Why lack of ‘Canadian experience’ is a barrier for immigrants in the job market

Ontario has introduced Bill 149 — legislation that would make it illegal for businesses to list 'Canadian experience' as a requirement in job listings.

Rama Krishnan remembers being dressed in a blue Best Buy employee T-shirt, working alongside people half his age, and asking himself, “Did I make a mistake by moving to Canada?”

Krishnan said he had already been a high-level sales executive in Bangalore, India, for over 20 years when he moved to Canada in 2007. Wherever Krishnan applied for a job, he was asked the same question: Do you have any “Canadian experience”?

“When you are rejected from job after job, simply because you don’t have Canadian experience, one starts to lose faith in the system. And one starts to lose confidence,” he told Global News.

The requirement for Canadian experience refers to the preference that some employers have for candidates who have worked for a Canadian employer before.

There is growing concern, especially as Canadian governments boost efforts to target immigration levels to meet needs for key work sectors like health care and housing, that this puts newcomers at a disadvantage: they can’t get hired for a role unless they have Canadian experience, and they can’t get Canadian experience on their resume unless they get hired.

To overcome this hurdle, many end up working minimum-wage jobs despite having higher qualifications and work experience from their home country. Krishnan, for example, spent seven years moving between a job at Best Buy and consulting for businesses based in India.

“It was a surreal feeling. I was simultaneously selling cellphones and consulting with CEOs. It sounds like a scene out of a Bollywood movie,” he said.

Canada’s most populous province, which is also home to the highest volume of new immigrants, is planning to tackle the matter in the coming months.