“We need to help newcomers to understand how they can map and translate their prior experience and knowledge into what is available in Canada,” - Dr. Catherine Chandler-Crichlow, Dean
Last week the Toronto East Quadrant Local Immigration Partnership held their annual collaboration and partnership forum, Bridges 2022, with Durham, Peel, city-wide local immigration partnerships and the City of Toronto Newcomer Office.
Bridges 2022 featured online forums and workshops focused on how organizations, government, funders, and community stakeholders can work together to address some of the complex issues facing newcomers to Canada.
SCS Dean Dr. Catherine Chandler-Crichlow was one of the featured guest speakers and lent her expertise to the topic of Racism and Unconscious Bias in the Employment of Racialized Newcomers.
Dr. Chandler-Crichlow says it’s important to support newcomers in their job hunt by providing information about the Canadian workforce ecosystem, and how their strengths might translate to a new career or industry, as soon as possible.
“I think action needs to happen in the first six months. If change is not made in how we prepare newcomers, they can spend an inordinate amount of time floundering trying to understand the system,” she explained. “When I look at the first six months, I would argue that many newcomers don’t have an in-depth understanding of the workforce ecosystem in Canada.”
Dr. Chandler-Crichlow went on to say that often when she has met with newcomers to discuss their career options, they would have a general idea of what sector they might like to work in but didn’t always have a sense of just how vast those sectors can be in Canada. There is also the possibility that a job they had in mind, simply doesn’t exist in the same way in Canada.
For example, Dr. Chandler-Crichlow said, “If you’re coming from a country in which technology has not been used extensively to redefine the delivery of services in bank branches, you can come to Canada wanting to get an administrative job in a bank in a branch. Those of us who are here know that the administrative functions in banks have largely been moved to call centres. So if you’re coming and wanting to have an administrative job, you are speaking about going to a call centre, which is not necessarily the kind of work you are actually seeking.”
In this case, Dr. Chandler-Crichlow said she would go on to ask the person if they couldn’t use their strengths in a bank branch specifically, would they consider using them to work for an insurance company, a pension organization or a private equity firm. “So, we need to help newcomers to understand how they can map and translate their prior experience and knowledge into what is available in Canada,” she explained.
Dr. Chandler-Crichlow touched on areas where racialized newcomers specifically may face unconscious bias and barriers to employment in Canada, such as linguistics, personal names, and finding equal compensation to employees with Canadian work experience.
She also delved into two more growing areas that pose a potential challenge for newcomers: navigating recruiting technologies and the issue of conformity. Pointing out that not every country uses the same kinds of technology to assess resumes or conduct online screening interviews and that those can provide a stumbling block if newcomers do not have experience in writing a resume and formatting documents to be resume-reading technology-friendly.
At the same time, she points out, having to conform to these standards for resumes can limit one’s ability to get across a holistic picture of their strengths. “I would argue we’ve spent an inordinate amount of time conforming to these requirements. So much so that all our resumes look the same to a recruiter,” she said.
“One of the areas that I think may not be coming through in our resumes because of the emphasis on skills and experience, not that those don’t need to be there, but they are not necessarily communicating strengths. We’re not helping to differentiate what we bring to the table.”
While acknowledging that some of the barriers newcomers face will not have simple or quick solutions and may be out of their hands, she does believe many can be addressed if they go into their job search with as much information as possible from the start. “This is what we need to do with our newcomers in the first six months; help them translate their experience, identify their strengths, build their confidence to meet with recruiters whether in person or through technology-based platforms, and show that they can contribute,” she explained.
“I think we need to change the narrative. We should not be having a session like this two years from now because we will have done something to help newcomers shift the story and break through in sectors they would never have thought of.”