June 10, 2008. Avvy Go. Toronto Star

This week, the provincial cabinet committee on poverty reduction is hosting the first of two invitation-only meetings scheduled for Toronto. Given the limited scope of the consultation process, the responsibility thus falls upon the community groups and individuals who are participating in these meetings to make sure that certain critical – though unpopular – questions will be addressed. Ask any member of a racialized community who lives in poverty why they are poor and they will likely begin with the problems they have accessing good jobs or getting a promotion because of their race. They will talk about the invisible glass ceiling that seems to preserve the highest paid jobs for whites only.

» click here to continue reading

Piloting his cab through the congested streets of Toronto, Ifzal Ahmad is looking forward to the day when he can come up with $35,000 for a course that should allow him to again become a mechanical engineer. Despite 15 years in his profession in India, the 47-year-old married father of three — like so many other new arrivals to Canada — has found himself in a relatively low-skilled job because his qualifications aren’t recognized here. The latest data on income and earnings from the 2006 census released Thursday by Statistics Canada shows that highly skilled immigrants — the country’s preferred newcomer — have a long row to hoe once they arrive, and it shows in the amount of money they earn.

» click here to continue reading

In a lengthy and stinging ruling, judge details near-feudal conditions endured by immigrant workers harvesting produce
ROBERT MATAS From Saturday’s Globe and Mail. April 19, 2008 at 1:02 PM EDT

VANCOUVER — In a stinging 801-page ruling on an employment insurance scam, a federal Tax Court judge says widespread exploitation of Indo-Canadian berry pickers in fields outside Vancouver is reminiscent of scenes from John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. “When a 65-year-old grandmother leaves her village in India, travels nearly two days to Vancouver and is hired within a week by a labour contractor who transports her – at dawn and back at night – in a crowded van for up to eight hours a day so she can earn eight hours pay at minimum wage – or less if paid on piece rate – something is radically wrong with certain aspects of the federal family reunification program and also the berry and vegetable industry in British Columbia,” Dwayne Rowe, a Tax Court of Canada judge, stated in a ruling issue this week.

» click here to continue reading

Shannon Proudfoot, Canwest News Service. Published: Wednesday, February 13, 2008

A new report from Statistics Canada reveals that only immigrants from Southeast Asia — particularly the Philippines — had employment rates similar to native-born Canadians in 2006. Immigrants were categorized into three groups for the report: very recent immigrants who landed between 2001 and 2006, recent immigrants who arrived between 1996 and 2001, and established immigrants who’d been in the country more than 10 years. Regardless of where they were born, the most recent arrivals in the core working age group of 25 to 54 had more difficulties finding jobs than those born in Canada.

» click here to continue reading

The Canadian Press, Toronto. Thurs Nov 8.

TORONTO — Nearly one-third of people turning to Ontario’s food banks for their daily meals are new Canadians who are unable to find affordable housing and steady, well-paying jobs despite the province’s low employment rate, says a study conducted by the province’s food bank association.  The Ontario Hunger Report, to be released Thursday and obtained Wednesday by The Canadian Press, found almost 320,000 Ontario residents depend on food banks every month — the highest number of people served in the country and an increase of 14 per cent since 2001.  Almost one in three of those food-bank users are immigrants, the study found.

» click here to continue reading