A “smug Canadian superiority complex” that is quick to dismiss immigrants’ ideas and experience as “not the way we do things” is among the contributors to the underutilization of immigrant talent in this country, says a new report.
That mindset stemming from “Canadian complacency” prevents employers from hiring and integrating newcomers, and hinders promotions and retention of immigrant talents, according to business, government and civil society leaders who participated in the survey by Deloitte Canada and the Institute for Canadian Citizenship.
“Immigrant talent not only alleviates workforce shortages, but also delivers significant competitive advantages in domestic and global markets,” said the report, titled “Talent to win,” that was released on Tuesday.
“Yet building globally diverse teams is difficult; policies, tools, training, recruitment practices, internal support systems and company culture must all be upgraded before the benefits can be realized.”
Between May 2023 and June 2024, researchers held a series of meetings with more than 40 leaders under “Chatham House Rules,” allowing participants to candidly discuss and capture their experiences, concerns and perspectives relating to hiring and retaining immigrants, without the names of the speakers being publicized.
The participants came from all regions and diverse sectors, including financial services, energy, mining, technology, higher education, public service and not-for-profit, among others. Their organizations ranged from having 25 staff to nearly 100,000 employees.
The corporate sector participants attributed widespread challenges to recognizing and integrating immigrant talent to a broader “culture of non-ambition” in Canada’s workplaces.
One executive said immigrants’ tendency to work harder and longer than Canadian-born workers can prove controversial and can even be discouraged, citing the need to promote work-life balance. Others observed that managers can get offended by immigrants, who suggest opportunities for improvement, especially if they come from what’s perceived as a less developed country than Canada.
“We know we’re not as innovative as we need to be — not even close,” one senior participant from Atlantic Canada with extensive private and public sector experience told researchers. “I think Canada is being left in the dust. We haven’t decided that we want to be ambitious.”
Participants in the study said a general “dearth of onboarding and in-job training” also disproportionately affects immigrants, who tend to have greater need for a clear and structured initiation into Canadian professional culture and straightforward instruction.
Despite the push for diversity, equity and inclusion hiring, another senior HR leader said immigrants slip through the cracks because priorities are given to gender identity, sexual orientation and racialized groups while country of origin or immigration background are not commonly considered.
Suspecting that newcomers faced disadvantages in the hiring process, this HR employee at a financial services firm began collecting data. Despite the visual diversity of its workforce, the company found new immigrants were under-represented. Although newcomers make up 25 per cent of the population, they represented just 20 per cent of job applicants and only six per cent of hires.
Some participants also viewed hiring immigrants as a proxy for global recruitment and turned to hiring temporary foreign workers, excluding those immigrants with permanent resident status, who are already in the country but may have had a tough time finding jobs fitting their skills and backgrounds.
In light of the challenges identified in the survey, researchers have compiled an employer playbook to help business recruit and retain immigrant talent, arguing for better data collection on immigration backgrounds in equity hiring practices and the creation of a culture that recognizes immigrants as assets.
It also cited examples of employers who thought creatively to capitalize on immigrant skills, including a construction firm that put together crews according to language, such as Hindi or Ukrainian, which resulted in improved safety and higher productivity.
Another natural resources company in Western Canada removed the requirement of winter driving experience in hiring heavy equipment operators and later found immigrants who were new to snow driving actually drove more carefully and had fewer accidents.
“While racism and discrimination will not vanish, employers participating in this research have shown that many of the key challenges to immigrant labour force integration are indeed soluble,” said the report. “Sometimes it takes only minor adjustments to hiring methods or mentality.”
