Majority of immigrants have trouble finding employment matching their expertise: survey
CBC
This story is part of Welcome to Canada, a CBC News series about immigration told through the eyes of the people who have experienced it.
Clare Muruatetu expected to easily land a position in her field after immigrating from Ivory Coast to Edmonton three years ago.
But the applications piled up, despite her MBA in project management and previous roles with the United Nations and African Development Bank.
"I had a wealth of experience and education background to back me up but there were many more barriers that I wasn't aware of before I came," Muruatetu, originally from Kenya and fluent in English and French, recently told CBC News.
She called for better recognition that newcomers "are not starting from scratch, which they make most immigrants do when they move here."
It's a grim reality many hopeful professionals discover after immigrating to Canada only to end up unemployed, underemployed or juggling a patchwork of part-time gigs.
In a new CBC/Pollara survey, 54 per cent of surveyed immigrants living in Canada said it was difficult to find a job in their field.
A little more than 1,500 adult Canadian residents were surveyed online between Nov. 1 and 18, 2024. They all arrived in Canada in the past ten years. The poll has a comparable margin of error of about 2.5 per cent.
Just over 15 per cent reported that their credentials or academic degrees weren't recognized in Canada.
Eleven per cent said that they faced discrimination or racism when looking for a job in Canada.
Some initiatives are underway to tackle those barriers at provincial and local levels.
At the Africa Centre, Muruatetu is among 20 professional immigrant women who took part in a project called Disrupting Settlement Inequities.
The information gathered from participants in the event is meant to be used to draft policy recommendations.
"It's just being given that opportunity, that's a barrier for them," said Halima Mohamud, a social worker who manages the Africa Centre's Enhancing Gender Equity Program.
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