Generally, immigrants face different challenges adapting to their new environment while starting a new life in the new environment. One of these problems is related to employment as they find it difficult finding jobs in their host countries. A number of them are often jobless or having jobs that do not correspond with their educational qualification. This is one of the factors that influence the earnings of immigrants in the Swedish labour market. This study focused on the factors influencing the underutilization of immigrant’s foreign educational credentials in the Swedish labour market. The study is based on human capital theory, cultural shock theory and discrimination theory. Through qualitative research design, rich detailed data about the phenomenon was collected from participants that participated in the study. Findings of the study revealed that the two major factors that influence the underutilization of immigrant’s foreign educational credential in the Swedish labour market are structural factors and individual factors (lack of social network with Swedish natives, inability to fluently communicate in Swedish, and loss of professional knowledge due to lack of practice).

In Canada, the non-recognition of foreign credentials remains a considerable policy issue as well as a challenge for skilled immigrants. Many studies have shed light on the difficulties that foreign professionals face when seeking a placement in the Canadian job market. This thesis focused on the experiences of professional women from Morocco on the basis of the premise that every racialized group’s immigration experience deserves a space in the literature to voice their realities and inspire policy considerations. As a result, this study focused on examining the experiences of Moroccan women in the Canadian job market and the impact thereof, on their socio-economic status, and as such, health and well-being. In order to effectively capture the experiences of this particular community, a fieldwork study was conducted in the form of semi-structured individual interviews with twelve women who immigrated to Canada from Morocco with professional qualifications. Based on the participants’ accounts, I described that systemic discrimination as manifested in Othering and racialization remain major obstacles to the realization of equal access in the Canadian labour market. All in all, this research provides valuable insight into the plight of skilled immigrants in Canada and thus, offers strong policy recommendations to facilitate a more effective integration process for this group into the Canadian Job market.

In Canada, the non-recognition of foreign credentials remains a considerable policy issue as well as a challenge for skilled immigrants. Many studies have shed light on the difficulties that foreign professionals face when seeking a placement in the Canadian job market. This thesis focused on the experiences of professional women from Morocco on the basis of the premise that every racialized group’s immigration experience deserves a space in the literature to voice their realities and inspire policy considerations. As a result, this study focused on examining the experiences of Moroccan women in the Canadian job market and the impact thereof, on their socio-economic status, and as such, health and well-being. In order to effectively capture the experiences of this particular community, a fieldwork study was conducted in the form of semi-structured individual interviews with twelve women who immigrated to Canada from Morocco with professional qualifications. Based on the participants’ accounts, I described that systemic discrimination as manifested in Othering and racialization remain major obstacles to the realization of equal access in the Canadian labour market. All in all, this research provides valuable insight into the plight of skilled immigrants in Canada and thus, offers strong policy recommendations to facilitate a more effective integration process for this group into the Canadian Job market.

In Canada, the non-recognition of foreign credentials remains a considerable policy issue as well as a challenge for skilled immigrants. Many studies have shed light on the difficulties that foreign professionals face when seeking a placement in the Canadian job market. This thesis focused on the experiences of professional women from Morocco on the basis of the premise that every racialized group’s immigration experience deserves a space in the literature to voice their realities and inspire policy considerations. As a result, this study focused on examining the experiences of Moroccan women in the Canadian job market and the impact thereof, on their socio-economic status, and as such, health and well-being. In order to effectively capture the experiences of this particular community, a fieldwork study was conducted in the form of semi-structured individual interviews with twelve women who immigrated to Canada from Morocco with professional qualifications. Based on the participants’ accounts, I described that systemic discrimination as manifested in Othering and racialization remain major obstacles to the realization of equal access in the Canadian labour market. All in all, this research provides valuable insight into the plight of skilled immigrants in Canada and thus, offers strong policy recommendations to facilitate a more effective integration process for this group into the Canadian Job market.

In Canada, the non-recognition of foreign credentials remains a considerable policy issue as well as a challenge for skilled immigrants. Many studies have shed light on the difficulties that foreign professionals face when seeking a placement in the Canadian job market. This thesis focused on the experiences of professional women from Morocco on the basis of the premise that every racialized group’s immigration experience deserves a space in the literature to voice their realities and inspire policy considerations. As a result, this study focused on examining the experiences of Moroccan women in the Canadian job market and the impact thereof, on their socio-economic status, and as such, health and well-being. In order to effectively capture the experiences of this particular community, a fieldwork study was conducted in the form of semi-structured individual interviews with twelve women who immigrated to Canada from Morocco with professional qualifications. Based on the participants’ accounts, I described that systemic discrimination as manifested in Othering and racialization remain major obstacles to the realization of equal access in the Canadian labour market. All in all, this research provides valuable insight into the plight of skilled immigrants in Canada and thus, offers strong policy recommendations to facilitate a more effective integration process for this group into the Canadian Job market.

Immigration, economic, and regulatory trends in Canada have challenged all professions to examine the processes by which immigrant professionals (international graduates) achieve professional licensure and meaningful employment in Canada. The Internationally Educated Engineers Qualification Program (IEEQ) at the University of Manitoba was developed as an alternate pathway to integrate international engineering graduates into the engineering profession in Manitoba. However, universities have the neither mandate nor the historical practice to facilitate licensure for immigrant professionals and, thus, the knowledge base for program development and delivery is predominantly experiential. This study was developed to address the void in the knowledge base and support the program’s ongoing development by conducting a critical, exploratory, participant-oriented evaluation of the IEEQ Program for both formative and summative purposes. The research questions focussed on how the IEEQ participants perceived and described their experiences in the IEEQ Program, and how the participants’ outcomes in the IEEQ Program compared to international engineering graduates pursuing other licensing pathways. The study was built on an interpretivist theoretical approach that supported a primarily qualitative methodology with selected quantitative elements. Data collection was grounded in focus group interviews, written questionnaires, student reports, and program records for data collection, with inductive data analysis for qualitative data and descriptive statistics for quantitative data. The findings yielded rich understandings of participants’ experiences in the IEEQ Program, their outcomes relative to international engineering graduates (IEGs) pursuing other licensing pathways, and their perceptions of their own adaptation to the Canadian engineering profession. Specifically, the study suggests that foreign credentials recognition processes have tended to focus on the recognition and translation of human and/or institutional capital. Yet, access to and acquisition of social and cultural capital need to receive equal attention. Further, the study suggested that, while it is reasonable that language fluency is a pre-requisite for successful professional integration, there is also a fundamental link between language and cognition in that international engineering graduates are challenged to understand and assimilate information for which they may not possess useful language or the underlying mental constructs. The findings have implications for our collective understanding of the scope of the professional engineering body of knowledge.

Immigration, economic, and regulatory trends in Canada have challenged all professions to examine the processes by which immigrant professionals (international graduates) achieve professional licensure and meaningful employment in Canada. The Internationally Educated Engineers Qualification Program (IEEQ) at the University of Manitoba was developed as an alternate pathway to integrate international engineering graduates into the engineering profession in Manitoba. However, universities have the neither mandate nor the historical practice to facilitate licensure for immigrant professionals and, thus, the knowledge base for program development and delivery is predominantly experiential. This study was developed to address the void in the knowledge base and support the program’s ongoing development by conducting a critical, exploratory, participant-oriented evaluation of the IEEQ Program for both formative and summative purposes. The research questions focussed on how the IEEQ participants perceived and described their experiences in the IEEQ Program, and how the participants’ outcomes in the IEEQ Program compared to international engineering graduates pursuing other licensing pathways. The study was built on an interpretivist theoretical approach that supported a primarily qualitative methodology with selected quantitative elements. Data collection was grounded in focus group interviews, written questionnaires, student reports, and program records for data collection, with inductive data analysis for qualitative data and descriptive statistics for quantitative data. The findings yielded rich understandings of participants’ experiences in the IEEQ Program, their outcomes relative to international engineering graduates (IEGs) pursuing other licensing pathways, and their perceptions of their own adaptation to the Canadian engineering profession. Specifically, the study suggests that foreign credentials recognition processes have tended to focus on the recognition and translation of human and/or institutional capital. Yet, access to and acquisition of social and cultural capital need to receive equal attention. Further, the study suggested that, while it is reasonable that language fluency is a pre-requisite for successful professional integration, there is also a fundamental link between language and cognition in that international engineering graduates are challenged to understand and assimilate information for which they may not possess useful language or the underlying mental constructs. The findings have implications for our collective understanding of the scope of the professional engineering body of knowledge.

De nombreuses études tendent à démontrer qu’au Québec et au Canada, les personnes immigrantes font face à divers obstacles pour accéder au marché de l’emploi québécois, surtout lorsqu’il s’agit d’y exercer une profession réglementée par un ordre professionnel. En effet, avant de décerner un permis, les ordres doivent s’assurer de la compétence des candidats à la profession, conformément à la mission de protection du public qui leur a été déléguée par l’État. Pour ce faire, ils imposent diverses conditions d’admission aux professions, dont celle d’obtenir un diplôme reconnu. Pour ne pas restreindre indûment l’accès aux professions, la loi prévoit que les ordres ont l’obligation d’offrir aux personnes aux parcours atypiques – dont la quasi-totalité sont formées à l’étranger – la possibilité de démontrer l’équivalence de leurs qualifications. Lorsque les ordres estiment qu’il n’y a pas équivalence, des mesures de compensation – sous forme de formations d’appoint, de stages ou d’épreuves d’aptitude – sont prescrites aux candidats. Or, certaines conditions d’admission et procédures de reconnaissance sont aujourd’hui contestées, car considérées inadaptées ou discriminatoires à l’égard des personnes immigrantes. Il convenait donc d’examiner la compatibilité des normes d’admission et de reconnaissance des ordres professionnels québécois au droit à l’égalité, tel que garanti par la Charte des droits et libertés de la personne. La présente thèse conclut que les personnes formées à l’étranger sont victimes de discrimination systémique dans l’admission aux professions. Pour en arriver à cette conclusion, nous avons, dans un premier temps, brossé le portrait du cadre juridique entourant l’admission aux professions, puis identifié, par le biais d’une revue de la littérature, les difficultés que les conditions d’admission et les mécanismes de reconnaissance posent aux personnes formées à l’étranger. Dans un deuxième temps, nous avons appliqué la méthode du droit classique pour mettre en exergue les exigences du droit à la non-discrimination en contexte d’admission aux professions et de reconnaissance des qualifications. L’analyse de la jurisprudence pertinente démontre d’ailleurs que les personnes formées à l’étranger disposent de chances raisonnables de faire valoir le caractère à première vue discriminatoire des normes, pratiques et décisions en la matière. Dans un troisième temps, l’enquête empirique de type qualitatif que nous avons menée, en complément de la méthode du droit classique, mène à la conclusion que les ordres professionnels comprennent mal le sens que prend la protection du public et ses exigences particulières dans le contexte propre des professions qu’ils réglementent. Non seulement ce constat permet-il de remettre en doute la légitimité de l’ensemble des normes, pratiques et décisions des ordres relatives au contrôle de l’admission, mais il confirme que, dans de nombreux cas, les normes d’admission et de reconnaissance, prisent isolément ou lorsque considérées dans leur ensemble, portent atteinte, de façon injustifiée, au droit à l’égalité des personnes formées à l’étranger. Dans un dernier temps, l’ensemble de nos recherches nous a permis de proposer différentes mesures d’ordre systémique à l’attention des ordres, à titre de principaux responsables du contrôle de l’admission, et aux autres acteurs impliqués dans le parcours d’admission et dont l’action concertée est requise pour remédier à la situation. / Multiple studies tend to demonstrate that in Québec, and elsewhere in Canada, immigrants must overcome many obstacles to work in the field in which they were trained. These difficulties are even greater when it comes to accessing a regulated profession. Obtaining a license from a professional regulatory body is contingent on the candidates meeting various requirements, for example having obtained a recognized diploma, which are made to ensure that candidates are sufficiently qualified to practice the profession in a manner deemed safe for the public. In order to not unduly restrict access to these professions, regulatory bodies are legally obliged to offer foreign-trained candidates the opportunity to show that their qualifications are equivalent to those of locally trained candidates. If the qualifications are not deemed equivalent, compensatory measures, such as a training program, an internship, or qualification exams, are imposed. However, certain admission requirements and procedures for recognition of qualifications are now being challenged, as they are considered inappropriate or discriminatory towards immigrants. As a result, it is timely to examine whether these admission and recognition standards respect the right to equality as guaranteed by the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms (Québec Charter). In this thesis, I conclude that foreign-trained professionals are victims of systemic discrimination when it comes to accessing regulated professions. To arrive at this conclusion, I reviewed the legal framework regulating admission to these professions, and the academic and professional literature relating to the difficulties faced by foreign-trained professionals throughout the admission process. Then, using the traditional legal method, I set out the teachings and principles of anti-discrimination law, and in particular under the Québec Charter. The decisions rendered across Canada in cases brought forward by foreign-trained professionals seeking access to a regulated profession show that, despite some loopholes, immigrants have reasonable chances to prove they are the victims of prima facie discrimination. In addition to the traditional legal method, I conducted a qualitative empirical research that demonstrates that Québec’s professional regulatory bodies misunderstand the meaning of public safety, and what it requires in the specific context of each profession. These observations confirm that, in many cases, norms regarding admission to regulated professions and the recognition of qualifications, whether by themselves or considered as a whole, are not justified, and therefore infringe the provisions of the Québec Charter. I conclude this thesis by proposing various measures, some of which are systemic, that professional regulatory bodies and other actors implicated in the admission processes can put in place in order to ensure that foreign-trained professionals’ equality rights are respected.

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