Three-fourth of Canadian work visa holders struggle to find work

The Canadian government has introduced a new federal-provincial program to help foreign-educated professionals get their foreign 
credentials processed even before they arrive in Canada. It is being hoped that this program will solve the problem of new immigrants in Canada get placed in the jobs they are qualified and trained for.

The findings of the study based on trends of Canadian immigration states that just 24 percent of the Canadian immigrants were found to be employed in their professions on regulated Canadian job or work in Canada.

The data based on 284,000 foreign-educated Canadian citizens studied the match rates between the degree-holders immigrants educated to work( in regulated jobs) in Canada and the jobs that they actually were working at present. Regulated occupations include those jobs which are governed either by professional or by regulatory associations and require specific credentials or degrees for practice.

For Canadian-born, the match rate was 62 percent while for immigrants in Canada, the rate of those( with Canadian degrees) employed in jobs matching their training was 53 percent of the total 163,000 immigrants employed in jobs in Canada.

The best employment conditions were found for medical professionals in Canada. It was found that nearly 56 percent of foreign-educated doctors and nurses had found qualification suited jobs in Canada. However, for teachers and lawyers, the percentage was quite low, for teachers, it was 24 percent while for immigrants holding law degrees, it was just 12 percent.

Although, the gap has been narrowing to some extent, however, it still exists for immigrants in Canada who have been here since a long time. The match rates for overseas-educated immigrants who have been living in Canada for a decade is 31 percent while for 
Canadian-born, the rate is 62 percent and for immigrants having Canadian education, it is 55 percent.

An immigrant from Cameroon, Clement Seyi, who sought immigration to Canada with his family in June, says that he found many 
obstacles in landing a job in Canada, especially in his chosen field. So, he joined as a volunteer accountant for a friend’s business just to gain work experience in Canada.