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Abstract
Many immigrant professionals experience devaluation and denigration of their prior learning and work experience after arriving in Canada. The roots of nonrecognition can be traced to the following. First, epistemologica! misperceptions of difference and knowledge lead to a belief that the knowledge of immigrant professionals, particularly those from Third World countries, is deficient, incompatible and inferior, hence invalid. Second, an ontological commitment to positivistic and universal measurement exacerbates the complexity of this process. The juxtaposition of the misconceptions of difference and knowledge with positivism and liberal universalism forms a new head tax to exclude the undesirable and perpetuate oppression in Canada.
Résumé
Beaucoup de professionnels immigrants voient leurs exp?riences de travail et leurs connaissances professionnelles d?valu?es et d?nigr?es lors de leur arriv?e au Canada. L'origine de la non-reconnaissance peut ?tre attribu?e aux raisons suivantes. Tout d'abord, il existe de fausses perceptions ?pist?mologiques sur la diff?rence et la connaissance conduisant ? la conviction que les connaissances des professionnels immigrants, en particulier celles des pays du tiers monde, sont d?ficientes, incompatibles et inf?rieures, et donc invalides. Deuxi?mement, un engagement ontologique au positiviste et et ? la mesure universelle accentue la complexit? de ce processus. La juxtaposition des id?es fausses de la diff?rence et de la connaissance avec le positivisme et l'universalisme lib?ral forme une nouvelle forme d'exclusion des ?ind?sirables?, perp?tuant ainsi l'oppression au Canada.
Introduction
Immigration has played an important role in transforming Canada into a diverse and prosperous nation. When immigrants come, they bring their language, culture, values, educational background, and work experience to the new society. Although Canada has been extolled as an open and tolerant society, it has been criticized for failing to accept differences as valid and valuable expressions of the human experience. One manifestation of such criticism pertains to the non-recognition of immigrants' prior credentials and work experience, which is seen as the most outstanding social policy issue today. It is only after arriving in Canada that many highly educated immigrant professionals learn of the typical deskilling or decredentializing of their previous learning and work experience. While certain forms of knowledge are legitimized as valid, the learning and work experience of foreign-trained professionals are often treated with suspicion and as inferior.
Today, this has become an issue of enormous...