Immigrant mothers and their Career Development in Canada
When it comes to big cities such as Toronto, Vancouver as well as other cities such as Halifax, Calgary, they all have become multicultural cities consisting of many immigrants. These cities have half of their residents who were born outside of Canada and have migrated to these places from all around the world. So it’s not a surprise that a large share of the labor market needs are being fulfilled by these skilled immigrants.(Statistics Canada, 2022).
Among these skilled immigrants, the most population is men with skilled jobs while women who ended up in unemployment or underemployment despite their original qualifications and skills.
This is very tragic as many women are equipped with many skills that Canada can take advantage of for the economy. According to the studies, in 2006, 28% of men and 44% women were underemployed with minimum/law wages with high risk jobs being a proportion of 29% for immigrant women. (Galarneau & Morissette, 2009). So among the many labor market limitations for immigrants, the barriers for immigrant women are clearly visible. Studies show that one of the major factors for this labor market issue and the low income issue is due to the incapability of transferring the human capital to Canada’s expectations. This happens due to the cultural shock, language barriers, differences in educational backgrounds and discrimination.(Ferrer, Green and Riddell 2006; Goldmann, Sweetman and Warman 2011; Picot and Hou 2003). The problem gets worse when it comes to immigrant mothers as they carry huge responsibilities with them naturally. So, getting settled in Canada for the skilled immigrants takes time for these reasons.
“Settlement of immigrants is a period of adaptation between newcomers and the host society, during which the federal government provides services to newcomers.” (The Daily — Settlement Services Provided to Immigrants to Canada, 2020, 2022) Furthermore, the concept of immigrant settlement is somewhat non-practical when coming into many scenarios or may the real world is not practicing the concept deeply. The concept must adapt to realistic immigrant needs, especially the needs of the immigrant mothers. These needs were neglected for many years now resulting in a huge dilemma in their adaptation. Immigrant mothers face lots of barriers not only with changing immigration policies and settlement procedures, but also with less support of child care, difficulty in finding comfortable accommodation, lack of emotional support, unsupportive spouses, racism, gender discrimination and minimum wages due to gender gap. Even though many government procedures and strategies have been listed out for immigrant settlement, in reality, the majority of the policies are not practical enough and do not address the real world situations. There are many immigrant mothers out in the Canadian society, who are capable enough to put their skills and experiences into the betterment of the labor market, but unable to do so, due to those previously mentioned reasons.
Many immigrant mothers complain that the child care facilities are too much to bear and that they are forced by themselves or spouses to stay home and take care of the babies rather than going out for work. (Child Care in Canada: Types, Cost & Tips for Newcomers | Arrive, 2022; Luciw & Carrick, 2012) . Also many parts of the Canada, require a huge waiting list to obtain daycare facilities for the children. So many of the skilled women (not only women, but also men in certain scenarios) has taken the hard decision of staying home and take care of the babies. These skills are not only for paid jobs but also competent enough to start an own business even. This is really unfortunate that not only Canada’s labor market is losing potential workers, but also mothers themselves forget their skills and experiences.
When it comes to the majority of immigrant families where both the parents do jobs, most of the family responsibilities and children matters are being forwarded to the mother. So women have to focus on both roles and it is sometimes really difficult to handle. (Salaff & Greve, 2004, 149–162). Furthermore, while immigrants do need some Canadian certifications to re-start their careers in Canada, immigrant mothers find it difficult to cooperate and gain these professional acknowledgements with their family responsibilities. Sometimes they have to re-do their education and to gain Canadian experience in order to succeed in their career but with the bearing of family responsibilities, they are unable to complete these prerequisites. Or in certain scenarios, mothers sacrifice their highly professional careers and choose underemployment with a minimum wage and revise the career rather than gathering suitable professional qualifications and education. So in some families, this scaling back and reducing goals are being switched in between the parents. While one is sacrificing career goals, the other succeeds and they switch. This is a long term win-win situation for both husband and wife and also for the whole family. But in some families, this situation becomes permanent for the mother which makes all her career development go blank.
But with a supportive husband, wives can do more with further education. A short course in a more commercial discipline area or an English course which will sharpen up the language would do wonders in anyones’ career life in Canada. So immigrant mothers who have young children, can plan accordingly which makes them ready for the labor market.
References
Government of Canada, S. C. (2022, October 26). Immigrants make up the largest share of the population in over 150 years and continue to shape who we are as Canadians. The Daily — . Retrieved November 11, 2022, from https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/221026/dq221026a-eng.htm
Galarneau, D., & Morissette, R. (2009). Immigrants’ education and required job skills. Statistics Canada.
Goldmann, G., Sweetman, A., & Warman, C. (2011). The portability of new immigrants’ human capital: Language, education and occupational matching. IZA.
Picot, W. G., & Hou, F. (2003). The rise in low-income rates among immigrants in Canada. Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies Branch.
Ferrer, A., Riddell, W. C., & Green, D. A. (2004). The effect of literacy on immigrant earnings. Statistics Canada.
Government of Canada, S. C. (2022, June 2). Settlement services provided to immigrants to Canada, 2020. The Daily — . Retrieved November 11, 2022, from https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/220602/dq220602e-eng.htm
Child care in Canada: Types, cost & tips for newcomers. Arrive. (2022, August 12). Retrieved November 11, 2022, from https://arrivein.com/daily-life-in-canada/child-care-in-canada-types-cost-and-tips-for-newcomers/#:~:text=Child%20care%20is%20considered%20to,more%20affordable%20than%20the%20others.
Luciw, R. (2012, August 7). Should you stay at home or pay for child care? The Globe and Mail. Retrieved November 11, 2022, from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/personal-finance/household-finances/should-you-stay-at-home-or-pay-for-child-care/article4465673/
Salaff, J. W., & Greve, A. (2004). Can women’s social networks migrate?
