Outside Canada isn't my concern... I'm in Canada, and this part of the Canada forums.

you keep saying stuff like this. I'm dying to know what other countries do, exactly, that is so much better.

You may of been a bit obtuse, I did not see what you highlighted and who does it better. Perhaps furnish some examples so we can get a better understanding of where you are coming from. That would be much more helpful to prospective immigrants.

Many do adapt very well, probably the vast majority. What you are suggesting is they lived in poverty before they came here and continue to do so, maybe so for some escaping persecution, but not those from the UK. This is not something I have noticed in the 15 years I have been here. People often take a set back or two, but get through it. Many come here and are able to live debt free. Again, perhaps some examples might help you explain your point.

No different in other countries either, such as in the UK. Why would they eat or sleep differently?

Forced to mini cab because he has a family to support and feed. I remember meeting a guy from south America, both him and his wife were professionals but have now found themselves doing cleaning jobs, because their experience and qualifications have been rubbished in Canada.

CANADA'S IMMIGRATION POLICIES
14:00 pm, canoe live / General, 156 words
Foreign-trained doctors stuck in menial jobs won't get a fast-track pass to practice medicine in Canada just yet. Immigration minister Jason Kenney says they'll have to wait until 2012 to be included in the new one-year recognition plan unveiled yesterday. Kenny says that's because doctors in this country are not co-operating with the government's efforts to speed up recognition of foreign credentials.

We were joined in studio by Guidy Mamann - an immigration lawyer with Mamann and Sandaluk and Sima Zerehi from the group Coalition for Change for Temporary Foreign and Migrant Workers.

Mamann said that this plan is a small step in the right direction, however there are a lot of changes that still need to be made.

Sandaluk said that this new program actually makes temporary and foreign workers more vulnerable and that a much better program needs to be put in place.


This practice is widespread in Canada, luring professionals over, then squashing their dreams. A lot of them have sold everything and paid a lot of money to re-locate their families to Canada, that is why they don't just pack up and leave. Can you immagine how demoralised a doctor who has spent many years training and practicing oversees feels when he ends up cleaning or mini cabbing in Canada ? Canada must have the most qualified cabbers and cleaners in the world.

I don't think it's widespread. Neither I nor anyone I know personally lures professionals (though in some cases the reverse is true). If professional people are attracted to another country then it behooves them to find out how they will be welcomed in that country. Canada's not friendly to professionals from some countries so people from those countries would do well not to develop squashable dreams about Canada.

If the doctor is that dim I have to wonder if I'd want him poking around in my innards. I wouldn't sell up and relocate to a country without knowing the demand for computing chicken keepers.

I fail to see how a supposedly intelligent, well trained professional can make such a glaring error as jumping countries without doing the due diligence of checking for themselves what is required to continue their career overseas.

I realise many doctors have HUGE egos and probably consider themselves exceptional and therfore likely to land one of the very few places available in the supervised programs, but none the less, there is no way they should be unaware of the obstacles in their way, its far from a secret.

One of my neighbours, an immigrant, is a welder by trade. He soon discovered that it was going to take him so long to qualify as a welder here, and at such a low wage, he wouldn't be able to support his family. He set up his own business instead. Ottawa residents are likely quite familiar with it.

It's one of the taxi companies. He's Lebanese. What do you expect he'd do?

One of my daughters, otoh, is dating a doctor (yet another doctor). He's here on a work permit, so not even an immigrant, and yet slicing and dicing subway jumpers and car crash victims; it is possible for a foreign national to get surgical work here.

was a Doctor in Nigeria, now a Cleaner in Canada - Nigerian abroad - Lamentations Of Other Nigerian ProfessionalsSaturday, May 30, 2009
People leave their home country with a dream of living a better life. But they tend to be oblivious of the challenges or, more realistically put, obstacles lying ahead. Not all of them get success in this endeavour. In this compilation by LAOLU AFOLABI, the travails of Nigerian professionals and other foreign nationals in Canada are brought to the fore.


http://odili.net/news/source/2009/may/30/606.html

Canada is a land of 10 million square miles. Its population is below 30 million and its rate of growth is less than 0.9 per cent. In addition, the next-door neighbour country is the United States, which offers huge job opportunities.

For all these reasons, Canada suffers from human resource deficiency throughout the year. This country attracts millions of people from around the globe, regardless of religion, belief and ideology due to its easy immigration system. Peaceful coexistence and support from government have encouraged people around the globe to migrate to Canada.

Harsh Reality

Although Canada provides warm welcome to new immigrants, the job market behaves the opposite. The country tends to favour the ‘True Canadians’ who are your next generation offspring. The new immigrants face the harsh inbuilt dichotomy of the job market as it is impossible to get a job without experience in Canada which itself, cannot be gained without a job.

Falling into this vicious cycle, the new immigrants give up their last hope of getting a good job. So many immigrants, including taxi drivers, got Ph.D but had to engage in menial jobs, as there had been no job for them.This is a fairly common phenomenon, which scares new applicants. Although this is not the very common situation, every applicant has to bear in mind that he/she has to go through a series of hardship in getting their desired jobs. Applicant has to be mentally and physically prepared for a long struggle to see him/herself in a desired position.

In Canada, services in various sectors such as engineering, medical and education are maintained by respective regulatory bodies through various acts. That is why a person who seeks a job as an engineer has to take a licence of professional engineering; medical professionals such as doctors have to take recourse of a long process for getting certified by the Medical of Canada; nurses have to undertake certified test; for accountants, CMA certificate is mandatory; for the teachers of primary and secondary levels, teachers’ certificate is required; IT specialists have to acquire certificate on various modules; pharmacists require certification in Pharmacy.

The boldness, perseverance and doggedness of many Nigerians, coupled with their native intelligence, often result in the emergence of very capable, exceptionally intelligent high achievers. When the playing field is level, Nigerians have a knack of shining in many areas of human endeavour, particularly in the ‘professions’ i.e. Accounting, Law, Academics, Computer Science, Medicine, Education, Engineering etc. Just pick up the graduation/commencement brochure of any US high school or college with Nigerian students and look at their rankings.

It is a great irony to many in the immigration field, and to newcomers themselves, a bitter joke. Canada has a shortage of skilled professionals, and yet thousands of internationally trained doctors, engineers, teachers and nurses are forced to deliver pizzas and drive taxis.

“What angers me is we are a capable people. We have the credentials. We just can’t get the jobs,” complained a Nigerian, who feels the government has shattered his hopes and dreams.

Last year, when Canada changed the way it selects immigrants, many were happy to see the end of the old system, which matched newcomers with worker shortages. Now, Canada chooses immigrants not on their occupation, but on their education, skills and language abilities. Applicants must score 67 of a possible 100 points to be accepted.

Nigeria is not a first world country. A doctor from Nigeria who wants to work in Canada as a doctor should first qualify in the US, Europe or Australia. Someone who has only Nigerian credentials should be readily able to establish that they are not valued in Canada and so can decide to move, or not, based on the need to take up another occupation. Why such a person would not develop a skill useful in Canada before moving escapes me.

Quite.
Here's an example for you, from my immediate experience. My family doctor is Egyptian. She qualified in medicine in Cairo in the early 90s and spent a few years in practice there. She and her husband, a pharmacist, moved to Canada in 1997. She knew she would have to requalify before she came here; she worked as a lab technician while requalifying and recertifying according to the Ontario medical association's requirements. She got a place on the residency program she needed in 1999, and completed requalification in 2004. So that's 7 years of "menial" work (not that I'm dismissing lab techs, but it was certainly several steps down for her) to get back to the place she started - but there were other reasons for her emigrating here, and she was determined to see it through. She arrived with open eyes and no misconceptions about how difficult it would be to get accepted into the Canadian system.

Maybe because they are already a highly trained doctor in Nigeria, or do you have some notion all African doctors are witch doctors ?

I have no particular opinion about African doctors.

What matters here is Canadians' opinions of Nigerian doctors and that is not that they are held in great esteem. Again, since a Nigerian doctor can find out that Canada is not a place that will welcome him or her to work as a doctor, why doesn't he or she either go to a place that does value his or her skills or learn a skill saleable in Canada before moving here?

Well I guess I agree here. Pointless going to somewhere that you know will not accept or recognise your qualifications. I think in others cases they were led to believe that they would be ok in Canada before arriving, just to find to the contrary.