Immigration Canada

Calgary’s Employment Forums Go Face-To-Face

Bringing the city's hiring managers face-to-face with immigrant job-seekers

Many immigrants who come to Canada want to work for municipalities because government jobs are held in high regard in their countries of origin, says Cheryl Goldsmith, Human Resources Advisor at the City of Calgary.

The challenge is to ensure those who are enthusiastically applying to work at the City are a good match for the jobs, she says.

To that end, Goldsmith and her colleagues partnered with the Immigrant Sector Council of Calgary to establish the Immigrant Employment Partnership Project. The project’s mandate is to “promote employment for newcomers and other immigrant stakeholders in Calgary, and to educate these groups about the careers available with The City of Calgary,” says Goldsmith.

One-stop shop for skilled immigrants

The project has been an outstanding success. This is partly due to the emphasis on employment forums — a “one-stop shop” for new Canadian professionals interested in a career with the City.

Typically, each forum features direct interaction with City of Calgary hiring managers. The forum begins with a general presentation on the recruitment process, followed by individual hiring managers presenting information on how their profession is practiced within the municipality. During these programs, the managers discuss what types of jobs are available, as well as what qualifications and qualities they’re looking for.

Finally, the managers sit down one-on-one with the immigrants, who will get a chance to ask questions. “This is valued as one of the best parts of the forum,” says Goldsmith.

She cites the work of the Immigrant Sector Council of Calgary in helping to co-ordinate the agencies to work with the City at these forums. “We always make sure to keep a balanced focus on our partners in the immigrant employment and settlement sector,” she says.

Employer forums on the horizon

In the past, the forums have focused on the immigrant professionals and immigrant employment counselors. Looking ahead, the partnership hopes to also focus on employers.

An “employer forum,” says Goldsmith, would share the model of the Immigrant Employment Partnership and highlight the importance of:

Working as a partner: sharing the leadership and training responsibilities between the employer and the immigrant-serving agencies.
Sharing expertise: gaining essential knowledge from immigrant-serving agencies about interviewing immigrants and analyzing their résumés.
Being creative: participating in career fairs targeting immigrants and reducing barriers in electronic recruitment.

“Partnership is such a viable model because of the learning opportunities,” says Goldsmith. “Peer-to-peer and cross-sector learning has opened so many doors for the City as an employer. Our hiring processes have been greatly improved because of our partnerships.”

The upside to this multifaceted approach to immigrant recruitment has been an overall improvement in human resources services at the City of Calgary. The City now has International Qualifications Assessment Services guides available online, which allows both HR and hiring managers to quickly check international credentials.

“At present, there is a much higher internal awareness of how international credentials factor into the hiring process,” says Goldsmith. “Before this information was provided on our intranet, résumés with such credentials might have been screened out.”

The City of Calgary has more than 14,000 employees.

Source: Hire Immigrants

Russians are leaving the country in droves

Some chafe at life under Vladimir Putin's rule, but for many others, economic limitations are the prime motivator. Experts say the numbers have reached demographically dangerous levels.

Russians line up for visas outside the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. (Sergei L. Loiko / Los Angeles Times)

November 14, 2011|By Sergei L. Loiko, Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Moscow — Over a bottle of vodka and a traditional Russian salad of pickles, sausage and potatoes tossed in mayonnaise, a group of friends raised their glasses and wished Igor Irtenyev and his family a happy journey to Israel.

Irtenyev, his wife and daughter insist they will just be away for six months, but the sadness in their eyes on this recent night said otherwise.

A successful Russian poet, Irtenyev says he can no longer breathe freely in his homeland, because "with each passing year, and even with each passing day, there is less and less oxygen around."

"I just can't bear the idea of watching [Vladimir] Putin on television every day for the next 12 years," the 64-year-old said of the Russian leader who has presided over a relatively stable country, though one awash in corruption and increasing limits on personal freedoms. "I may not live that long. I want out now."

Irtenyev and his family have joined a new wave of Russian emigration that some here have called the "Putin decade exodus."

Roughly 1.25 million Russians have left the country in the last 10 years, Sergei Stepashin, head of the national Audit Chamber, told the radio station Echo of Moscow. The chamber tracks migration through tax revenues.

He said the exodus is so large, it's comparable in numbers to the outrush in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution.

"About as many left the country after 1917," he said.

They don't leave like their predecessors of the Soviet 1970s and '80s, with no intention to return. They don't sell their apartments, dachas and cars. They simply lock the door, go to the airport and quietly leave.

The reasons are varied. Some, like Irtenyev, chafe at life under Putin's rule, which seems all but certain to continue with the prime minister's expected return to the presidency next year. But for many others, economic strictures are the prime motivation. With inflation on the rise, and the country's GDP stuck at an annual 3% growth rate the last three years — compared with 7% to 8% before the global economic crisis — Russians are feeling pinched.

Russian nuclear physicist Vladimir Alimov, who now works at the University of Toyama in Japan, said he couldn't survive on the $450 monthly salary of a senior researcher at the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

"Yes, I miss Russia, but as a scientist I couldn't work there with the ancient equipment which had not been replaced or upgraded since the Soviet times," Alimov, 60, said in a phone interview. "Here in Japan, I have fantastic work conditions. I can do the work I enjoy and be appreciated and valued for it, everything I couldn't even dream of back in Russia."

The wave of emigration, which has included large numbers of educated Russians, has grave implications for a country of 142 million with a death rate significantly higher than its birthrate. A study published this year by the Berlin Institute for Population and Development called Russia a waning power and predicted its population would shrink by 15 million by 2030.

Experts believe that 100,000 to 150,000 people now leave the country annually and warn that the exodus reached dangerous dimensions in the last three years.

"People are going abroad for better college education, for better medical help, for better career opportunities, believing they will come back someday, but very few actually do," said Dmitry Oreshkin, a political analyst with the Institute of Geography. "The intellectual potential of the nation is being washed away, as the most mobile, intelligent and active are leaving."

Lev Gudkov, head of Levada, also sees a political dimension. "The worst thing is that people who could have played a key role in the modernization campaign proclaimed by the Kremlin are all leaving," Gudkov said. "But it appears that the Kremlin couldn't care less if the most talented, the most active Russians are emigrating, because their exodus lifts the social and political tension in the country and weakens the opposition."

But Valery Fyodorov, the head of VTsIOM, says the current emigration has very little to do with politics.

"A majority of those who want to leave the country are already quite successful in Russia," Fyodorov said. "They simply want to live even better and try something new."

"However, I must admit that life in Russia has not been really improving in the last three years, and that of course applies pressure and encourages talk of leaving," he said. "But that is much more connected with economic crisis problems and consequences rather than politics."

About 20% of Russians are thinking about leaving the country and trying their luck abroad, according to various Russian polling agencies, from the independent Levada Center to the Kremlin-friendly VTsIOM. Among 18- to 35-year-olds, close to 40% of respondents say they'd like to leave.

Canada's tightening immigration policy may be felt in U.S.

The revelation that an L.A. arson suspect entered the U.S. after losing an asylum bid in Canada has focused attention on stringent policies that could force more immigrants to seek refuge in the U.S.

The Douglas border crossing in Canada, near Washington state. (Richard Lam, Canadian Press)

January 14, 2012|By Kim Murphy, Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Vancouver, Canada — For years, Canada has had one of the most generous immigration policies in the world, welcoming tens of thousands of asylum applicants who claim to be fleeing persecution in their homelands.

But Canada's Conservative government has begun rolling up the welcome mat, stepping up efforts to track down and deport thousands of asylum-seekers whose applications have been denied.

The clampdown is likely to be felt not only across Canada, but in the United States.

Fresh from the revelation that Los Angeles arson suspect Harry Burkhart traveled to the U.S. from Vancouver after losing his nearly three-year bid for refugee status, immigration analysts here warn that the United States could become a new destination for thousands of asylum applicants soon to be pushed out of the pipeline in Canada.

"This is about to become a staging inventory for potential illicit entry into the United States," said Richard Kurland, an immigration policy analyst and attorney in Vancouver.

The most dramatic change is set to take effect at the end of June, with a $540-million "balanced refugee reform" program designed to speed up the asylum review process and start slicing through a backlog of more than 42,000 refugee cases, many of which have been awaiting a decision for years.

The tough new timelines call for asylum applicants to be given a hearing within 90 days, or even less for refugees from some countries, with most appeals heard within an additional 120 days, accompanied by stepped-up enforcement to eject those who fail to prove they would be persecuted if sent home.

U.S. officials say that asylum claimants who are denied refugee protection in Canada will not be automatically turned away at the U.S. border, despite a 2004 agreement between the countries that bars new arrivals in either from entering the other to claim asylum. That pact was put in place to halt the flow of asylum-seekers from the U.S., with its comparatively tough immigration policies, into Canada, where winning asylum had been easier.

The agreement was intended to target new arrivals, not those who had already gone through Canada's asylum process and faced potential deportation, said Mike Milne, spokesman for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection office in Seattle, which supervises the western U.S.-Canada border.

"Anybody seeking asylum or claiming a credible fear of persecution gets to articulate their case to an asylum officer. We would take them into detention and they would have the same right as anyone seeking asylum to a hearing," Milne said.

Canadian officials say that's far from clear, and suggest it's more likely that anyone showing up at the U.S. border after failing to win asylum would be quickly returned to Canada, and then deported, under the 2004 agreement.

"Canada and the U.S. have a strong record of cooperation with respect to migrant, refugee and asylum issues and the management of our shared border," said Nancy Caron, spokeswoman for Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the nation's chief border enforcement agency.

In any event, U.S. officials say they do not anticipate a massive increase — at least in the number of those seeking to cross the border through legal channels — because they expect that Canada will allow some failed applicants to stay under other exemptions and will deport as many as possible of those deemed not at risk of persecution in their home countries.

But with Canada typically granting about 40% of asylum petitions, the prospect of moving more rapidly through 42,000 pending cases and the more than 124,000 already targeted for deportation, analysts say, is bound to make migration patterns much more unpredictable.

"If you deprive a large number of people of asylum options, they're going to look for the next place to go, in large numbers," Kurland said. "So it is utterly incomprehensible to not figure out that come June-July 2012, when the new rules kick in, there will be a drive to seek sanctuary somewhere else, such as the largest neighbor in North America."

In at least one case, that may already have happened: Officials in both the United States and Canada, citing privacy laws, have refused to say when or how Burkhart and his mother, Dorothee, traveled to the U.S., though it is likely they arrived as tourists with the aid of their German passports.

Most failed asylum applicants in Canada hold passports from nations that would require them to have a visa to enter the U.S. But Kurland said even the Burkharts, though they wouldn't have needed a visa, should have triggered an alert for U.S. immigration authorities after having been rejected for asylum in Canada.

"If they can't catch two obvious refugee claimants who spent years in Canada in the refugee system, how can we trust them to deal with the potential of thousands of folks turned away from Canada because of the new changes?" he said.

News Release – New website promotes innovations in the assessment and recognition of international qualifications

Ottawa, January 16, 2012 – Citizenship and Immigration Canada has launched a website promoting innovations in the assessment and recognition of foreign worker qualifications.

The International Qualification Network (IQN) website serves as a virtual space for employers, regulatory bodies, governments and organizations serving immigrants to capitalize on promising qualification assessment and recognition practices.

“The Government of Canada is committed to improving the process of recognizing foreign worker qualifications, and the IQN website will help find solutions that will allow immigrants to integrate better into the Canadian labour market,” said Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney.

Through the IQN website, stakeholders can share effective evaluation tools and practices, studies, pilot projects, reports and videos and post information on events, such as workshops and conferences.

The website was created with the guidance of the IQN Advisory Council, a group of 20 partners and stakeholders who represent various provinces, employers and post-secondary education institutions from across Canada.

The information posted on the IQN will benefit everyone in all jurisdictions across Canada. Examples of innovative foreign qualifications practices include:

The Registered Nurses Professional Development Centre in Nova Scotia posted a profile of its program to assist internationally educated health-care professionals in getting their credentials recognized and integrating into the province’s labour market. The profile serves as a model for other nursing associations in other provinces to design their own program.
The Multi-jurisdictional Midwifery Bridging Project (MMBP) posted an outline of its eight-month bridging program for internationally educated midwives who want to practice in British Columbia, Alberta, the Northwest Territories, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Nova Scotia. The outline provides valuable information to foreign midwives and organizations assisting immigrants.

With the creation of the IQN website, the Government of Canada is delivering on a two-year commitment to support provincial, territorial and stakeholder efforts to improve international credential recognition through the Pan-Canadian Framework for the Assessment and Recognition of Foreign Qualifications.

The IQN website is administered by the Foreign Credentials Referral Office, a branch of Citizenship and Immigration Canada that offers referral services in Canada and overseas to immigrants, and develops tools for employers and regulatory bodies so they can help immigrants integrate into the Canadian workforce.

Visit the website at http://www.credentials-competences.gc.ca.

Photo of Minister Kenney available at:www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/media/photos/high-res/index.asp.

For further information (media only), please contact:

Candice Malcolm
Minister’s Office
Citizenship and Immigration Canada
613-954-1064

Media Relations
Communications Branch
Citizenship and Immigration Canada
613-952-1650
CIC-Media-Relations@cic.gc.ca

New council will help immigrants and refugees integrate in fabric of Canadian society

WATERLOO REGION – A local group of service providers, health care representatives, business people and politicians have come together to create the Immigration Partnership Council to help immigrants and refugees integrate into Canadian society.

For two years, the group met to talk about how to better assist new immigrants become part of the community.

And on Friday, the group launched its beginning at the Tannery in Kitchener. The organization hopes to help immigrants settle, work and belong to the community.

It’s one of 45 immigration councils across the province. The region’s council has a budget of $680,000 funded for the next two years by Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the Region of Waterloo and the United Way of Kitchener Waterloo and Area.

Arran Rowles is the council’s full-time manager. Rowles said the local immigration partnership is unique because it integrates the work component with the Waterloo Region Immigrant Employment Network by offering seminars and networking events and offering internship and mentoring programs.

A discussion will be held on Feb. 6 in which the discussion centres on how to welcome immigrants and on March 26 on forum about immigrants taking part in civic leadership such as sitting on boards.

Lucia Harrison, chair of the group and executive director of the Kitchener Waterloo Multicultural Centre, said the council is looking at the big picture “to work with our partners for systematic change.’’

Needs will be identified and the programming done by current agencies already in the community, she said.

Currently, 22 per cent of the region’s population is immigrants or refugees and that number is expected to jump to 30 per cent by 2031, Harrison said.

The region is in the top seven areas of choice for New Canadians, she said.

Since 2009, the group has been talking about how to deal with challenges and barriers faced by new immigrants such as accessing health care, education, social services, learning a new language, getting work and learning to integrate into Canadian culture.

lmonteiro@therecord.com

Cost-Effective Ways to Recruit Skilled Immigrants

January 13, 2012

Lisa Harrison, Vice-President and Delivery Partner at Autodata Solutions, says the medium-sized automotive software and data provider based in London, Ont., connects with skilled immigrant talent in four, cost-effective ways:

Tap into current employees’ networks
Use social media
Connect with community employment agencies
Work with local immigrant employment councils