Ontario’s Handling of Foreign Trained Professionals Rapped

It is official, once again. Professionals who migrate to Canada have a tough time getting jobs appropriate to their qualifications and experience

Ontario Fairness Commissioner’s Report On Foreign Trained Professionals

This is the conclusion of a new report issued by Ontario’s Fairness Commissioner. The Commissioner’s office is an independent agency, and studied extensively the challenges faced by immigrants from 37 professions, ranging from doctors, engineers, accountants and lawyers to chiropractors and even foresters.

The study was conducted between April and August of last year, and close to 2,800 professionals in Canada since 2000 participated.

The report says that there is a fundamental contradiction between the positions taken by the various levels of Canadian government (federal and provincial) and the licensing bodies that regulate the professions. For example, a medical professional can get extra points based on the profession, and can be approved to migrate to Canada based on the need for such professionals in Canada, but once he or she is here, the challenges in settling down in the profession are huge.

The report also points to a host of issues – from the cost and time needed to get licensed to appeal processes – that pose serious challenges to immigrants.

The time taken for foreign-trained professionals to get licensed, if they do get licensed at all, is evident – for example, the time taken to complete the licensing process is 2.5 years for a locally trained professional while it is four months longer for an internationally trained professional (ITP). But the difference is glaring when all the requirements have been met and only the licensing process needs to be completed – one year for a locally trained professional and 2.5 years for a foreign trained professional.

The different layers of governments as well as companies have been blamed for the sorry plight of the ITPs. But of late, many settlement agencies, and even government officials, have pointed the finger at professional bodies that regulate the respective professions as being too cumbersome. Often, there have also been complaints of these bodies acting intentionally to create hurdles for foreign trained professionals to practise.

But to be fair, these bodies have been cooperating ever more closely with government and other agencies to help immigrants.

In 2009, Canada received just under 247,000 immigrants, as compared to 190,000 ten years ago, and of them almost two-thirds came through business class, self-sponsorship, caregiver and other professional categories.