Educated immigrants want work (The Chronicle, Montreal, April 19, 2006)
Educated immigrants want work
BY MARC LALONDE
The Chronicle
A local community group mandated by the government to help immigrants settle in the area will hold a unique job fair tomorrow in Dollard des Ormeaux.
The Centre de Intégration Multi-services de l’Ouest de l’Ile (CIMOI) will hold a job fair with a twist; rather than having individuals come to meet companies, as is often the case at job fairs, the companies will be invited to come meet with engineering or administration candidates — immigrants with education who have found employment doors closed to them because of barriers that weren’t of their own making — such as language, culture and basically, not knowing where to begin — but that have to be hurdled nonetheless.
“It’s important for sure,” said CIMOI employment co-ordinator Nathalie Humbert. “We are the first contact for many immigrants when they come to Canada — and the biggest problem they’ve been having is trying to get their foot in the door and get that first interview. That’s what they’ll be doing (tomorrow),” she said.
That job fair, which was moved from its original location at the Pierrefonds Cultural Centre because demand was too plentiful, will bring educated immigrants and companies together to help the immigrants get their start in their field of interest.
“About half of the 36 candidates we have registered have been through the job-search workshops we hold at CIMOI, where we also did five-minute simulated interviews,” Humbert said, adding some immigrants are harder off then others because of unstable political regimes in their home countries.
“It all depends. The people that have the biggest problems are the political refugees. Often, they don’t have the necessary papers to start working in Canada because they had to leave in a big hurry. It can be a relatively simple thing to get the papers and do equivalency tests if they have all the papers, but if they don’t, that’s when it’s harder to deal with,” she said.
Chilean native Sindy Caro-Rilling, who emigrated to Canada in 2001 with her husband and four children, said she’s very much looking forward to the job fair and the opportunity to impress prospective employers with her knowledge of administration.
“It’s a very big opportunity. The employers that have been brought in know we’re all immigrants and we can show them the quality of our work. This is the opportunity I have been looking for since we moved here,” she said.
Caro-Rilling, who said life was “very hard,” on the couple when they moved to Canada because of the language barriers — “First, it’s French, and then you realize that you also have to know English as well,” — also said looking for a job in Canada was a skill they had not yet acquired.
“I obtained a professional studies diploma to go along with my education from Chile, but we discovered that it’s important to know how to look for a job as well. Plus, as an immigrant, the accent is there, so that makes it harder for people to identify with you and makes it harder to find a job,” she said.
For more information on the job fair for immigrants with backgrounds in engineering or administration, call 685-3000 ext. 223.
BY MARC LALONDE
The Chronicle
A local community group mandated by the government to help immigrants settle in the area will hold a unique job fair tomorrow in Dollard des Ormeaux.
The Centre de Intégration Multi-services de l’Ouest de l’Ile (CIMOI) will hold a job fair with a twist; rather than having individuals come to meet companies, as is often the case at job fairs, the companies will be invited to come meet with engineering or administration candidates — immigrants with education who have found employment doors closed to them because of barriers that weren’t of their own making — such as language, culture and basically, not knowing where to begin — but that have to be hurdled nonetheless.
“It’s important for sure,” said CIMOI employment co-ordinator Nathalie Humbert. “We are the first contact for many immigrants when they come to Canada — and the biggest problem they’ve been having is trying to get their foot in the door and get that first interview. That’s what they’ll be doing (tomorrow),” she said.
That job fair, which was moved from its original location at the Pierrefonds Cultural Centre because demand was too plentiful, will bring educated immigrants and companies together to help the immigrants get their start in their field of interest.
“About half of the 36 candidates we have registered have been through the job-search workshops we hold at CIMOI, where we also did five-minute simulated interviews,” Humbert said, adding some immigrants are harder off then others because of unstable political regimes in their home countries.
“It all depends. The people that have the biggest problems are the political refugees. Often, they don’t have the necessary papers to start working in Canada because they had to leave in a big hurry. It can be a relatively simple thing to get the papers and do equivalency tests if they have all the papers, but if they don’t, that’s when it’s harder to deal with,” she said.
Chilean native Sindy Caro-Rilling, who emigrated to Canada in 2001 with her husband and four children, said she’s very much looking forward to the job fair and the opportunity to impress prospective employers with her knowledge of administration.
“It’s a very big opportunity. The employers that have been brought in know we’re all immigrants and we can show them the quality of our work. This is the opportunity I have been looking for since we moved here,” she said.
Caro-Rilling, who said life was “very hard,” on the couple when they moved to Canada because of the language barriers — “First, it’s French, and then you realize that you also have to know English as well,” — also said looking for a job in Canada was a skill they had not yet acquired.
“I obtained a professional studies diploma to go along with my education from Chile, but we discovered that it’s important to know how to look for a job as well. Plus, as an immigrant, the accent is there, so that makes it harder for people to identify with you and makes it harder to find a job,” she said.
For more information on the job fair for immigrants with backgrounds in engineering or administration, call 685-3000 ext. 223.
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