It’s no secret that many Canadian employers routinely discriminate against immigrants for the crime of lacking “Canadian experience.” Advocates and non-profit organizations have long bemoaned this unfair practice.

For decades, immigrants have found crafty ways to sidestep this hurdle, acquiring that precious first Canadian work experience through volunteering, internships, entrepreneurship or entry-level jobs supplied by friends, family and other immigrants. But as Canada grows increasingly pessimistic about its own capacity to prosper, a lack of Canadian experience could become a major economic advantage that helps job seekers find work commensurate with their talents and helps entrepreneurs close more consequential deals with established Canadian counterparts. 

Later this year, my team at the Institute for Canadian Citizenship will publish provocative original research about businesses that have turned immigrant talent into a core competitive advantage. These forward-looking employers gave three reasons why they seek out immigrant talent. 

For starters, they’ve found immigrants’ global experience to be highly profitable. Though Canada has long led the world in privileging skilled candidates for immigration, the system has become far more competitive in recent years, and we now welcome a greater proportion of immigrants with the highest levels of educational and professional attainment. Countries like India, China and the Philippines, which currently supply most of Canada’s economic immigrants, have made incredible economic and technological gains in recent years. In digital commerce, banking, telecommunications, health care, education and many other crucial domains, these countries may well be ahead of Canada, which means recently arrived immigrants can teach prospective employers something that could give the company an edge over their competitors. 

These newcomers’ connections to businesses, governments and other organizations around the world also have immense commercial value. Whether its access to customers, partners, capital, intellectual property or offshore talent, global networks can make a big difference to Canadian organizations. 

Unsurprisingly, then, our research shows that many employers want to hire more immigrants. These employers have solid data demonstrating that teams with mixed global experience innovate more and perform better. The challenge is in the implementation of that strategy; it can be difficult for Canadian-born hiring managers to gauge the prestige of a university or company in another country. It’s even harder to modify training practices
and educate hiring managers about how to properly assess the capabilities of immigrant applicants. Many companies simply don’t have the bandwidth to do this hard work. Others, mostly smaller firms, lack the resources to enact these changes even when they really want to do so.

Here’s the bottom line: the Canadian experience deficit, which is always presented as an unfair barrier to success, can also become a valuable advantage that is only available to immigrants. 

As is so often the case, the most important thing is how these advantages and opportunities are presented. It is well understood that Canadian companies tend to be more conservative than their global counterparts and can be reluctant to embrace change, even if that change opens new opportunities for profit and growth. And to be frank, they may not all be used to thinking of immigrants as people with something to teach, since for far too long, immigrants have been categorically mis-characterized as desperate people fleeing destitute circumstances who stand only to benefit from what Canada can give. Yet who among us is immune to the allure of opportunity?

Global experience is powerful and profitable. We should wear it proudly, like the exceptional competitive advantage that it is. 

Daniel Bernhard is CEO of the Institute for Canadian Citizenship