In this thesis, I undertake a study of skilled immigrant labour market integration in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) by examining the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC). TRIEC is a relatively new governance institution in the Toronto city-region established to address barriers preventing immigrants from gaining meaningful employment in their fields. Barriers include systemic discrimination, lack of credential recognition, and lack of Canadian work experience. TRIEC was created in response to a recommendation from the 2003 Toronto City Summit Alliance (TSCA) report Enough Talk. TRIEC is a multi-stakeholder organization that aims to engage employers to find solutions to address labour market barriers facing skilled immigrants in the GTA. This thesis examines some of these labour market barriers and the work of TRIEC and poses the following research questions: - What are the factors both impeding and facilitating the labour market integration of skilled immigrants in the GTA? - Has the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council model proven effective in terms of its impact on skilled immigrant labour market integration in the GTA? - What are possible solutions for addressing the challenges that impede the labour market integration of skilled immigrants in the GTA? To answer these questions, this thesis draws on insights from immigration geography literature, statistical and policy data, as well as fifty-seven (57) semi-structured interviews with a variety of key stakeholders in the GTA. The results point to TRIEC as a potential model to emulate for other large city-regions facing challenges with respect to labour market integration. In addition to highlighting TRIEC’s advantages, this thesis also provides recommendations at a more general societal level for improving skilled immigrant labour market integration in Canadian city-regions. / Thesis (Master, Geography) -- Queen's University, 2008-09-06 13:54:23.707

Roughly 35% of employed Canadians are currently informal caregivers — defined as “an individual who provides care and/or support to a family member, friend or neighbour who has a physical or mental disability, is chronically ill or is frail” (Williams, Eby, Crooks, Stajduhar, Giesbrecht, Vuksan, Cohen, Brazil, & Allan, 2011, p. 3). These worker-carers are mostly women and often experience negative impacts on their physical, mental, emotional, social, and economic well-being. The impact on employers is also staggering (Fast, Lero, DeMarco, Ferreira, & Eales, 2014). With the number of seniors requiring such care expected to double by 2031, this is a growing issue for Canadians (Williams, et al, 2011). With the assistance of a Technical Committee of experts, chaired by Dr. Williams from McMaster University, the Canadian Standards Association and McMaster University have developed a Standard for Caregiver Inclusive and Accommodating Workplaces. This has been realized through funding provided by the CIHR/SSHRC Partnership Development Grant addressing Healthy, Productive Workplaces. This research seeks to conduct an Enhanced Public Review of the Caregiver Inclusive and Accommodating Standard through the completion of interviews (n=17) with key stakeholders across Canada. Semi-structured interviews were conducted from May to July 2017. After reading a draft of the Standard, interviewees were asked about: the viability of implementation of the Standard; what they liked about it, and what they would change, as well as; how it met with the mandate of their own organization. Interviewees represented the senior leadership of a wide variety of organizations including: human resources; caregiver support; unions; white-collar industry; healthcare, and; municipal governments. Following transcription and coding of the interviews using thematic analysis, five major themes emerged. First, the Standard is a necessary tool in today’s world. Second, though it is an important tool, it is more likely to be used as an educational tool than to be actually implemented by most organizations. Third, organizations are not likely to implement the Standard for a variety of reasons. For example, small to medium sized organizations do not have the resources or capacity to implement and, given that large organizations already have policies in place, they will view the voluntary Standard as superfluous. Fourth, there is a significant divide in perceptions of sex and gender as relevant to the issue of caregiving and the necessity of supports such as the Standard. Finally, organizations may be motivated to implement the Standard and/or use it as an educational tool in exchange for tax breaks or insurance incentives, awards and recognition, or for grants to assist in developing and implementing policies related to the Standard. We conclude that although there are many barriers to implementation of the Standard, it is a useful and timely tool for organizations to use in order to better support their employees who are engaged in carer roles. Incentivizing implementation may encourage more participation in this program and thus greater support for worker-carers. This is especially important as more than half of carers are women, and women in caregiving roles are more likely to spend much more of their time in that role, meaning that this will keep more women engaged in the labour force, prevent burnout, and support better health outcomes (Sinha, 2012). / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA) / People who are caring for an elderly or sick relative or friend (worker-carers) make up a significant portion of the Canadian workforce. The Canadian Standards Association has developed a voluntary standard for employers to provide accommodations that make working more accessible to employees who are balancing their job with their caring responsibilities. This research assesses the necessity of this Standard and the likelihood that it will be implemented by employer across the country.

Flexibility and localization of work in Czechia 1991-2011: analysis of the spatial aspects The working process, its arrangement and its consequences have been a crucial part of a development of society in space. Work as a significant factor forming the space gets into the interest of social geography, at least until the Industrial Revolution, which led to a spatial mismatch between a place of residence and a place of work. The process of social transformation, together with the macroeconomic changes affecting post-socialist countries and the mass development of mobile information and communication technologies in the post- revolutionary period, stimulated a significant change in the issues of job localization and the differentiation of forms of work that became less embedded in the sense of temporal, spatial and functional meanings. This transformation led to irregularity of spatial movements associated with commuting to work on the one hand and its delocalization, or disappearance from physical space, and moving to the virtual space on the other. Hence, commuting to work and the relationship between home and work place is one of the crucial topics of Albertov's social geography. However, insufficient attention in domestic literature has been paid to the issue of the unembedded types of work. The...