OTRA OPINION TOMADA DE FORO DE INMIGRANTES

June 29 – 2005

There is certainly something to be said about the state of the Canadian economy and hyper-competitiveness for upper level jobs. In terms of productivity too, (not actually how hard you work, but how smart you work), Canada has lost out big time, especially to the U.S. Hence the higher unemployment rates here, and of course the quality of jobs being lower here versus there.

But I think Jean, if you realistically look at Canadians you know; people you either live amongst or work with, you can note one thing stands out glaringly for them as opposed to those of us who happen to be non-Caucasian or immigrants. FREEDOM. Freedom to move from job to job or not, as circumstances dictate. Freedom to get on a career track quickly and easily, after graduating from school. Freedom to buy new cars and houses and go on expensive Caribbean and U.S. vacations.

The rate of unemployment and underemployment for immigrants and minorities is much different for us then it is for Canadians. Stats Can numbers prove that. Most Canadians can freely make career decisions based on their desires and personal preferences. We on the other hand are stuck with taking what we can get. Like crumbs off the table.

I know this personally having seen it with my own eyes in front of me at many workplaces where I’ve been. One girl I used to work with and who is an acquaintance, toiled at an IGA for a while as a cashier when she was in her teens and still in high school. Next thing she was working at Canadian Blood Services making good money while at college, and living at home paying no expenses. Next thing after that she is working at a major oil company in downtown Calgary just like that! She makes more money than I do, yet she has a lower level of education and definitely less work experience. In fact she is buying a brand new home, already drives a new car, and she is barely 25 years old. How did she manage to out-compete all the potential applicants for that job? The answer is that she couldn’t have. She didn’t have to. Now put an immigrant in her place trying for that job. How many hoops do you think they would make him or her jump through? And then not hire anyway, citing lack of «Canadian Experience»?

Let me illustrate by another personal example. Most if not all of my graduating class at SAIT (Calgary, AB), in 2002 got career track, well paid positions in medium and major sized urban centers in Western Canada. They got these with large companies that pay well and they got them easily within six months, and so did the people before that in 98, 99 along with the most recent class of 2005. I suffered for 16 long months practically unemployed after graduating in April 2002, and ended up having to take a job in a tiny town in Northern Alberta with unfriendly people and a low quality of life. I was pretty much ready to give up and go drive a bus for a living just before that happened. I lost 16 valuable months for nothing. I also worked for what amounts to a small rural independent company that paid below average with bad co-workers. I took it anyway because I did not wish to waste my skills.

I am able to keep track of what all of these grads do through an interactive forum set up for that purpose. Almost all of them without fail are enjoying the benefits of living a well financed lifestyle doing what they want, when they want to do it. One girl quits her job just so she can go plan her wedding. It was a well paying job with a network station in Red Deer. Another moves from job to job as her lifestyle suits her and she has no problem getting employment. Still others are working in Calgary, or Edmonton or Kelowna. They barely have 2 – 4 years of this so-called «Canadian Experience». Are you telling me they have more skills or are better able to compete in this job market?

And my industry (media) is one of the most competitive compared to others. Yet these people breezed through that employment market with barely a bump in their career paths. Many of them, I considered to be ill suited for their jobs because they’re immature, abnoxious and self serving to say the least. Yet those Canadians hiring them had no hesitation to bring them on board.

It’s very easy sometimes to rationalize away the problems of this country and put the blame on the victims of racism, or to explain everything in stark economic terms or job markets. But the hard reality is that Canadians don’t like immigrants, or minorities. They pretend to like them to keep up appearances. When you look at the world like that, it’s going to carry over to the job markets where these same people make life changing decisions about who to hire for a job. For Canadians, it works like this: when the only tool you have is a hammer, then every problem you see is going to be a nail.

Matt G., Alberta