By Rachel Rowe
Some members of Ottawa’s immigrant community are split over Mayor Bob Chiarelli’s recently unveiled plan to help foreign-trained professionals find jobs in their chosen fields.
In his first campaign policy statement, Chiarelli proposed the creation of a city program that would hire 100 foreign-trained professionals over four years as apprentices.
The apprenticeships would last one year and pay $20,000, providing new Canadians with the employment experience they need to find full-time jobs in their fields.
Fred Awada, executive director of the Lebanese and Arab Social Services of Ottawa, says Mayor Chiarelli “has it right.”
Besides the language barrier, having their foreign credentials recognized is the biggest hurdle most immigrants encounter when trying to find a job, Awada says. By helping them obtain relevant work experience in Canada, Chiarelli’s new program would help immigrants avoid the dreaded catch-22 of no-experience no-job.
“He is spearheading the initiative to assist immigrants and doing so in a qualitative way,” Awada says, adding that Chiarelli has always been “very cognitive of the needs of new immigrants.”
Chiarelli says half of the almost 7,500 immigrants who arrive in Ottawa annually have post-secondary degrees, but their skills are not recognized by most employers and professional certification bodies.
“These barriers are depriving our community of the talents and skills of individuals with global experience,” Chiarelli said in his statement.
In addition to the apprenticeship program, Chiarelli says the city would also create 200 voluntary positions to help immigrants get experience in their fields. He also says he would lobby the provincial and federal governments to increase cash support for such programs.
In the spring, the provincial government committed $3.8 million to a pilot project in Ottawa to create seven new training programs for immigrants with foreign credentials in trades like health care and agriculture. These programs, available through Algonquin College and other institutions, would help skilled immigrants qualify faster to work in their professional fields.
But not everyone in the immigrant community agrees that government programs, like the one Chiarelli is proposing, are effective.
Rukia Warsame, a settlement counselor at the Somali Centre for Family Services, says these new programs are great, but not always realistic.
“Most of these people don’t have time for courses and volunteering. They have families to support,” she says.
Much larger changes are needed on a government level to really help foreign-trained professionals find jobs in their fields, Warsame says.
Many newcomers become frustrated upon moving to Ottawa while trying to update their credentials and find relevant work experience, she says.
“Lots of people with degrees are sitting idly,” she says. “They’re forced to drive taxis and deliver pizzas. It’s shameful.”
If implemented, Chiarelli’s program would help some new Canadians get their foot in the door, but not address the larger issue of immigrants with post-secondary degrees that are not recognized by employers, Warsame says.
“If you have children at home you don’t have time for that,” she says. “You need a job right away so you take whatever you can get.Unless regulations are relaxed, there’s nothing they [the immigrants] can do.”