The Career Advancement for Immigrant Professionals (CAIP) program takes a unique approach to addressing the challenges and barriers often faced by immigrant professionals in advancing their careers. Too often, the onus of adaptation falls only on newcomers. To enhance better address barriers, the CAIP program also works with managers and engages with senior leadership and HR. At the beginning of the project, we engage with senior leaders and HR to better understand the organization. We meet again at the end to share insights and recommendations. In the program sessions, managers enhance their inclusive leadership skills to better support newcomer team members while newcomers gain insight into how to navigate advancement at their organization.

The three organizations participating organizations have responded positively to the program. In the session surveys, manager and newcomer participants reported strong satisfaction with CAIP as well as learning and/or gaining insights from each session as well as taking new actions as a result of the program.

In working with three very different organizations, key themes emerged that were important for addressing barriers and navigating career advancement. These included the importance of developing strong, professional relationships and not just a large number of weak connections in order to tap into the power of networking, clarifying how to position themselves for advancement within their organizations. Many newcomers participating in the program were focused on credentials and performance while their organizations had additional expectations. Unpacking commonly used terms that have different meanings for different people, particularly if someone has previous experience working outside of Canada, such as “taking initiative” or “owning your career”. Another key theme was demystifying the internal hiring process. Newcomer participants were familiar with the formal HR practices, but had many questions about the nuances and informal practices around these.

In March 2022, TRIEC launched a new report, Bridging the Gap: Immigrant Women and Their Labour Market Integration in the Greater Toronto Area. We surveyed 365 immigrant women professionals and conducted in-depth interviews with 19 of them to understand the challenges they face in entering and advancing in the GTA labour market. In collaboration with Forum Research, we also surveyed 608 hiring managers and decision makers at organizations in the GTA.

The research highlights how barriers for immigrant women professionals to work and progress in their fields in Canada persist. Lack of Canadian experience (51%), lack of professional networks (42%) and employer perceptions of their ‘cultural fit’ (21%) remain major barriers to labour market entry. To get their first job, immigrant women downgraded their qualifications (58%), accepted unpaid work or internships (43%) and altered their name (22%). Two in five women were in lower-level jobs than they last held before immigrating. A similar proportion said they have been treated unfairly in their job, primarily in relation to salary/wages and promotion decisions. Everyday discrimination in the workplace is a reality for many immigrant women. About 60% of immigrant women professionals have experienced some form of microaggression at their workplace.

The report findings were presented at the 24th Metropolis Canada Conference and TRIEC’s annual event, as well as featured in the Toronto Star and other news outlets.

In 2021-22, we made 1,191 matches. That’s nearly 1,200 newcomers receiving one-on-one mentoring, coaching, and career readiness support to help navigate a challenging and ever-changing labour market. Furthermore, 1,250 mentees were reported to be employed in their fields and in related fields in the same year. This is 10% higher than in 2020-21!

In 2021-22, TMP continued to hit high notes in both satisfaction and recommendation metrics. 96% of surveyed mentees were satisfied with their experience in the program, and 97% are likely to recommend TMP or have already recommended the program to other newcomer professionals.

On the mentor side, 95% of surveyed mentors were satisfied with their experience in the program, with 99% likely to recommend TMP or have already recommended the program to their colleagues or networks.