(WPO5) Sustaining Shared Futures Through Equitable Work Trajectories for International Migrants in Canada

Under the recent Immigration Levels Plan, Canada aimed to welcome a record breaking number of new permanent residents each year – emphasizing how immigration will be the cornerstone of Canada’s post-pandemic economic recovery plan. As part of this endeavor, Canada is opening its immigration pathways and ramping up their recruitment of immigrants, international students, economic migrants and skilled workers, and also the temporary foreign workers (e.g., working holiday temporary migrants) to meet significant labour shortages across the country. As part of this strategy, international migrants will play an essential role in the post-pandemic economic recovery. While international recruitment is necessary to shore up the workforce, international migrants often encounter lack of settlement supports, de-creditialization, deskilling, exploitation, racism, and xenophobia, and limited opportunities for career advancement or mobility. In other words, while recruitment efforts are highly developed – policies, advocacy efforts, and practices that support employment retention, security, and access to living wages and benefits for immigrants and migrant workers, are given comparatively little attention. This session invited presentations to examine and understand both the reception and settlement experience of international migrants (including refugees, international students, temporary foreign workers, and economic immigrants) and how this structures their overall integration, im/mobility, and life course in Canada. We are particularly interested in work that discusses the existing or potential policies and practices that aim to enhance equitably beneficial futures for international migrant workers in Canada. Tags: Migration and Immigration, Work And Professions

Organizers: Eugena Kwon, Trent University, Nadiya Ali, Trent University, Valerie Damasco, Trent University, Mary Jean Hande, Trent University; Chair: Mary Jean Hande, Trent University

Presentations

Astou Thiam, University of British Columbia

Immigration policy implications for the Francophone minority communities in Metro Vancouver.

Canada has observed a declining birth rate in recent decades coupled with an aging population. This decline is more pronounced among Francophones living outside Quebec compared to Anglophones. Relying on the immigration of French-speakers has thus become a key policy priority of the federal government. Earlier Francophone immigrants were mainly from Europe, but the profiles of recent immigrants are more diverse and not thoroughly examined in the literature. In Canada, many stakeholders are involved in migration governance. Provinces, territories, and the private sector play an important role in the selection process, while government partnerships and civil society are primarily involved in integration services. Canada has thus, moved from a minimally interventionist integration policy to a society-wide policy, with the majority of the country’s immigration, refugee and citizenship budget allocated to settlement and integration services. Yet, we currently know little about how this immigration strategy is reshaping these communities and influencing cohesion among community members. To examine how the context of Metro Vancouver’s Francophone minority community shapes immigrants’ experiences of integration in the region. Our work aims to answer the following research question: How do local policies and practices (e.g., programs, events) influence the meaning of daily occupations and in peoples lives? We seek to understand what factors facilitate or hinder immigrants’ participation in Francophone community spaces. This paper presents key findings from an ethnographic study exploring perceptions of community cohesion among Francophone immigrants living in Metro Vancouver. Informed by intersectionality theory and the politics of belonging, our work attends to social power relations with Canadian Francophone minority communities. Findings are drawn from 9 key informant interviews as well as in-depth interviews with 12 immigrants conducted between May 2022 and June 2023. Purposeful sampling using maximum variation was used to recruit participants. Verbatim transcripts were analyzed with open (line-by-line) and theoretical coding approaches using NVivo software. Our preliminary results will be presented in line with two key themes. First, we will address forms of socio-spatial separation within the community that contribute to a lack of representation in leadership and decision-making positions of organizations within the region’s Francophone minority community. Second, our results address the impact of policies upon French-language service provision. For instance, our study identified a lack of integrated French-language services with limited provincial and community involvement in the Metro Vancouver. Ultimately, our results demonstrate that French-speaking immigrants must continuously negotiate their intersectional identities while engaging in daily occupations within physical and virtual community spaces (e.g., community centres, social media networks). Our study responds to an urgent need to understand the implications of the increasing arrival, settlement, and integration of racialized French-speaking immigrants for community cohesion in Francophone minority communities. Our findings highlighted the specificities that have influenced the integration of immigrants in Metro Vancouver. The potential keys of a successful system of integration for French-speaking immigrants in the region appear to be supporting Francophone populations of various ethnic and gender backgrounds working at different levels in community organizations as immigrant advocates. Another recommendation stemming from our work is to offer more integrated services in French with increased provincial and municipal participation.

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Non-presenting authors: Anne-Cécile Delaisse, University of British Columbia; Suzanne Huot, University of British Columbia

Mary Jean Hande, Trent University

Migrant Justice Perspectives on Home Care

Im/migrants make up the rapidly growing majority of home care workers in Canada. Their labour and organizing has enabled older Canadians to age and place, pushed for progressive legislative changes, and expanded the possibilities of good and just care for disabled people. Yet these workers are often pitted against the interests of home care receivers and their perspectives on home care transformation are often sidelined in home care policy and advocacy. This presentation explores migrant justice perspectives on home care from participatory research projects in two Canadian provinces. The first project, “Justice for Im/migrant Home Care Workers in Manitoba,” partnered with Migrante Manitoba to explore im/migrant home care workers’ employment relations and care activism during the COVID-19 pandemic. The second project “Towards Just Care,” partnered with the Disability Justice Network of Ontario to develop “power maps” of Ontario home care systems, and convene a visioning workshop with im/migrant home care workers and low-income home care receivers. This workshop enabled home care workers and receivers to develop coalitions and shared visions for home care transformation. The presentation concludes with reflections on how these migrant justice perspectives expand the possibilities for home care coalitions and care activism in Canada.

Abdul-Bari Abdul-Karim, University of Manitoba

Skill Under-utilization of Former International Students in the Canadian Labour Market: The Role of Canadian Employers

International students provide outstanding financial, economic, social benefits and cultural diversity to the host country and significantly contribute to its development and sustainability (Choi, Hou and Chan, 2021). According to recent estimates, the tuition paid by international students amount to over 20% of the budget of many universities (Usher, 2021). The number of international students in Canada approaches 500,000 per year although not all intend to stay after graduation, many wish to. The government has implemented several measures to allow them stay (Statistics Canada, 2021). For instance, on April 14, 2021, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) announced a new pathway to permanent residency for first 40,000 eligible recent international student graduate applicants (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, 2021). The problem is, do we have measures in place to ensure their successful participation in the Canadian labour market? As reported by Choi, Hou and Chan (2021), international student graduates earn less compared to their domestic born counterparts when working in Canada after graduation. This research examines the reasons why international student graduates struggle in finding employment despite having Canadian educational qualification. I therefore seek to answer an important question: what role do Canadian employers play in former international student graduates’ labour market outcomes compared to their Canadian-born counterparts? This research uses Critical Race Theory and Human Capital Theories which provide the most comprehensive arguments in identifying immigrants’ challenges in having equitable work trajectories. CRT explains the role of institutionalized racism in immigrants’ labour market outcomes. This paper uses the 2021 longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB) of Canada to investigate the challenges immigrants go through in accessing the labour market. This research is necessary because it helps direct policy aimed at addressing inequities in the labour market, and creating evidence-base of knowing if highly skilled workers are in their appropriate professions.

Aaron Nartey, Mainland Community Services Society

Labor Market Integration of Black and Racialized Canadians through Work Integration Social Enterprises (WISEs) in British Columbia.

Cross-sectional research has shown that Work Integration Social Enterprises (WISEs)can have a positive effect on building human capital (work skills) and social capital, but less so on their economic impact. Put differently, the participants in these enterprises develop in many ways, but their economic gains (income, jobs) appear to be modest (Mook, Maiorano, Ryan, Armstrong, and Quarter, 2015; Quarter, Ryan, and Chan,2015). However, none of this research has examined outcomes over time for WISEs that are designed to train Black and other racialized Canadians for the workforce. Hence, its imperative that we track their progress longitudinally to see whether the participants obtain and maintain jobs and an increased income, something that sponsoring non-profit organizations are unable to do comprehensively due to limited resources. Although these program outcomes may not be reached immediately, over time they should be if the program is achieving its objectives. The measures of value are not, however, limited to these economic benefits. Participants’ perceptions of their well-being and their sociocultural learning, that is, what they have learned from their experiences in the training program and in subsequent workforce integration are also important measures of program success over time.