Immigrants unlikely to get jobs quickly even after the economy recovers

The sheer harshness of the labor market is well known to Bhagwan Lobana. It was last April when the 50-year old Punjabi was finally able to get a job that he was looking for, but it came after spending almost two years in Canada.

Mr. Lobana, who graduated his masters’ class in 1982 as a topper and is an experienced chemist, got a job at Acuren, which is an engineering and material testing company. But with the arrival of recession in the month of November, the business of his company slowed down and he was laid off.

Mr. Lobana said that he was extremely upset with the way things went about in his life and that he can no more continue his job due to the recession. He found his dreams still pending and hopes fading.

Following his removal from his job, Mr. Lobana applied for over thirty jobs but none of them came through. He was finally able to get a temporary work of operating a forklift.

It is well known that tens of thousands of workers have joined the unemployed line during the course of this recession; newcomers to the country are losing jobs at a far greater rate than Canada-born workers. It is predicted that even after the economy recovers, immigrants will face a tough time ahead in finding jobs.