Canada’s French-speaking communities, like Acadia, have aging local workforces. Recruiting and training international students is one solution to their economic and demographic challenges. Thus, it is important to understand the difficulties that can occur in integrating international students into communities with distinct identities and histories.
The barriers to integrating immigrants into the job market in Acadia are specific to its history and geography. To begin with, being a minority community poses a significant retention challenge for immigrants: many tend to be drawn to the resources and opportunities offered by the urban, English-speaking Canadian majority. Moreover, the desire to protect the Acadian identity sometimes translates into a discourse that is hostile to diversity, which affects the integration of racialized people into the workforce.
Sall’s study shows that there are two employment clusters for French-speaking international students in Acadia: a structural employment cluster (nursing homes, call centers, and hotels) and a conjunctural employment cluster (banking and insurance). The structural employment niche refers to unskilled and typically more precarious jobs, while the conjunctural employment niche relates to skilled jobs that usually offer stable conditions.
The recruitment of international students in the structural job cluster is made easier by their proficiency in French, their rigorous work ethic, their interpersonal skills, and their willingness to work. This type of job also enables students to acquire English-language skills to enhance their professional mobility towards the conjunctural employment cluster. The conjunctural cluster suffers less from a small local labour pool than the structural one, but international students can quickly secure their place in it, benefiting from employers’ diversity policies and the partnerships between the Université de Moncton and the banking and insurance industries.
Despite successful integration into structural and conjunctural employment clusters, it is sometimes difficult for international students to find quality employment in Acadia, due to the bilingualism requirement in English-speaking employment sectors – which is not always a given for the international Francophone student population – and systemic discrimination in certain French-speaking employment sectors.
According to Sall’s study, discrimination against immigrants is most prevalent in the education and healthcare sectors – two sectors over which Acadians have fought for full control. As a result, Acadian employers may find it difficult to open up these employment sectors to Francophones from elsewhere, which can lead to discrimination in hiring, a toxic work climate, or inequitable task distribution. The interviews conducted as part of this research highlighted that this discrimination directly impacts the school drop-out rates and mental health of international students. A growing number of international students are using the services of CDPs to find jobs that match their interests and skills. To guide them in their career choices and help them overcome systemic barriers to employment, it is important to understand the socio-cultural context of the job market in which they will thrive. Acadia is an example of a community where opportunities are abundant, but where the inclusion mechanisms are not always aligned with the population’s welcoming attitude.
Responses
In my personal experience, I have found that individuals who identify as, “newcomers” to Canada struggle to find work in a variety of communities, but it can be even more challenging when it’s a community that has a distinct identity and history.
Some communities are wary of outsiders, and this is usually due to previous negative experiences with individuals who are not from their community. As stated in the article, language is an impactful barrier for newcomers to Canada, especially in communities where French and English are seen as desirable languages.
In terms of keeping work, I don’t have a lot of experience with this since the tracking that I have been involved with when it comes to newcomers obtaining employment, but I would be interested to see data regarding this.