Are we ready for more immigrants?
Not if you talk to the people who help settle them

by Bruce Campion-Smith
Ottawa Bureau

OTTAWA—Jane Cullingworth is quick to commend the federal government for its proposed plan to throw open Canada's doors to new immigrants.

And she's equally quick to add a caution.

"With that there needs to be a commitment to provide appropriate supports to people when they get here," says the executive director of Skills for Change, a Toronto agency that works with newcomers.

Later this month, Ottawa is expected to take the wraps off its immigration vision. At its centre will be a strategy to allow up to 320,000 immigrants into the country each year, up 100,000 over current levels.

But experts say the government's immigration strategy is bound to fail unless Ottawa is also prepared to give more money and flexibility to agencies that help new immigrants find their feet in this country.

Cullingworth expects she will, through Skills for Change, face the big task of helping some of these new immigrants find work.

Accountants, social workers, health-care professionals, experts in information technology and engineers — some 9,000 a year — all come to her St. Clair Ave. W. office looking for a new start in their adopted land.

Their average age is 33, they've been in the country less than a year — and they're keen to find work, Cullingworth says.

The agency offers help ranging from three-day job search workshops to intensive six-month courses to upgrade skills. Specialized language training in medical terminology, bookkeeping and the workplace is available, and there are basic language lessons for everyday tasks such as shopping and using the phone.

Cullingworth applauds Ottawa's "aggressive" plan to boost immigration, but says there has to be an "aggressive" strategy to support the newcomers.

"We want to make sure that accountants are in the accounting field, engineers are in the engineering field. That does take resources," she says.

"They need help getting connected to their profession."

And more than just money will be needed to deal with the influx of new immigrants, says Ratna Omidvar, executive director of the Maytree Foundation, a Toronto-based agency that works on immigrant and refugee issues.

"There has to be a new approach," Omidvar says.

"In order to make this work there needs to be a much more bottom-up approach.

"I think the federal government has to be connected with local leaders."

As one model, Omidvar cites the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council, which has been working to forge close alliances with the employers who will be hiring the new immigrants.

Born out of the Toronto City Summit Alliance movement, this two-year-old coalition has brought together high-powered business leaders, unions, universities, colleges and governments to open doors for immigrants in the Toronto labour market.

Last November, it launched a mentoring program involving corporate heavyweights such as RBC Financial Group, Ernst & Young and the Mississauga Board of Trade to guide skilled immigrants in job searches.

Experts voice frustration at the government's top-down approach that dictates settlement services, instead of leaving it up to agencies and immigrants themselves to best decide what is needed.

Cullingworth says it would be "fantastic" if the three levels of government that fund her agency, to the tune of $3 million a year, would enable her to develop programs in consultation with immigrants and employers.

"So often, the programs we wind up delivering are quite prescribed by government," she says.

"We need a lot more flexibility in how we offer programs.

"Definitely there needs to be increased resources, but even more important than that is the increased flexibility."

Cullingworth said the job for agencies like hers isn't helping these newcomers learn new skills — most arrive in Canada skilled and well-educated.

Rather, she says, the challenge is linking the immigrants with the employers and opening the eyes of business leaders to the talents newcomers can offer.

"We need to build that bridge," she said. "It doesn't matter ... how much we help people with their résumés. That's only part of the equation."

Immigration Minister Joe Volpe's boastful talk about a bold new immigration policy runs hard up against the realities facing immigrants who are here, but can't find work.

"One of them ... said it was like false advertising. The Canadian government lied to us. They said `we like your skills, your background,' but when we came here we weren't allowed to use them," says NDP Leader Jack Layton.

When immigrants are allowed into Canada in large part because of impressive education or job skills, "they naturally believe that they'll be able to get a job in that area," he says.

Cullingworth says it's "very true" that Toronto has the best-educated taxi drivers, skilled immigrants who can't get a job in their profession in Canada's largest city.

"There's also the issue of all those people who've given up, who've been here for a number of years and who are seriously underemployed," she says.

Omidvar drives home the point, saying that only four out of 10 immigrants have found work that matches their skill levels. The rest are "severely underemployed," and "not sending good news back home" about their experiences in Canada.

That matters at a time when Canada is competing with other nations to woo the best and brightest immigrants from places such as India, Brazil and China, says Omidvar.

"I've heard that Ireland has people all over recruiting."

While the tales of the doctor turned cab driver have stolen the limelight, Omidvar says such cases are just a small part of the story of underemployed immigrants. Those stories miss the cases of immigrants skilled in information technology and business who've also run into roadblocks.

Layton questions whether the Liberals will even meet the new target, noting that it was a promise first made in the Liberals' Red Book election platform more than a decade ago.

If that vow had been kept, he says, Canada would have welcomed more than 500,000 additional immigrants over the years — and with it a boost in economic activity.

Other problems need fixing too, says Layton, citing complaints from business owners from Southeast Asia about the difficulties of getting visas that would allow colleagues into the country.

Other immigrants voice frustrations over family reunification policies — for example, delays in getting visitor visas for family members coming for a wedding, Layton says.