By Miriam Katawazi and Garrett Barry
Rula Alkhzouz is a Jordanian-born immigrant to Ottawa. She is university educated and has many years of work experience, but she is having difficulties adjusting to the Canadian labour market.
Statistics Canada research reveals that very recent immigrants have unemployment rates more than double that of people born in Canada. While the unemployment rates fall for foreign-born Canadians as they spend more time in the country, even established immigrants, who have been in the country for more than 10 years, experience a higher unemployment.
This gap between newcomer and domestic-born Canadians persists even for immigrants with university education.