About 18 months ago, I met Ashraf, when he responded to my click for an Uber. His sunny disposition was striking in contrast to his story. Ashraf had been a successful dental surgeon in Sudan for years before the dictatorship issued a death warrant and he’d been forced to flee with his pregnant wife and daughters.
When I met him that morning, Ashraf had just started his shift, after spending the night in the ICU with his new baby. Ashraf made light of his hardships, and the juggling required to put food on the table, with a sick child, in a new country. “I can’t practice as a dental surgeon in Canada, so my only option is driving. My wife teases me because I only know how to do two things, driving and dentistry.”
Most of us have met someone like Ashraf — a highly skilled immigrant who isn’t able to put their talent to work in Canada. It’s time we changed that.
Each year, Canada welcomes hundreds of thousands of immigrants, the majority of them skilled. But too often, newcomers can’t put their professional skills to work here, even when they are needed to fill labour shortages in healthcare and other sectors.
Before the pandemic, an RBC report estimated that the underemployment of immigrants cost Canada about $20 billion annually in lost productivity. Today, the costs are felt acutely not just in economic terms but also in human terms: missing skills in hospitals, care homes, pharmacies and laboratories.
Before the pandemic, Employment and Social Development Canada projected a shortage 160,000 registered nurses between 2017 and 2026, a shortage that has worsened over the past decade and is dire today. COVID-19 has created a shortage of professionals able to administer vaccinations as well as medical technologists to keep pace with the need for laboratory testing.
Too many immigrants who have these skills — or could quickly acquire them — are driving cars, cleaning homes and working retail.
We need to ensure that newcomers who aspire to work in healthcare and other licensed professions have the skills to match Canadian standards, but also to ensure that the costs of meeting those standards are not needlessly high.
If newcomers don’t attain Canadian credentials, their prospects are bleak.
The average educated immigrant (with a bachelor’s degree or higher), in his or her first three years in Canada, earns $32,000, half what a Canadian-born with similar educational attainment earns. The pay gap for skilled immigrants persists for as long as 25 years after immigration.
Why? Because the process and costs of relicensing in Canada are often overwhelming. In Ashraf’s case, the four exams he would require would take years to complete and cost at least $45,000. Ashraf, and so many like him, cannot save the money required while feeding their families on a low income. It would also be impossible for them to borrow from a bank.
How can Canada put the good skills and talents of new immigrants, like Ashraf, to work – both for their families and for the country?
Our charitable organization offers one solution. Windmill Microlending provides low-interest loans and coaching to help immigrants get the credentials they need to restart their careers in Canada. To date, we have provided 5987 loans and help new immigrants get the jobs they want and have trained for.
On average, our clients more than triple their incomes when they transition to full employment. That’s good news for immigrants and their children, for government tax revenues, and for all of us who worry about Canada’s shortage of doctors, nurses and other skilled professionals.
It’s high time that Canada’s public, private and nonprofit sectors work together on more innovative solutions to speed up the integration of newcomer professionals. It is in everyone’s interests.
Photo courtesy of iStock
