Abstract
The number of immigrants working in regulated and unregulated occupations in Canada is unknown. A major contribution of this study is that we use the 2006 Census of Canada to classify occupations, across provinces, into regulated and unregulated categories and then to examine the covariates of membership in a regulated occupation. In aggregate, immigrants are slightly less likely to work in a regulated occupation. Immigrants educated in Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean prove to be much less likely to secure access to a regulated occupation than either the native born or other immigrants.
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Notes
As part of Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the Foreign Credentials Referral Office work in conjunctions with employers, educational institutions, industry associations and licensing bodies and fund projects that will assist internationally trained workers in integrating the Canadian labor market. One of the major foreign credential recognition initiatives in Quebec in recent years is the Québec–France Understanding on the Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications, signed in October 2008. It “is designed to facilitate and accelerate the acquisition by people in France and Québec of a permit to practice a profession or regulated trade in the other territory through the adoption of a common procedure for recognizing professional competence” (Relations Internationales Québec 2010). The Pan-Canadian Framework for the Assessment and Recognition of Foreign Qualifications, launched in 2009, is a federal–provincial initiative to bring players involved in the recognition of foreign credentials together. It is not a legal document, but rather a principle-based framework.
The Provincial Nominee Program is one of the categories under which someone can apply to immigrate to Canada. The Provincial Nominee Program enables provinces to select some of the skilled workers who want to immigrate in their province (Citizenship and Immigration Canada 2011).
HRSDC established the Foreign Credential Recognition Program in 2003. The program helps immigrants prepare for Canadian credential recognition while still in their country of origin. The program works with regulatory bodies and sector councils to develop overseas integration services, including credential verification, skills and language assessment, resumé writing, and Canadian workplace orientation. Early work was done with nurses, doctors, and engineers, but the program has expanded to cover physiotherapists, occupational therapists, medical laboratory technologists, medical radiation technologists, pharmacists, cardiology technologists, and midwives.
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The authors would like to acknowledge the financial contribution of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, as well as the Fonds québécois de la recherche sur la société et la culture.
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Girard, M., Smith, M. Working In a Regulated Occupation in Canada: An Immigrant–Native Born Comparison. Int. Migration & Integration 14, 219–244 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-012-0237-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-012-0237-5