Is there a skilled labour ‘shortage’ in Manitoba?

TOPE ORIOLA STAFF

In “Labour shortage hits crisis” on its official website, the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters reported that “Manitoba businesses can’t find enough skilled workers to fill jobs.” In reality, is there a skilled labour shortage in Manitoba? Of course not.

Late last year, I boarded a taxi to the Winnipeg airport and began a conversation with the driver. He turned out to be a master’s degree holder in an engineering discipline. He made a statement I would never forget: “I came to Canada to start from the scratch; they are not allowing me to start from the scratch.” While my interest is not in knowing who “they” refers to, it must be put on record that a significant number of skilled labour in Manitoba, assessed and judged qualified by immigration authorities, is engaged in menial jobs like cabdriving, cleaning, low-end factory work and so forth in our province.

The study by Probe Research Inc. that sought the opinion of “200 Manitoba business leaders” has merely scratched the surface of an avalanche of problems. There is a need to empirically research into why skilled labour is in “short supply” in Manitoba.

Immigrants come highly qualified, but a lot of them have had their dreams shattered by a system they hardly understand, like the engineerturned- cab driver above. There is incontrovertible evidence of discrimination in

If we are truly serious about attracting and keeping skilled labour in Manitoba, employment equity must leave the pages of government documents and legislations and be lived in our actions and inaction.

employment and most facets of life. Results of research by Peter Li, Victor Satzewich and a host of others point to that direction. Raluca Buzdugan, in a recently concluded master’s thesis titled, “Does having a foreign education matter? An analysis of the interaction between education and origin of degree in predicting income,” in the U of M’s department of sociology, concluded that “the degrees that face the most acute devaluation are those from developing countries, whose residents are also mostly visible minorities . . . . ”

Consequently, there is a pertinent question to ask ourselves: are we fair to all in matters of employment? The point is not that skilled labour and professionals are leaving for British Columbia or Alberta, the point is that the methodology of our recruitment needs to be more universalistic in orientation — for our own good.

My chance meeting with the driver-engineer opened my eyes. I now also know pharmacists who drive taxis, medical doctors who clean homes and offices, and at least two PhD holders who worked manual jobs in factories and still do not have stable positions befitting their qualification. After the daunting challenges of getting their certificates recognized in Canada, many of them are not impressed about what transpires each time they apply for a job they are suited for. The situation is downright ridiculous. You have to be “living the experience” as MacDonald Ighodaro argues in Living the Experience: Migration, Exclusion and Anti-Racist Practice to know the enormity of it.

Little things like securing a decent accommodation for which you are able to pay can become hydra-headed when you have an “accent.” You are unlikely to get a call back from places you call for accommodation. I toiled before getting my current apartment. First, they needed a rental history in the absence of which I had to get a cosigner. I had only arrived from Nigeria and stayed in the residence on campus. That did not count. One resident manager even suggested that I pay one year’s rent — over $10,000 — up front! Graciously, one of my professors co-signed for me, but she informed me of what she considered “inappropriate questions” asked by someone from one of the two places I got a call back from of the numerous places I contacted. I have met very nice people and families here since my arrival, who have opened not just the doors of their homes, but their hearts to me, but the issue at hand is systemic.

The government of Canada is internationally recognized for its humanitarian gestures in helping refugees and displaced persons to settle in Canada. I don’t know of any countries that can beat Canada’s record in this regard. However, we are not all refugees or displaced persons, though we sincerely empathize with those who are. A good number of immigrants have a place to return to if we make it unnecessarily difficult for them to settle here. I asked a master’s degree holder from the University of Manitoba who returned to Nigeria last year why he left. He said he got tired of working in a factory under the supervision of a “high-school failure.”

If we are truly serious about attracting and keeping skilled labour in Manitoba, employment equity must leave the pages of government documents and legislations and be lived in our actions and inaction. This society works; we need to make it work more for all. Otherwise, we may be in for more skilled-labour “shortage” — whatever that means.

Tope Oriola is comment editor of the Manitoban and a graduate student in sociology.