Recognizing foreign credentials a top priority for NDP
Recognizing foreign credentials a top priority for NDP
By Mark Cadiz
Opposition leader THOMAS Mulcair:
Dozens of members from the National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada packed a Toronto City Hall meeting room Monday, Feb. 9 to speak with NDP leader Thomas Mulcair.
Mulcair highlighted, as part of the NDP agenda, issues sensitive to GTA communities identifying the creation of middle class jobs through small and medium size businesses, the implementation of a federal minimum wage at $15 per hour and the creation of affordable high-quality childcare.
From left: MP Craig Scott, MP Andrew Cash, Thomas Saras (President & CEO, NEPMCC), NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair, Maria Saras-Voutsinas (Executive Director, NEPMCC), MP Rathika Sitsabaiesan and MP Matthew Kellway. (PHOTO: HG)
“Every community in this room is a priority for us that’s why we hold meetings like this to be able to hear you and your concerns and integrate them into our platform and policies,” Mulcair said.
The NEPMCC, a non-profit organization representing 650 small publications, and its members raised several issues with Mulcair over the two-hour meeting.
The Philippine Reporter raised the issue of recognizing foreign credentials which has plagued many immigrant communities over the years forcing thousands take on jobs that undermine their skills and education.
“The number one cause of poverty among new arrivals to Canada is failure to recognize their credentials, their diplomas and their experience,” Mulcair said.
“Sometimes employers say they refuse you because you don’t have Canadian experience which is another way of saying you are not getting the job because you were not born in Canada your your credentials come from somewhere else.”
NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair (PHOTO: M CADIZ)
In Ontario, Statistics Canada identifies the employment rate of immigrants between 25-to-54 years-old at 75.4 per cent in 2011, yet fails to determine if those were mainly underemployed service jobs. For newer arrivals those numbers drop dramatically to 63.6 per cent employment rate.
Specifically for Philippine-born immigrants, the employment rate in 2011 was 85.6 per cent, the highest among immigrant groups and even ranking higher than the Canada-born population which stood at 82.9 per cent. Although the numbers are promising, they don’t factor in how many were working in underemployed positions either.
Mulcair added that a member of his own caucus, Djaouida Sellah, MP of Saint-Bruno-Saint Hubert in south shore Montreal, a fully-trained medical doctor from Algeria with international experience, was in the same boat when it came to getting her credentials recognized here. Even after passing all the necessary exams required by medical institutions she is still unable to practice.
Quoting the former NDP leader Jack Layton Mulcair said “In some Canadian cities the fastest way to see a doctor was to get into a taxi” because there was a strong chance the driver was a qualified medical practitioner.
“It is a terrible joke, but it says so much,” he said.
In a report released by Utoday from the University of Calgary, associate professor and researcher Shibao Guo said “Canada’s brain gain has become brain waste.” Adding that the underutilization of immigrant skills has cost the country billions. Guo says the only way to better recognize immigrant credentials is to get all three levels of government, employers and professional associations on the same page.
“We recruit immigrants for their abilities and their diplomas, and the minute they get here we set up barrier after barrier after barrier,” Mulcair said. “We need a government that is actively engaged, and I’ve asked Djaouida to become a very specific critic on the issue. It’s something of a top priority for us and we are going to get it done.”
If elected later this year Mulcair said he will not only assign an immigrant minister, but someone specifically tasked to deal with recognition of foreign credentials enabling them to better work with provinces to find better concrete solutions.
The federal election is scheduled for Oct. 19.
Comments (0)