Chasing the dragon

First, a recap of the basics: Professionals looking to immigrate to Canada face huge hurdles - it's no secret. We are told by the government we are wanted, we are sorted and rated for our skills and qualifications. However, once professionals arrive, they find themselves limited by a lack of "Canadian experience" in their profession, or Candian credientials required by professional organizations that control accreditation. Thus, their skills are wasted.

Why is this and why can we expect that change wont be coming soon? It's simple. It's chasing a dragon. New immigrants are not citizens - they are permanent residents at best (temporary residents at worst). Because they are not citizens, they do not vote. They do not have a voice in government. Their issues do not directly drive the acquisition of seats in Parliment by any party.

When the minority of these new immigrants do succeed in overcoming the obstacles of integration into Canada, their political thinking and issues are no longer the ones they once shared with new immigrants.

When will change come? In this blogger's humble opinion, only when employment in Canada is in true defecit - when the shortage of trained professionals required to maintain economic momentum becomes chronic. When there are no doctors or nurses to be seen save for wait times that are perhaps double of what they currently are. When there are not enough skilled engineers to oversee infrasturcture projects that are causing true economic loss to those in power.

As long as the Canadian people, through fear or greed or worst of all omission of attention do not care about the skill and intellectual capital being wasted through the barriers imposed on eager immigrants, then nothing will really change.

And as long as nothing changes, immigrants will chase the dragon - that mythical creature that, if you could kill, would make everything better.