- someone who is competent to do the job;
- someone who speaks the language; and
- someone who will be a good, loyal employee.
But under Canadian law, rejecting an applicant on any of
these grounds could likely trigger a lengthy and costly
human-rights challenge. So, it turns out that what immi-
grants really need to demonstrate is not primarily “Ca-
nadian experience”. Instead, they have to show that their
skills and competence are up to par, that they have
mastered English (or French), and that they have a good
work ethic.
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