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ABSTRACT/RESUME
Visible minority immigrants with professional qualifications trained outside of Canada often encounter barriers in the Canadian labour force. Sometimes, such barriers are described as immigrants lacking Canadian experience and linguistic abilities needed for Canadian jobs. Other times, barriers are depicted as institutions failing to recognize credentials of foreign-trained professionals, and professional organizations acting as gate-keepers to disadvantage professional immigrants. Based on survey data collected in Vancouver, B.C., this paper examines these barriers and analyzes how foreign credentials are devalued in the eyes of foreign-trained Indo- and Chinese-Canadian professionals. The findings indicate that a large number of foreign-trained visible minority professional immigrants have experienced downward social mobility after immigrating to Canada, and that the significant human capital brought in by immigrants has been underutilized. The paper also demonstrates that foreign-trained visible minority professional immigrants perceived institutionalized barriers such as nonrecognition or devaluation of credentials as major factors that contribute to their occupational disadvantages. The paper suggests that in order for Canada to fully benefit from international human capital transfer, a policy is needed to ensure that the credentials of foreign-trained professional immigrants are properly and fairly evaluated.
Les immigrants de minorite visible possedant des competences professionnelles et une formation acquise hors du Canada rencontrent souvent des obstacles dans la population active canadienne. Parfois, ces obstacles sont decrits comme etant des immigrants n'ayant pas l'experience canadienne et les capacites linguistiques necessaires pour les emplois canadiens. D'autres fois, ils sont decrits comme etant des institutions ne reconnaissant pas les titres de competence des professionnels formes a l'etranger, et des organismes professionnels agissant comme protecteurs dans le but de desavantager les immigrants professionnels. D'apres les donnees recueillies a Vancouver (C.-B.), la communication examine ces obstacles et analyse comment les titres de competence etrangers sont devalues aux yeux des professionnels indo-canadiens et chinois-canadiens formes a l'etranger. Les conclusions indiquent qu'un grand nombre d'immigrants professionnels de minorite visible formes a l'etranger ont connu une mobilite sociale a la baisse apres avoir immigre au Canada, et que les ressources humaines importantes apportees par les immigrants ont ete sous-utilisees. Cette communication fait aussi ressortir que les immigrants de minorite visible formes a l'etranger percoivent les obstacles institutionnalises, tels que la non-reconnaissance ou la devaluation des titres de competence, comme des facteurs importants...