The Challenges and Opportunities for Immigrant Labour in Canada - Essay Example

1). Foreign workers who come to Canada get opportunities to earn more than what they earn in their own countries. They can fulfill their basic needs and raise the living standards of their families. They can use their farm skills and enhance them. They get opportunity of going abroad. They can afford higher education for their children back home guaranteeing better employment. (WPIRG 8). The Canada government needs to reformulate the immigration policy. It is facing huge shortage of manpower especially in the oilsands areas.

In Ottawa, the immigration department has been going quite slow in processing work applications, particularly of construction workers. Alberta has been severally affected by shortage of skilled workers to help the state in linking oilsands with far-away aboriginal communities to fill the vacuum (Francis, “Immigration Policy Needs a Revamp,” par. 4). Immigrant labor faces challenges on unmet demands over immigrants’ right to employment insurance. The farm workers have not been awarded the right to claim employment insurance although they have been contributing in employment insurance fund program. . 2).

Another challenge to farm labor concerns fair and dignified treatment at the hands of employers and the government. There is no legislative support to meet the required labor parameters such as covering them under Ontario’s Employment Standards Act, reasonable accommodation, right to be united through unions, and right to economic and social mobility in Canada (Encalada, “Our Main Demands,” par. 3). Another challenge to farm workers is related to working in bondage-like situations; they are not given the opportunity to present their side of the story when they complain of poor work and living conditions.

They are repatriated back before time at their own expenses without given a chance to appeal as there is no such process of fair trial of resolving their complaints (Encalada, “Our Main Demands,” par. 4). Immigrants face challenges in job finding processes. Some of the critical obstacles to immigrant workers include lack of country experience, problem in shifting of foreign credentials, and ignorance of official language skills. Immigrants’ unemployment rate when they enter Canada is higher until they are absorbed in the job market.

This delay in absorbing them where they are acutely required is because of unsystematic working by the immigration department, not processing job applications well in-time. Immigrants face challenges related to transition because of prolonged under-utilization of unskilled and skilled workers. According to the 2001 Census, the unemployment rate of immigrants residing in Canada for nearly 5 months has been around 30 percent. The immigrants residing for the last 5 years in Canada have a greater unemployment rate than Canada’s