How Do Organizations and Social Policies ‘Acculturate’ to Immigrants? Accommodating Skilled Immigrants in Canada (original) (raw)
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International Journal of Social Science Studies, 2014
Canada prides itself on a reputation of being a welcoming and inclusive country, promoting a collective pride in upholding a multicultural mosaic wherein a rich diversity of ethnicities, cultures and religions co-exist. A priority of the Canadian federal government is the attraction and retention of skilled foreign workers into the labour market, and social workers have been targeted for this government initiative. Alluring though this ideal picture may be, the experiences of forty-four migrant social workers who undertook their social work education outside Canada and currently practice social work in Canada suggest significant barriers on the levels of policy, organizational context and socio-cultural dynamics. On the level of policy, participants navigated processes for immigration, recognition of foreign credentials, and licensure with the provincial regulatory body. On the level of organizational context, participants faced a range of challenges in securing social work employment. On the level of socio-cultural dynamics, participants detail the many interactive subtleties experienced as they sought to "fit in" in order to connect with their new colleagues and communities. Analysis draws on the concepts of institutional and embodied cultural capital as the means though which social status is differentially available for these migrant social workers, based on the ascribed value of their citizenship characteristics, educational preparation, and practice experience. These forms of capital facilitate mobility by enabling access to opportunities and the tools to acquire status and entry to a particular class, that of the social work practitioner in Canada.
Acculturation in Multiple Host Community Settings
This article provides an overview of immigrant/host majority relations from an intergroup perspective using the interactive acculturation model. Whereas previous research assumed that immigrants must adapt to a single dominant host majority, receiving societies are often made up of host communities whose ethnic and linguistic backgrounds vary, thus offering immigrants the option of adapting to one or more host communities. Two such settings are examined in North America: bilingual Montreal made up of French-and English-speaking host communities; and bilingual Los Angeles with its English-speaking European and African American host communities and its Spanish-and Asian-speaking immigrant communities. The Montreal and Los Angeles studies highlight how integration policies adopted at the national and institutional levels are related to the acculturation orientations endorsed by contrasting immigrant and host community undergraduates living in multilingual and multicultural settings.
Immigrant Perceptions of Integration in the Canadian Workplace
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion,, 2020
There is a wide body of research documenting systemic barriers facing immigrants' economic integration into their host society; yet, this work pays little attention to immigrants' everyday experiences and perceptions of workplace integration. Such an approach can help identify the subtle and complex ways discrimination and social and institutional norms get in the way of their integration. Design/methodology/approach: For this study, 25 first-generation immigrants participated in semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions. These immigrants were employed at a medium to large sized companies in London, Kitchener-Waterloo, or Toronto. Findings and Originality: This study makes four important contributions to the field. First, it examines the mediating role of cultural capital and cultural judgments in labour market and workplace integration of immigrants. Seeing labour market, specifically the workplace, as a space where cultural capital is reproduced and negotiated, the study provides empirical data for the role of cultural judgements in labour market segmentation and immigrant inclusion or exclusion in the workplace. Second, it extends literature with a holistic approach to immigrant perspectives and perceptions of work experiences. Third, it provides empirical data that the Canadian multiculturalist ideal is distinct from reality in the context of work and workplace. Finally, this analysis may motivate employers to comprehend challenges perceived by immigrants and develop company level strategies to overcome barriers, such as incorporating intercultural competency trainings to diminish the effect of cultural judgments and promote social integration. Practical implications: The authors make three recommendations directed at medium to largesized businesses.
Journal of International Migration and Integration, 2015
The present study uses in-depth interviews with Latin American immigrants residing in Southwestern Ontario to explore how the immigrants interpret their experiences with employment and, more specifically, how the employment experiences influence their perceived integration into the receiving communities. My research findings suggest that skilled immigrants (especially those professionals selected through Canada's point system) arrive in Southwestern Ontario fully intending to integrate, but their inability to find suitable employment hinders close interaction with the receiving communities. Family and humanitarian class immigrants, who tend to be less skilled, give little thought to acculturation prior to migration. Once in Canada, they evaluate the receiving communities as satisfying their basic employment needs, and as a result, they interact slightly more with the receiving communities' norms, values and people. Differences between the two immigrant groups notwithstanding, my data show little evidence of frequent and intense interactions between the Latin American immigrants and Canadian-born members of the receiving society. The research participants appear to relate to the receiving society on an as-needed basis; none appear to be aggressively searching for and absorbing new things and meeting new people. Interestingly, there is also little evidence of the Latin American immigrants relating to each other.