Why Denying an Immigrant with no Canadian Work Experience is Hurting Your Business
“Migration is an expression of the human aspiration for dignity, safety and a better future. It is part of the social fabric, part of our very make-up as a human family.”
Ban Ki-moon
There were over 14 different countries represented in my post graduate program of over 40 students. Brazil, China, Korea, France, Vietnam, Senegal, Nigeria . . . just to name a few. After graduation, everyone was keen to find a job related to their post-graduate degree in International and Intercultural Communications. Smart, energetic, young, ambitious, creative and passionate individuals whose ideas and experiences could incredibly enhance any employer, organization or business. While some were able to secure jobs, many were turned away from job opportunities and left with no other option than to go back to their country of origin. The reason? They were consistently denied an employment opportunity because of their lack of “Canadian work experience”.
Over the past eight years in working with newcomers to Canada, this phrase was so often repeated to me. “Andrea, they wouldn’t hire me because I didn’t have any Canadian work experience.” I’m often shocked when I hear this after seeing their resume which attest to their international work, high educational background and a large variety of soft and hard skills. The truth is this phrase is often a narrow way to keep out a diverse workforce and to marginalize people of colour.
The reality is, denying a Newcomer an employment opportunity with your company is hurting the growth of your business.
Hiring is expensive. Hiring ANYONE is expensive. Yet if you look at the reality of what newcomers contribute to a business, you will find economic growth both in dollars and in people. According to Statistics Canada, job vacancies nationally climbed to almost 1 million in the first and second quarters – the highest quarterly numbers on record*. Among the highest of vacancies are found in the health care, social assistance, construction, manufacturing and retail trade sectors. Some key indicators for these high increases are due to high retirement rates within key industries and low wages in vacant positions. While job vacancies are high, immigrants rates have also escalated the highest they have been since 1946. According to Canada Immigrant News, immigration targets will successfully welcome 460,000 in
2022 alone**.
It is abundantly clear: our businesses will not survive by limiting our workforce to those with Canadian experience.
Here are three reasons why denying a person a job due to their lack of “Canadian work experience” inhibits your organizational growth:
Newcomers bring a connection to an untapped market or demographic of people.
Newcomers are the connection to local, regional, national and even international markets that your business has yet to reach. If my colleagues from China were given a chance to work for the businesses they wanted to work for, there would be an immense growth in serving the Chinese diaspora here in Canada and those on China’s shores. If your business hasn’t had the ability to attract people from the Caribbean and African Communities, using “lack of Canadian work experience” to a job candidate from Jamaica will quickly turn away that opportunity. Representation matters. Especially in our workplace. If we deny immigrants the opportunity, we are denying our company to thrive.
Newcomers provide a diverse skillset that could enhance your organizations’ processes and policies.
I remember sitting with a Syrian gentleman who had come to Vancouver Island as a refugee. He was a mechanic for many years in the city of Damascus before the war drove him and his family out. He told me a story of how his team of mechanics would often lose power at their shop. With cars to fix and repair, they needed power for their tools and for meeting their customer’s deadlines. He and his team would make their own generators using old car parts and engines. And in turn, that shop was able to complete the car repairs and provide customers with their needed service. Ingenuity and creativity is found in all four corners of the earth. The ways in which we communicate, document, build or sell in our own corner are often one-sided. We limit our business growth by keeping traditional practices, conserving old habits and leaning on what we feel might be “safe”. Yet different doesn’t mean unsafe. Just because something might be unfamiliar, doesn’t mean it won’t work. We saw how quickly our service deliveries had to be altered and manipulated to keep our businesses alive during COVID. If we are capable of those types of changes and new innovative ideas, then we are also capable of incorporating newcomer’s voices into our companies, gleaning from their experiences and their viewpoints of how to enhance our product or service in a whole new way.
A Newcomer’s lack of Canadian work experience is a strength for your company.
In a study done with Statistics Canada, comparison between the work ethic of immigrant to Canadian-born workers found that immigrants work harder and are at less financial-risk to a company*** than Canadian born workers. During my work with the Provincial initiative of the Refugee Response Team in 2016, employers would come to us with a need to hire immigrants and refugees. One business owner here in Victoria said to me “These guys [refugees] don’t come to work stoned, or hung over and they’re not lazy. They come ready to work and they work hard. I can depend on them.” Newcomers don’t come with a preset notion of how things are done in your organization. They come with curiosity, questions and a willingness to learn. They have had to adjust to a new culture, new environment, for many a new language and a new way of living. A study came out in Forbes indicating that over 45% of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children****. Imagine your company excelling to the level of growth and renown because you invested in immigrant knowledge, experience and expertise.
We are evolutionary beings with evolutionary businesses. In order to survive, we must adapt if we want to grow.
So next time a candidate comes into your office for that interview, rather than disregard them because of their lack of Canadian work experience, hire them BECAUSE of their lack of Canadian work experience. Your company needs diverse voices, experiences and expertise.
Diversity isn’t deficiency . . . it is growth.
Sources cited:
Gilmore, J. The Immigrant Labour Force Analysis Series: The 2008 Canadian Immigrant Labour Market: Analysis of Quality of Employment. Labour Statistics Division. Catalogue no. 71-606-X, no. 5.
New American Economy. New American Fortune 500 in 2019: Top American Companies and Their Immigrant Roots. 2022 March 14.
Singer, C. Canada on Track to Welcome 460,000 Immigrants in 2022. Canada Immigration News. 2022 August 19.
Statistics Canada. The Daily: Job Vacancies in the Second Quarter. 2022 September 29.