Devaluation of foreign credentials as perceived by visible minority professional immigrants

ID:	HARP-175
Title:	Devaluation of foreign credentials as perceived by visible minority professional immigrants
Source:	Canadian Ethnic Studies , v.30(3) 1998Canadian Immigration pg 7-23
Parties:
Dispute Resolution Organ:
Year:	1998
Pages:	0
Author(s):
Keywords:	Canada, discrimination, economic, social, and cultural rights, employment, human rights, institutions, ethnic minorities, civil and political rights, immigration, minority rights
Abstract:	Visible minority immigrants with professional qualifications trained outside of Canada often encounter barriers in the Canadian labour force. Sometimes, such barriers are described as immigrants lacking Canadian experience and linguistic abilities needed for Canadian jobs. Other times, barriers are depicted as institutions failing to recognize credentials of foreign-trained professionals, and professional organizations acting as gate-keepers to disadvantage professional immigrants. Based on survey data collected in Vancouver, B.C., this paper examines these barriers and analyzes how foreign credentials are devalued in the eyes of foreign-trained Indo- and Chinese-Canadian professionals. The findings indicate that a large number of foreign-trained visible minority professional immigrants have experienced downward social mobility after immigrating to Canada, and that the significant human capital brought in by immigrants has been underutilized. The paper also demonstrates that foreign-trained visible minority professional immigrants perceived institutionalized barriers such as nonrecognition or devaluation of credentials as major factors that contribute to their occupational disadvantages. The paper suggests that in order for Canada to fully benefit from international human capital transfer, a policy is needed to ensure that the credentials of foreign-trained professional immigrants are properly and fairly evaluated.
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