The U of T Faculty of Nursing has created a website to assist female immigrants in Canada. The site, produced in conjunction with the Women’s Health in Women’s Hands Community Health Centre, addresses the difficulties many new arrivals face during their first months of settlement, including language barriers, cultural differences and the obstacles to a professional career.
The situations unique to female immigrants receive particular attention, especially the common expectation that wives and mothers are solely responsible for the comfort and stability of their families. The website includes the contributions of immigrant women from fourteen countries as diverse as Pakistan, Sierra Leone, and Haiti.
According to Faculty of Nursing Professor Dr. Denise Gastaldo, many of the women involved in the creation of the website faced unexpected difficulties upon arrival in a Canadian city. “They made decisions based on false assumptions.”
The selection process currently includes evaluation of education and professional experience, encouraging many newcomers to assume that they will be able to find immediate employment in their fields of expertise.
Contributors to the site discussed both the financial and social implications for immigrant families when professionals encounter obstacles to employment.
An example of the advice on the site reads: “Even though many immigrants will try to get a job in their field, many will be caught in the vicious cycle of no Canadian experience. The solution for them will be to do some other work in Canada, generally of a lower status.”
Maria Jesus Docando, a contributor to the website, faced this situation when her family arrived in Toronto from Nicaragua in 2002. Although she had trained and practiced as a psychologist, her credentials were not recognized in Canada.
“I was only given a Bachelor of Science Degree here, making it hard to enter a professional career,” Docando stated. “At the beginning, I found life here very difficult.” She currently works as a volunteer counsellor in a community centre for immigrants, gaining the Canadian experience necessary to gain paid employment in her field.
Jaycee Singh learned of the obstacles to professional employment in Canada before her family immigrated from India. Her relatives, who had already settled in Toronto, warned her that Canadian experience and qualifications are crucial. Singh states that all newcomers should be aware of this situation. “Information needs to be given [so that immigrants know] they may not get the same profession in Canada and must not feel bad about initially having to work in a factory.”
The widespread phenomenon of professionally educated immigrants working in low-paid service jobs upon arrival in Canada has led Gastaldo to question the government’s method of selecting newcomers. She argues that the government must either streamline the process of evaluating foreign credentials or select workers with a technical instead of academic education. The underemployment of immigrant professionals is of particular concern to Gastaldo because it results in the loss of expertise that would benefit others. “When third world countries lose a nurse, teacher, or engineer and Canada gets a cleaner, everyone loses.”
