A recent UBC study about the struggles of new immigrants in the Canadian workplace made an uncommon splash in the media, and with good reason: it seems Canada has a lamentable record on integrating new immigrants into its economy. Past studies have shown that immigrants who arrived prior to 1970 started earning wages comparable to Canadian-born workers after 10 to 15 years in the country, while those who immigrated in 1990 were earning about 25 per cent less than Canadian-born workers after 15 years.
What makes the study from UBC economics professor Philip Oreopoulos so compelling is that it suggests an unpleasant, albeit partial, explanation for these numbers: discrimination in hiring practices. Oreopoulos’s team sent some 6,000 fake resumés to job placement agencies in the Toronto area – resumés with a carefully selected mix of things foreign and Canadian, such as education, work experience and personal names. The finding that generated the most controversy concerned resumés that differed only by the name at the top. Those bearing British-sounding names had a callback rate of 16 per cent, whereas those with Asian-sounding names had a callback rate of 11 per cent.
That doesn’t surprise Ding Yi, who left his hometown in central China at age 20 to get an electrical engineering degree in the U.K. Now 26 and living in Burnaby, he’s in his sixth month of unemployment. He says he uses the name “Dean” on any job applications and in first meetings with English-speaking Canadians. “I try to use a practical approach,” he says. “But when we start to meet more frequently, I try to tell them my story and try to introduce the real me: Ding.”
The thing that worries Yi most, however, isn’t a Chinese name or less-than-perfect English; it’s an interviewer asking him if he has Canadian experience. “For many immigrants, this is a killer question,” he says.
Tung Chan, CEO of the non-profit immigrant-services organization SUCCESS, says many of his clients were shocked when they heard about the UBC study, but the findings are not new for those working with recent immigrants. SUCCESS counsellors have long advised clients to adopt English-friendly equivalents of their names, which sends a signal to Canadian employers that they’re adapting to the new country. The paradox immigrants face over needing Canadian experience to get a job is a tougher problem. “Employment counsellors hear that a lot from the people we help,” Chan says. “We’ve been harping on that one.”
And yet we shouldn’t confuse favouritism for English names or Canadian experience with racism, according to Kelly Pollack, executive director of the newly formed Immigrant Employment Council of B.C. (IECBC). As she describes it, Canadian employers are more guilty of sloth than of prejudice. When an employer sees a foreign name on a resumé or no work experience in Canada, they’re likely worried that there may be some language barrier or culture clash – which means more work on their part to find out if that’s the case. The easy solution, says Pollack, is to simply skip to the next resumé. It’s not fair, but it’s not exactly racial discrimination.
Pollack thinks the social-services world hasn’t given employers the tools they need to find valuable, underutilized new immigrants and integrate them into the workforce – something IECBC plans to remedy. For example, the council is looking at mimicking a program tried in Toronto that sets up new immigrants with internships to get that first Canadian experience. Career Bridge targets new immigrants with professional experience and sets them up with paid internships, lasting from four months to a year in a range of unregulated professional sectors. At best, interns are hired at the end of their placements; at worst, they can now list “Canadian experience” when searching for their next job.
“The reality is that the face of our workforce has changed,” Pollack says. “It is time for us to start to implement some better ways of addressing that.”