Thesis (M.P.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 143-145). Also available in print.

Thesis (M.P.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 133-137). Also available in print.

Thesis (M.P.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 98-100). Also available in print.

Thesis (M.P.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.

Many professionally trained immigrant applicants receive high marks in the selection process for their perceived value to the host Canadian society and economy. Upon arrival, however, many new immigrants find that employers and industry-regulated accreditation boards do not recognize their foreign degrees and work experience. In this thesis, I interview 25 underemployed or unemployed foreign-trained engineers in Vancouver to investigate the diversity of their experiences in the labour market. I focus on how they perceive the obstacles they are facing and how they are responding to these barriers in seeking employment. This thesis is situated in a growing body of literature that considers labour markets as complex, place-contingent, socially and institutionally embedded constructs. Using a "socio-institutionalist" approach, which refutes conventional neoclassical economics' theories of labour markets as free, self-equilibrating, and uninterrupted markets, enables me to compose, then put to work, a multilogical theoretical model that examines the ways in which various institutions control, shape, and govern access to professional engineering jobs in Vancouver. In particular, I draw upon theories of regulatory, social and cultural institutions in the labour market. I find that regulatory institutions, such as the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia (APEGBC), create licensing obstacles that are indeed profound for new immigrants. In addition, many recent immigrants are excluded from local social networks that diffuse information about professional job availabilities; assistance is provided through inclusive immigrant and ethnic networks, but this rarely leads to professional employment. Lastly, many newcomers perceive their cultural institutional affiliation to be wanting, and so pursue Canadian academic credentials in an attempt to gain entrance into the market. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

The raising of immigration standards for entry into Canada in recent years has resulted in many Chinese immigrant women from Hong Kong being admitted as "independent applicants", on the strength of their academic standing, official language proficiency, and professional training. However, many of them are not able to access jobs for which they would seem to have the appropriate credentials. No studies have yet systematically examined the barriers these women face in the job market in Vancouver. A literature review shows two main approaches to the problems of immigrants adapting to life in their new country. The cultural approach concentrates on the effects of the immigrants' own culture on the adaptation process, and the cultural conflicts between the mainstream culture and the culture immigrants bring with them. The structural approach emphasizes the impact of the social structure of the host country on immigrants, and examines structural barriers which bar immigrants from moving upward in the labour market. The first approach concentrates on immigrants and their culture while the second focuses on the structural constraints experienced by immigrants. The present research argues that examining employment issues of immigrants from only one of these two approaches is inadequate. Both perspectives are important. other informal barriers which could not be categorized under these two approaches should not be ignored. This is a qualitative study based on in-depth interviews with 20 Chinese immigrant women from Hong Kong. The research problem is limited to the employment experiences, as well as to the meanings of events and processes, described by these women. The central questions are: (1) What do Chinese immigrant women who come as "independent applicants" experience in the workplace in Vancouver? (2) What does their work in Vancouver mean to them? And (3) What are the factors, in terms of cultural barriers, structural barriers or other elements, that affect these women in the process of job transferability? Suggestions to eliminate barriers are proposed, and recommendations for further studies are presented. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

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Each year, hundreds of thousands of farm workers emigrate from Mexico. to cultivate and harvest crops on American farms and return to Mexico at the end of the harvest season. These men are permitted to enter the United States under the auspices of the Mexican farm labor program established by the federal government. The migration of these farm laborers has involved "...one of the most significant population movements in the Western Hemisphere in the last twenty-five years".

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