Samsonenko, who moved to Canada last May after fleeing the war in Ukraine, knew two decades of work experience in the field wouldn’t be relevant in Canada.
But he managed to find work in the same industry within a month of arriving in Canada.
“I’m glad to be here in Canada (and) do my favourite work,” said Samsonenko, who has been working as an estimator for a British Columbia-based construction company.
He said it wasn’t hard finding a job in his preferred industry but it will be a while before he becomes a professional civil engineer in Canada — requiring him to write a series of tests and continue gaining experience.
2:03 Disinformation is clouding Canadians’ views of Ukraine war: PMO
Samsonenko’s situation isn’t unique. People working in immigration say newcomers often struggle to land meaningful jobs that are in line with their qualifications or previous work experience.
“It boils down to the lack of Canadian experience (for many employers),” said Darrel Pinto, employment director at Jumpstart Refugee Talent, a refugee-led non-profit organization helping newcomers find relevant jobs.
Newcomers often feel they get screened out of opportunities, he said. The lack of soft skills and cultural integration are among the biggest problems when it comes to employers accepting newcomers into professions, he added.
The equivalency of education credentials is another barrier that employers need help understanding.
Pinto said employers fail to recognize that some foreign universities “far exceed the quality of graduates than our own Canadian universities.”
“Many newcomers tell me that the United States is far more open and welcoming to their differences compared to the Canadian marketplace, which is a little bit more closed,” he said.
Viktoriia Kulakovska moved to New Brunswick last August after fleeing the war that reached her hometown in Odesa, about 475 kilometres south of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
Kulakovska and her husband, both qualified as lawyers, were running their legal firm in Ukraine. Soon enough, she found out her law degree was not recognized in Canada. Instead, she landed a finance job through networking.
She said her husband has been going to English classes in Fredericton and is also preparing for a career shift. He is considering becoming a taxi or truck driver.
She said she sees a lot of opportunities to try new things in Canada, but obtaining another law degree might not be feasible for her and her husband.
And that is the case for many immigrants to Canada.
A report this week from the Royal Bank of Canada indicates that despite immigrants being younger and better educated, they have a harder time than Canadians finding jobs that match their qualifications.
9:52 The ‘Iron People’: How Ukraine’s rail workers are keeping the country on track
However, Pinto said the experience of Ukrainians coming to Canada after the Russian invasion last year is different from other waves of refugees.
The government responded innovatively to the crisis in eastern Europe, said Pinto.
“That made it a softer landing for them when they arrived in Canada.”
Faster timelines to process open work permits under a special program, faster resettlement services and increased assistance in landing jobs in the community worked well for the Ukrainian newcomers, which he said could also become a template for future newcomers from other countries.
Patrick MacKenzie, CEO of the non-profit Immigration Employment Council of B.C., agreed.
MacKenzie recalled a recent case when a Ukrainian landed a job at a Vancouver bakery before even coming to Canada. “He just needs to get here now.”
“Ukrainians are being welcomed into the workplace, and employers are finding that they’re contributing really quickly,” he said, adding the higher level of Canadians’ awareness about the war in Ukraine could also play a role.
“I hope employers will take that lesson and apply it more broadly to all newcomers to Canada so that we can make headway on the underemployment that we see so many immigrants face,” he said.
Since March 2022, the Canadian government has received more than 860,000 applications from Ukraine, and close to 170,000 Ukrainians have arrived in Canada, the government site shows.
But language continues to be the biggest barrier, particularly for professional jobs, said Kael Campbell of Victoria, B.C.-based Red Seal Recruitment Solutions.
Some recruiters, however, are starting to challenge the Canadian experience narrative, he said.
“There’s either work experience or there’s not,” Campbell said.
With the latest Ukrainian wave, Campbell said recruiters are working to educate Canadian employers about the opportunity the newcomers are bringing to the table.
“(We’re) encouraging employers to be open to hiring Ukrainians and to sharing the knowledge that they have.”
This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
