Patricia Smith* is a first-year international student at Carleton who is working illegally at a restaurant in Ottawa.
“I don’t have a SIN number,” Smith said. “My boss usually [pays] those who don’t have the SIN number with cash.”
She said she gets paid less than minimum wage. Smith has lived in Canada for eight months.
Smith said she found the job on a Chinese website similar to Kijiji called comefromchina.com, where people post about job offers and used furniture. There wasn’t an interview process—she just called the restaurant and “they asked me to have a try,” Smith said.
She said she has had difficulties obtaining the proper paperwork to work legally in Canada, and the process is long—and she needs money to live off of now.
Smith’s story isn’t unique. Many international students face various struggles with the employment process in Canada. With the end of the academic year, some international students will return home for the summer, but for those who remain in Canada, getting job experience is often elusive.
Importance of Employment in Canada
“Working [in Canada] isn’t just about doing the job and coming back home after. It’s about building your network and meeting new people who may or may not one day help you down the road,” said Owen Low, a second-year commerce student at the University of British Columbia.
Low, who is from Malaysia, is currently working as a human resources teaching assistant at his university. Low said his job is important to him for the experience he is getting from it.
“It’s really good just to get work experience. You won’t get the same kind of experience from working back home ‘cause it’s a totally different atmosphere with different work ethics,” Low said. “There are some things you would never do back home but it’s encouraged [in Canada]—speaking up and questioning for example.”
Low added that he thinks gaining work experience in Canada is especially important for international students if they want to live and work in Canada after they graduate.
Aisha Shareen Ahmad Shairi, a Carleton electrical engineering alumna and part-time Starbucks barista, said she thinks money from the job is important but the experience you learn will help you in obtaining future jobs—especially in Canada.
“Extra pocket money is always nice. I talked to a friend’s mom, she said that whatever it is, if you want to start a career in Canada or in your industry, on your resume at least, it has to show that you have worked in a Canadian environment because your employers will know you’ve interacted with how the policies are, how the payment roll [works], and general etiquettes,” Shairi said.
She said her current job is important to her, although it’s unrelated to her original field of study.
“Right now, I’m working as a barista. I hope my future employers won’t discard my experience here, because I learned a lot of things. Especially in communicating with people,” she said.
Aala Ridha, one of Carleton’s Career Services career counsellors, said in an email any employment experience is a valuable opportunity for international students.
“By gaining employment, the student would have the opportunity to apply or learn new skills, network with professionals, and get the hands-on exposure of whether or not that specific kind of job is what they see themselves pursuing in the future,” Ridha said. “International students are equipped with invaluable cultural insight, and awareness, that can be a huge asset in the workplace of Canada’s multicultural society.”
Challenges and Solutions for International Students’ Employment
There are many challenges for international students in Canada who want to find work.
Ridha said international students’ inability to obtain a local Canadian reference and the lack of familiarity with the Canadian workplace cultural norms are the most common challenges they face when job hunting.
“In general, employers may have a preference for local references. We often encourage students to use either a professor or a teaching assistant, with whom they have taken a course, or several courses with, who can provide them with a strong reference,” Ridha said.
Duc Ngo, a second-year international commerce student at Carleton, said it was “fairly difficult” for him to find a job during his first year in the country.
“It’s difficult because [I had] no established social tie in Canada,” Ngo said. “I didn’t have enough references and work [or] volunteer experience in Canada . . . Employers would much rather not take risk and hire a Canadian applicant.”
He said obtaining full-time jobs as an international student is difficult because foreigners must pass the Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) before they can work.
According to the Government of Canada’s website, the LMIA is a document an employer in Canada may need to get before hiring a foreign worker. A positive LMIA will show the need for a foreign worker to fill the job by demonstrating that no Canadian worker is available to fill the position.
Depending on your status and position, obtaining a LMIA can cost hundreds of dollars.
Ngo added the difficulty of obtaining an LMIA is dependent on one’s field.
“If you’re in the STEM [science, technology, engineering, and math] field then generally it is easier, especially if you’re a doctor, LMIA would be easy—there is a shortage of doctors in Canada. However, the LMIA for some fields may be extremely difficult,” he said.
Shairi said it was difficult to find a job she was interested in.
“It is not hard to find a job, but it is really hard to find a job that you really, really want to invest your time in . . . That being said, if you’re a fresh grad, you cannot be picky of your first job, and that’s why I wasn’t picky when I got my barista job. Because a job is a job,” Shairi said.
Roopa Desai Trilokekar, a professor at York University’s education faculty, said another issue international students face when looking for work is that many campus jobs are restricted to Canadian students. She added that long processing times for obtaining work visas also make it difficult for international students to find work.
“By the time they [international students] get their work visas to work, it is too late . . . because the immigration, CIC [Citizenship and Immigration Canada] has taken far too long to process their paper work,” Trilokekar said, but added the immigration department is becoming far more supportive of having international students work.
Trilokekar said one solution would be for universities and provincial governments to allocate some funding to ensure that international students are able to find work on campuses.
“There’s a lot of work that needs to be done with employers to ensure that employers have direct and updated information on immigration so they don’t use [immigration] as an excuse not to hire international students. They also need to invest in some money in providing services working for universities to provide the specific support,” she said.
Ridha said students with career-related questions—at any stage of their job search—should visit the Career Services office in 401 Tory Building.
Post-Graduation Work Permit Program
The Government of Canada offers international students who have graduated from participating Canadian post-secondary institutions to work in Canada through the Post-Graduation Work Permit Program (PGWPP).
According to the Government of Canada’s website, the PGWPP helps graduates qualify for permanent residence in Canada faster.
However, according to a report from Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the majority of those who are employed through the PGWPP work in the service sector and have median earnings that total less than half of what other graduates earn.
According to the report, the median earning of international student graduates under the PGWPP was $19,291 in 2010, compared to $53,000 for Canadian university graduates in the same year.
In early March, the Liberal government announced its plan to ease the process for Canadian post-secondary institutions graduated international students to become permanent residents (PR), according to The Globe and Mail.
Low said he thinks this government plan benefits both Canada and international students.
“Canada benefits from the additional human capital with diverse perspectives, and international students are able to experience a whole new culture and grow as individuals,” Low said.
Shairi said she thinks the plan is a good opportunity for international students who want a job in Canada.
She said not being a permanent resident can be a problem. Shairi said she was once rejected for a job by a small business company because she was not a permanent resident, even though the recruiter said she had the right qualifications.
“That made me sad because . . . I never thought [not being a PR] wasn’t a problem. But for that specific job, that was and they didn’t call me back. That opened my eyes that [being a PR] was important,” she said.
Some international students said they are concerned about the new plan.
Varun Narayan, a first-year mechanical engineering international student at Carleton, said he thinks Canadians would be unhappy that jobs would be taken away from them by foreign workers.
“If they start giving out citizenships and letting permanent residents settle down, the jobs for the Canadians will be given to the immigrants,” he said.
Ngo added the government will still need to devote its full effort into designing a fair immigration process to deal with the challenges implementing this plan.
“A less stringent process will bring in more students into Canada, and that means the evaluation process will need to account for more than just employability, skills, linguistic abilities, et cetera. but also diversity and cultural integration,” Ngo said. “All [international students] face some kind of social integration issue. That’s bound to happen considering immigrants, especially international students, usually have no social contacts in Canada and thus must establish a ‘fresh start’ here.” ⎭
*Patricia Smith’s name has been changed.
