04 / 04 / 2008 - Vol. 8, No. 7 - Calgary/Red Deer Edition

Credential-granting bodies urged to open doors to talented immigrant workers

Open your doors wider to immigrants with legitimate foreign credentials or risk losing your independence.

That?s the message some experts working with foreign-trained professionals would like to see directed at Alberta?s credential-granting bodies for doctors, engineers and other designations.

?Some self-governing professions have erected barriers that are hard to justify and are really protectionist,? says immigration lawyer Michael Greene. ?These barriers need to come down.?

Because provincial statutes give these professional associations the ability to accept only those they consider qualified, Green says the government could put more pressure on them to change their ways.

But Ron Kustra, a spokesman for the Alberta Medical Association says ?it is absolutely not true? the medical profession restricts foreign-trained doctors. ?We know we need more doctors,? he says.

The Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons, the accrediting body for doctors, is currently part of a national taskforce developing a standardized approach to the assessment and licensing of international medical graduates.

But, says college spokeswoman Kelly Eby, ?our role is to ensure that people who practise medicine have similar experience to people who train here, so they are familiar with the types of facilities and complexities they will deal with here.?

The heat on the provincial organizations is just one aspect of a broad campaign to reverse what the Conference Board of Canada has called a ?growing learning-recognition gap? that has led to huge numbers of immigrants arriving with top-notch academic and training credentials and ending up driving taxis and cleaning offices.

The board estimates 83,000 Canadians have skills, education and experience that have not been recognized by credential-granting bodies or employers because they were earned outside Canada or in non-traditional ways.

The annual cost to the Canadian economy ranges between $4.1 billion and $5.9 billion, the board says. A recent lawsuit in Edmonton against the federal government by a British-trained accountant and his bookkeeper wife, alleging they were misled by Canadian immigration officials assuring them they?d have no trouble finding professional jobs here, has brought to the boil a credential controversy that has simmered for years.

Selladurai Premakumaran and his wife Nesamalar are seeking $225,000, saying they?ve been forced to clean toilets, shovel snow and borrow money from their 15-year-old in order to pay the bills.

They also are claiming mental agony, financial loss, and a host of health problems as a result of their distress and inability to find professional work.

Alberta Learning, responsible for provincial immigration issues, prefers to stay out of the fray. Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) is working with the credentials issue, says spokeswoman Josepha Vanderstoop.

In the meantime, the department is promoting its own International Qualification Assessment Service (IQAS), which helps new immigrants by assessing their credentials and training, and comparing them with equivalents in Alberta.

?This helps them decide whether they have to upgrade their education and what they have to do to meet the requirements of professional bodies,? Vanderstoop says, noting the number of assessments has been growing at 30 per cent a year.

However, the IQAS website contains this warning: Its assessments ?are advisory only and do not limit a professional association or educational institution from making its own determination.?

One of the other professional bodies in the spotlight, the Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists and Geophysicists of Alberta (APEGGA), says it has the highest standards of any other association in Canada.

?You want engineers building bridges who are good, qualified engineers,? says APEGGA registration supervisor Karrie Kitt. No one may practise engineering in Alberta unless they are registered with the association.

?It?s not that people are not being accepted. That?s what everyone keeps misinterpreting,? says Kitt.

?It means they have to meet APEGGA standards.?

In other words, applicants are told what academic upgrading they need in order to qualify.

She also says APEGGA does not accept IQAS assessments.

A study by University of Calgary professor David Watt of participants in Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) programs in Calgary shows two-thirds of them have professional backgrounds.

Of those employed, 75 per cent are in menial jobs. The largest category is engineers at 22 per cent.

Limited English is obviously among the variables making it difficult for immigrants to participate more in the domestic economy, says Salim Sindhu, executive director of the Calgary Immigrant Educational Society (CIES).

But there?s a danger, he adds, that professional bodies can also become territorial, exclusive clubs.

They may say they?re worried about declining standards, but ?these are not witch doctors coming from the jungle, they?re from civilized countries,? Sindhu says.

As a result of their non-acceptance here, many well-qualified immigrants end up ?depressed, disappointed, and their dreams of a successful career in Canada shattered,? Sindhu says.

At the same time, Sindhu feels heartened by CIC efforts to bring together other federal departments, provincial governments, the licensing bodies, immigrant aid groups and the private sector to tackle the credential tussle.

CIC, meanwhile, rejects criticism from Sindhu and others that immigration officers abroad may have misled immigration applicants about their prospects in Canada.

?We give clients a lot of warning that finding work in Canada requires planning,? says CIC spokeswoman Maria Udinari.

?It?s really up to that person to do their homework.?

Aside from the onus on individual immigrants, Udinari says awareness needs to be raised among employers of the potential economic benefits from hiring well-qualified immigrants. Recent Statistics Canada figures show that 15 per cent of so-called ?economic class? immigrants have professional or trade certificates.

Of those of working age, 58 per cent have post-secondary qualifications.

?We?re committed to developing a national approach to the assessment and recognition of foreign credentials,? says Udinari.

?Our role is ensuring immigrants are able to utilize their skills ? it?s in the best interests of the immigrants and the Canadian economy.?

She adds: ?But, we are not alone. There?s more than one player here.?

The Calgary Chamber of Commerce has got the message. Its recently introduced Talent Pool program, designed to raise the profile among employers of under-employed people, is aimed largely at immigrants.

The local chamber is also part of a national chamber initiative urging the federal government, among other goals, to work with professional organizations to develop more flexible approaches for recognizing credentials and experience while maintaining Canadian standards.

?There is an opportunity for them (the professional bodies) to gain a greater understanding . . . there?s room for all the players involved to get better,? says chamber spokeswoman Sheri Hofstetter.

Immigration lawyer Greene, meanwhile, hopes a recent Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between CIC and Alberta Learning to attract more foreign students and then let them work here for a period will, at least indirectly, help the credential issue.

The MOU shortens the application time for foreign students wishing to study in Alberta and allows for two-year work agreements for foreign students graduating from Alberta public colleges and universities.

?The more diversified we become (through programs like these), the more acceptance there will be of people from other countries,? Greene says.

By Andy Marshall - Business Edge
Published: 01/08/2004 - Vol. 4, No. 1
copyright 2004 Business Edge