Why aren't more businesses hiring immigrants?

[SpongeG]

Why aren't more businesses hiring immigrants?

This talent pool can bring unique benefits

BY RICK SPENCE, FINANCIAL POST AUGUST 10, 2010


Here's a paradox: Business owners constantly complain about scarcity of talent to work in trades or semi-skilled jobs, or the difficulty of finding motivated people willing to work in lower-wage service positions. Yet these same owners often overlook a motherlode of talent right under their noses.

A survey by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business shows 78% of small business owners reported not hiring any recent immigrants between 2003 and 2006.

It's a shocking oversight. Canada was founded on the sweat and skills of immigrants, from the Scottish engineers and Chinese workers who built the Canadian Pacific Railway to masterful high-tech wizards such as Mitel founders Terry Matthews and Michael Cowpland, RIM's Mike Lazaridis and Kwok Yeun Ho of ATI Technologies.

Why aren't more entrepreneurs hiring immigrants? How can companies tap this waiting talent pool? For the answers, I talked to Indian-born Deepak Chopra, president of Pitney Bowes Canada, the venerable postal-meter company that has recently made an art of tapping immigrant labour pools to meet its own talent needs.

Pitney Bowes has been benefiting from diversity since the Second World War, when labour was scarce and it tapped ethnic communities to run its production facility in Stamford, Conn. Within a few years, Chopra says, there were 25 languages being spoken on the factory floor. Bilingual workers were used as translators to communicate with workers who couldn't speak English.

"That really got us into the position where we became comfortable with people who don't look like us or talk like us," Chopra says. The company started offering after-hours language lessons and encouraged opportunities for staff to share their customs and foods.

Pitney Bowes remains adamant about breaking down cultural barriers and creating a level playing field for all nationalities, Chopra says. It's the best way to tap all the talent you're paying for, especially at the highest levels. "In the boardroom," Chopra says, "diverse talent tends to hold back."

Chopra understands why employers might be wary of hiring newcomers. Training and integrating new people is hard enough without paying for language lessons, too. But he contends Canada's skilled workforce will be increasingly composed of immigrants, and entrepreneurs should aim to become employers of choice for new Canadians.

Leveraging immigrants' skills would also help companies tap fast-growing consumer markets, such as the Chinese populations in cities like Richmond Hill, Ont., and Burnaby, B.C., Chopra says. Family businesses, especially, would benefit from hiring skilled newcomers to complement the family's skill set and help them identify and serve new markets, he adds.

To leverage the skills and contacts of immigrants, Pitney Bowes uses a "Talent and Inclusion" plan that tracks its success in hiring, retaining and developing diverse talent. All managers, including Chopra, are in part compensated on success in this area.

Chopra offers another Pitney Bowes initiative as a model for small businesses wanting to woo immigrant talent: get involved with local organizations that work with recent arrivals. Forty members of his senior staff are mentoring new immigrants (in Canada for two years or less) through the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council.

He says immigrants today

are better prepared than in past years, because of the online preparation. Still, they often need help understanding the subtleties of business communication, finding a job, and learning how to ace an interview. While mentoring helps connect with immigrant communities it is also a great way to develop executive talent.

To help more businesses benefit from Canada's cultural diversity, Chopra recommends three other tactics:

...

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/business...#ixzz0wFOzDKvj

[1ajs]

because many of them loose their certification when they move here inless they want to go back to school

[caltrane74]

bad economy, buggers probably couldnt get a job to save their lives.

[SpongeG]

but why tell them they can get jobs?

I knew a guy who moved here from Italy a few years ago and he got here and was told - you have no Canadian Experience come back in a few years so how does he get that experience?

I have attended a few employment things and there are a lot of skilled immigrants who all came thinking they would get a job only to say and face the same problem - you have no canadian experience blah blah blah and end up in a different field all together and disenchanted - these are people giving up decent careers in their home country - like teachers, engineers etc. forced to work low paying jobs - I don't know how it is elsewhere but in BC particular Vancouver most jobs pay crap wages like $8.50 an hour and thats for all sorts of things from care aides to graphic designers

[WhipperSnapper]

I have a hard time believing 78%. I know I likely wouldn't be hired nowadays for the menial construction jobs that paid for school since I don't know a word of Spanish.

[bulliver]

Better question, why won't any of them hire me! Sadly, being a part-time SSP construction site photographer doesn't pay very well

[someone123]

A survey by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business shows 78% of small business owners reported not hiring any recent immigrants between 2003 and 2006.

This is the only hard premise for the article and it's not a meaningful statistic without more information. How much overall hiring was there? What percentage of Canadians are immigrants? Most people in Canada are not immigrants and many small businesses did not hire anybody between 2003 and 2006.

[bob1954]

They're saying they would hire immigrants over native Canadians? Same thing going on in US.

[vid]

Businesses here don't hire aboriginals because "you can't trust them" or "they're drunks and drug users" or "they're not clean" or "they have no education" or "they don't have the proper skills" or "we're not hiring right now" (though ask ten minutes later with your white skin on and they'll gladly accept a resume), or "we already employ enough aboriginal people, we are looking for white people to balance it out" (you know, equal opportunity and all that ).

There are probably more that I haven't seen or heard. Younger people are more clever, phrases like "you can't trust Indians" are pretty much exclusive to employers over 50.

"Why won't aboriginal people just get a job?!" says the man who won't hire aboriginal people because they've never had jobs.

[Cambridgite]

Wait a minute...what's our unemployment rate again? I keep hearing labour shortage, but all I see is recent Canadian university grads working minimum wage jobs and being told "we're looking for someone with more experience" when they try to get jobs in their field.

[MonkeyRonin]

A survey by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business shows 78% of small business owners reported not hiring any recent immigrants between 2003 and 2006.

So if we consider recent immigrants to be those who've come to Canada since 2000, that would mean 3.5% of Canadians are recent immigrants (as of the 2006 census, so probably more like 5% now). And if 22% of small businesses have hired from within that 5% (also consider that most of the large businesses exist in metropolitan areas where immigrants live, and probably do a lot of hiring of them), then that doesn't sound too bad to me...

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by Cambridgite

Wait a minute...what's our unemployment rate again? I keep hearing labour shortage, but all I see is recent Canadian university grads working minimum wage jobs and being told "we're looking for someone with more experience" when they try to get jobs in their field.

It doesn't matter where someone is from - the best qualified person should be hired for a job, whether Canadian or from elsewhere.

The first employer I had, which I worked for for four years, hired a very large number of recent immigrants. Some of them were extremely hard working and very dedicated. Some were not. Likewise some of the Canadian-born employees were extremely hard working and were dedicated, and some were downright lazy and unmotivated.

I am a recent university graduate without full time work. We are now a global society; I accept that I am competing for jobs with non-Canadians. Some of them are more qualified than I am; I don't feel entitled to a job just because I'm Canadian and some people are not. It is my responsibility to give myself the best education and the best networking possible, and that is something am continuing to work on with additional education starting this fall to upgrade my skills.

I also know that some professions are a lot more open to foreign professionals than others. The accounting profession is one of the most open.

[bob1954]

Sounds like Canada is on the same track as the US in the "race" to the bottom for wages. Yea, that's the ticket, get the foreigners in to work for lower wages and keep the already over-priced housing even more expensive (especially in Canada)! That's a recipe for eventual dissaster!

[Spocket]

Uh ... yeah , wait a second there . The first thing that should jump out at you when reading this "statistic" is the fact that we're not all recent immigrants to Canada . %22 of small businesses did hire recent immigrants . If no more than %5 of the population is of recent immigrant stock then isn't that proof of resounding success ? Actually , the percentage of recent immigrants is probably a lot lower than %5 too but we can't say since that would require us to see the methodology employed by the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses .

Secondly , there are some very good reasons why a business might not hire a recent immigrant . For one thing , if an immigrant doesn't speak English well enough , what employer can hire him or her ? Until the English improves it's going to be jobs that don't require a lot of interaction with native speakers . That rules out service , high-tech , and white collar jobs in general .
Also there's the fact that not every immigrant to Canada comes to work . Some come to be with their families , others come as children , and still others come as refugees with no particular skill set .
Further , many times , degrees and diplomas from the home country aren't recognized in Canada . That means that a person is stuck taking whatever job comes along and since most immigrants don't know anything about the average small business , they'll gravitate towards larger companies . In other words , if they don't apply , a company can't hire them .

Lastly , this is obviously being framed as some sort of commentary on the state of discrimination in Canada . Well that's just pure nonsense . I've worked with plenty of companies that have hired recent immigrants . Often times the immigrants have outnumbered the natives . What always seems to be the case is that some companies have a strangely disproportionate number of immigrants from a single country . Why is this ? Simple : Once one is hired , he or she tells all family and friends about a place they can get work at . When he or she works out well for the company (and they pretty much always do) the company is predisposed to hiring more people referred to them by the original employee in question . So obviously if people are getting jobs at one place , they're not getting a job at another place .

Immigrants tend to stick with one employer if possible . Frankly , they tend to work harder (hey , that's just my experience) don't call in sick thanks to a hang-nail , and will do jobs that native born Canadians won't generally touch .

So basically I call bullsh!t on this "statistic" . It may be true in a purely numerical sense but if it's supposed to be some sort of commentary on the state of xenophobia in Canada then I submit to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business that they're scare-mongering .

[whatnext]

Its a tough bind. For instance in front line customer service jobs many recent immigrants we've seen don't have the English skills. So they go to work in a job that caters to other recent immigrants and as a result their English doesn't have a chance to improve.

[Distill3d]

Originally Posted by bulliver

Better question, why won't any of them hire me!

I've been asking the same question since November 2008.

[miketoronto]

The thing I don't like about these stats is that it totally leaves out that almost all Canadians are immigrants in some way.

In a place like Toronto for example, most people are either immigrants themselves or their parents were immigrants.

We all come from somewhere else for the most part.

Second, immigrants having it hard when they first move here is nothing new.

The immigrants who came here 50 years ago like my father, had to work very low wage jobs when they first got here, etc.
They did that for a couple years, then got themselves on their feet with their own trades, etc.

Yes things are a little harder now for new immigrants as we don't have good paying industrial jobs, etc. But the fact of the matter is all new immigrants throughout history have had to work hard and at low wage jobs upon first coming here.

I know this may sound hard to do. But I think more of our new immigrants need to secure jobs before coming here. I know many people who had amazing jobs back in their home countries. They quit and moved here and now are working low wage jobs.

What new immigrants should do is come here for a month vacation or something, see what kind of jobs they can get, and try to secure one. Than move here if a good job pans out.
But unless you are leaving due to war or something which most new immigrants are not. Than I would not move here without securing a job first.

This is a different age and not like in the past where you could just move here and search for good jobs after doing the low skilled ones for a couple years.

[Distill3d]

Originally Posted by miketoronto

The thing I don't like about these stats is that it totally leaves out that almost all Canadians are immigrants in some way.

In a place like Toronto for example, most people are either immigrants themselves or their parents were immigrants.

We all come from somewhere else for the most part.

Second, immigrants having it hard when they first move here is nothing new.

The immigrants who came here 50 years ago like my father, had to work very low wage jobs when they first got here, etc.
They did that for a couple years, then got themselves on their feet with their own trades, etc.

Yes things are a little harder now for new immigrants as we don't have good paying industrial jobs, etc. But the fact of the matter is all new immigrants throughout history have had to work hard and at low wage jobs upon first coming here.

I know this may sound hard to do. But I think more of our new immigrants need to secure jobs before coming here. I know many people who had amazing jobs back in their home countries. They quit and moved here and now are working low wage jobs.

What new immigrants should do is come here for a month vacation or something, see what kind of jobs they can get, and try to secure one. Than move here if a good job pans out.
But unless you are leaving due to war or something which most new immigrants are not. Than I would not move here without securing a job first.

This is a different age and not like in the past where you could just move here and search for good jobs after doing the low skilled ones for a couple years.

Hell, even for most Canadians this isn't a realistic possibility. You have to realize that most immigrants come here to provide a better life for themselves, and not every country around the world has the same labor and employment standards that Canada has. So, in all seriousness, taking a month off work is not a realistic possibility for everyone wishing to come here.

Its also very hard to secure employment from a distance. Especially when all the jobs that are available are going to be available tomorrow not next 4 Monday's from now. The only real hope of that sort of employment is the social network these immigrants have coming it. Its easier to secure work if your uncle owns a shop, than it is if you have no one here.

[Andy6]

Basically these articles are formulaic. You start off with a meaningless statistic and then use it as a hook for an article in which you cheerlead your way to a politically correct conclusion. Yaaaaaaaay Immigrants!

If we could import immigrant newspaper writers with the integrity and intelligence to use statistics in a non-innumerate, non-propagandistic way, I'd be all for that.

[kw5150]

Im sure that if I went to another country it wouldn't be easy to find a job either and I would have to do something I wasn't used to for smaller pay than I was used to. At the same time I hope we can resolve of of the hiring incosistancies that we have.