The lawyer recalls his own experience applying to companies in Canada who didn’t recognize his master’s degree in social sciences from the National University of Singapore, which is among the top 10 universities globally, according to one U.K.-based higher education analytics firm.
“It’s as if … you came from the University of Toronto or Harvard University and [you] went to Asia and no one knew what those universities were,” he said.
Forty-four per cent of newcomers in the workforce said they were either unemployed or working outside their area of expertise, the survey found.
“There is no training and reskilling for people who’ve arrived here,” said Syed Hussan, executive director of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change. “There’s massive disrespect and disinterest and devaluation of work experience outside of the country.”
This reality is all too familiar for Abdullateef, who was a doctor in Tehran but couldn’t practise medicine upon arriving in Canada. She ended up spending $33,000 on her two-year postgraduate certificate at Fanshawe College.
