“We Don’t Integrate; We Adapt:” Latin AmericanImmigrants Interpret Their Canadian EmploymentExperiences in Southwestern Ontario

Stacey Wilson-Forsberg

# Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Abstract The present study uses in-depth interviews with Latin American immigrantsresiding in Southwestern Ontario to explore how the immigrants interpret their experi-ences with employment and, more specifically, how the employment experiencesinfluence their perceived integration into the receiving communities. My researchfindings suggest that skilled immigrants (especially those professionals selected throughCanada’s point system) arrive in Southwestern Ontario fully intending to integrate, buttheir inability to find suitable employment hinders close interaction with the receivingcommunities. Family and humanitarian class immigrants, who tend to be less skilled,give little thought to acculturation prior to migration. Once in Canada, they evaluate thereceiving communities as satisfying their basic employment needs, and as a result, theyinteract slightly more with the receiving communities’ norms, values and people.Differences between the two immigrant groups notwithstanding, my data show littleevidence of frequent and intense interactions between the Latin American immigrantsand Canadian-born members of the receiving society. The research participants appearto relate to the receiving society on an as-needed basis; none appear to be aggressivelysearching for and absorbing new things and meeting new people. Interestingly, there isalso little evidence of the Latin American immigrants relating to each other.

Keywords Immigrant integration . Acculturation . Professional identity . Employment .

Canadian labour market . Foreign qualification recognition . Canadian experience . LatinAmericans

Introduction

The workplace is the main gateway into a new society for most adult immigrants. “Atwork, they meet their local peers, upgrade their professional skills, strike up newfriendships and improve their language proficiency; as a result, they develop cultural

Int. Migration & IntegrationDOI 10.1007/s12134-014-0349-1

S. Wilson-Forsberg (*)Wilfrid Laurier University, 73 George Street, Brantford, ON N3T 2Y3, Canadae-mail: swilsonforsberg@wlu.ca

competence in the new society and expand the limits of their personal identity”(Remennick 2013, pp. 155–156). Yet, many immigrants are not given the opportunityto enter the workplace because they are unable to find suitable employment in theirfields of training. Over the past three decades, the labour market outcomes of immi-grants to Canada have declined, and this downward trajectory of outcomes coincideswith upward trends in educational levels (Creese and Wiebe 2012; Li 2003). Integrationimplies that it is the responsibility of the receiving society to ensure that the formalrights of immigrants are in place in such a way that the individual has the possibility ofparticipating in economic, social, cultural and civic life (Entzinger and Biezeveld2003). However, if immigrants cannot find suitable employment in their fields oftraining, they may be less likely to identify and interact to the fullest degree with thereceiving society. In this respect, they are not integrating into Canadian society, butrather, adapting to it.

Drawing on qualitative research exploring the settlement and adaptation of LatinAmerican immigrants in the Southwestern Ontario cities of Brantford and Cambridge,this article considers how experiences in the labour market shape the attitudes of thesemen and women toward the receiving society. Several authors have written about LatinAmerican immigrants in Canada (see for example Goldring 2006 [for literature review];Veronis 2006, 2007, 2010, 2013; Veronis and Smith 2011), but more research is neededto capture the experiences of Latin American immigrants outside of the major metro-politan centres of Toronto and Montreal. Furthermore, Latin Americans are more likelyto hold a post-secondary degree than other immigrants and Canadians at large, but theyare less likely to have their foreign educational credentials and job experience recog-nized than immigrant counterparts from English/French-speaking countries. As a result,they are under-represented in managerial, professional and skilled occupations andover-represented amongst Canadians employed in semi- and low-skilled occupations(HRSDC 2006). In light of these circumstances, I respond to a set of research questionsabout Latin American immigrants’ experiences with employment and acculturation: (1)How do Latin American immigrants interpret their experiences with employment,underemployment and unemployment?; (2) How do these interpretations differ acrossimmigration categories (i.e. economic, family and humanitarian classes)?; and (3) Howdo employment experiences shape the Latin American immigrants’ attitudes towardand relationships with the two receiving communities?

To highlight the relationship between employment and the acculturation process, Ibegin the article with a concise overview of the empirical and theoretical literature. Ithen frame my research findings with the stories of six Latin American immigrants whoparticipated in my study. Direct quotations within these stories capture and communi-cate the participants’ perceptions of employment and the acculturation process in theirwords. To reveal different perceptions across immigrant categories, I compare theemployment experiences of skilled and low-skilled immigrants from a variety ofLatin American source countries. The stories are followed by my analysis of thefindings with specific reference to perceived discrimination in the labour market.From this analysis, I argue that skilled immigrants (especially those selected throughCanada’s point system) arrive in Southwestern Ontario fully intending to integrate, buttheir inability to find suitable employment hinders close interaction with the receivingcommunities. Family and humanitarian class immigrants, who tend to be less skilled,give little thought to acculturation prior to migration. Once in Canada, they evaluate the

S. Wilson-Forsberg

receiving communities as satisfying their basic employment needs, and as a result, theyinteract slightly more with the receiving society’s norms, values and people.Differences between the two immigrant groups notwithstanding, my data suggest littleevidence of frequent and intense interactions between the Latin American immigrantsand Canadian-born members of the receiving society. Interestingly, the data alsosuggest little evidence of frequent and intense interactions amongst the LatinAmericans themselves. Overall, the article aims to contribute new insights into theacculturation process by focusing on one ethno-cultural group in Canada that continuesto fall behind in socio-economic integration (Veronis 2006).

Literature Review and Theoretical Framework

Of the approximately 250,000 immigrants who arrive in Canada each year, about 60 %are accepted for entry under the Federal Skilled Worker Program to fill employmentshortages in the Canadian labour market. These labour shortages are identified eachyear by the Canadian government. Skilled workers are preferred to family classimmigrants and refugees due to their high human capital (i.e. high levels of educationand work experience and good command of English and/or French) and the economicindependence expected of them in the Canadian labour market (Buzdugan and Halli2009, pp. 366–367). Family and humanitarian class immigrants, in contrast, aresponsored by their Canadian relatives or the Canadian government; their human capitalattainments play a minor role in their admission to Canada. While family classimmigrants and refugees are not necessarily less skilled or less educated than theireconomic counterparts, from the Canadian government perspective, they are thought tocontribute less to and take more from the economy (Li 2013). Beyond the fact thatfamily and humanitarian classes were established with nation-building and not eco-nomics in mind, research shows that these people initially have a significant earningsdisadvantage compared with economic immigrants. However, the earnings gap narrowsover time (DeVoretz et al. 2004). According to the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrantsto Canada, moreover, family and humanitarian class immigrants reported an increase intheir material wealth and more positive assessment of the economic benefits of life inCanada than skilled economic immigrants (Statistics Canada 2011).

Increasing evidence demonstrates that many economic immigrants who enterCanada through the Skilled Worker Program are unable to secure full-time permanentpositions in their fields of training (Asanin Dean and Wilson 2009). A lack ofrecognition of international credentials and experience has been identified in theliterature as the major factors impeding their integration into the labour market(Austin and Este 2001; Krahn et al. 2000; Li 2001; Bauder 2003). In an ironic twistof the human capital model on which Canadian immigration policy is based, it appearsthat the more education and credentials immigrants have, the harder it will be for themto find a job that is comparable to what they held in their country of origin (Li 2001).When these skilled immigrants do manage to find work in their preferred occupations,the devaluation of their international credentials and experience confines many of themto support roles within their professions (Grant and Nadin 2007). Canadian credentialsand experience are increasingly viewed in the literature as taken-for-granted ideologicalconstructions that function to regulate immigrant professionals’ access to the labour

Latin American Immigrants Interpret Their Canadian Employment Experiences

market (Bauder 2003; Reitz 2001; Guo 2009; Sakamoto et al. 2013). They are not avalid indicator of performance, but rather a measure of cultural distinction or a markerof difference, with the objective being to exclude immigrants who do not possess them(Wilson-Forsberg and Sethi under review). Using a segmented labour market lens,Bauder (2003) suggests that employers, professional associations and the state activelyexclude immigrant labour from the most highly desired occupations in order to reservethese occupations for Canadian-born and Canadian-educated workers. Bauder bolstershis argument with Bourdieu’s cultural capital and his interpretation of the educationalsystem as a site of social reproduction. Türegün (2013) refers to the social closure ofMurphy (1988) to explain how educational and professional credentials are an instru-ment used by the dominant class to restrict access, privileges and opportunities for thesubordinate classes. Other authors (Guo 2009;Wilson-Forsberg and Sethi under review)attribute the de-recognition of skilled immigrants’ credentials and experience toFoucault’s nature of knowledge as social relations whereby knowledge is used as powerby employers to keep out those deemed “undesireable”. In sum, Canadian experienceand credentials are thought to validate the existing social order by helping to produceand reproduce the segmented property of the Canadian labour market (Reitz 2001).However, in occupations that are not highly desired by Canadian-born residents, therequirement of Canadian experience usually does not exist.

Immigrants accepted by Canada on the basis of their qualifications, education andskills may be especially prone to lose their professional identities and feelings of self-worth when faced with difficulties in finding suitable employment (Aycan and Berry1996). Being employed in one’s field of training heightens professional identity, whichin turn increases self-confidence and self-esteem, elevates social status and results inmore social support and recognition from others (Ross and Mirowsky 1995). Researchsuggests that obtaining satisfactory employment validates the hope and euphoriaexperienced in the early stages of migration, but the inability to meet professionalgoals can result in frustration, depression and anxiety (Majka and Mullan 1992).Researchers have therefore found that employment-related issues are key indicatorsof immigrants’ adjustment to the receiving society (Majka and Mullan 1992; Aycan andBerry 1996; Neuwirth 1997). Alienation from society is likely to occur when there is adiscrepancy between the desired state that the receiving society values as the norm (e.g.having a decent job) and the achieved state of the immigrants (e.g. unemployment orunderemployment) (Aycan and Berry 1996, p. 241). The more marginalized theimmigrants feel in the Canadian labour market, the less they wish to become part ofthe mainstream Canadian society that they perceive has rejected them (Grant and Nadin2007).

The nature of how and why immigrants’ attitudes toward the receiving society areshaped by encounters with specific circumstances in the labour market has yet to befully explicated. The theory of acculturation of Berry (1997) and the interactiveacculturation of Bourhis et al. (1997) have great value in documenting what happensto individuals who have developed in one cultural context, when they attempt to live ina new cultural context, i.e. assimilation, integration, separation or marginalization.However, they both assume that the acculturation process begins post-migration whenthe immigrant comes into contact with the receiving society and that each individualchooses one acculturation strategy and maintains it through his or her immigrationprocess (Tartakovsky 2010). The study summarized in this article adopted a refinement

S. Wilson-Forsberg

of the acculturation model known as the Acculturation Intentions Model (AIM)(Tartakovsky 2009). The AIM was empirically tested by Tartakovsky (2009) in alongitudinal study of Jewish Russian adolescents in Israel and in a qualitative studyof German immigrants in New Zealand by Bürgelt et al. (2008). It posits that ethnicidentities of immigrants, their attitudes toward the country of origin and toward thereceiving country, as well as their initial acculturation intentions, are formed in the pre-migration stage. Acculturation preferences during the course of immigration will varygreatly depending on the social and economic circumstances encountered by theimmigrants (Tartakovsky 2009). Positive attitudes toward the sending and receivingsocieties, social norms encouraging immigrant integration and a high level of perceivedcontrol over the acculturation process are associated with acculturation preferences thatentail close contact with the majority society. Conversely, immigrants tend to distancethemselves from the norms, values and people of receiving societies which theyperceive as rejecting.

Within the context of this literature, this article adds to debates about the accultur-ation process by demonstrating that Latin American immigrants arrive in SouthwesternOntario with identities related to their professions, as well as differing attitudes aboutretaining their culture of origin and becoming part of the new society. These identitiesand attitudes then interact with the actual and perceived levels of acceptance ofimmigrants in the Canadian labour market causing the Latin Americans to eitheridentify and interact slightly more with the new society (e.g. low-skilled immigrants)or separate themselves from it (e.g. skilled immigrants who did not have their creden-tials and experience recognized).

Methodology

Population Sample and Participant Recruitment

Constituting the fifth largest non-European ethnic group in Canada, Latin American-born permanent residents represent over 20 source countries and a range of socioeco-nomic backgrounds. Internal divisions along national, race and class lines have imped-ed them from forming a united ethnic community despite a majority common language(Veronis 2007). The three major source countries of Latin American immigrants toCanada in 2009 were Mexico, Colombia and Brazil. Slightly more than half of thesenewcomers (47.3 %) entered under the economic category and 40.5 % under familysponsorship. Over half (53.5 %) of the Colombians entering Canada in 2009 wererefugees (Statistics Canada 2011). Of the approximately 527,000 Latin Americansresiding permanently in Canada in 2006, 65 % were in Ontario (Statistics Canada2007). Approximately 1,725 Latin American immigrants reside in Brantford andCambridge (Statistics Canada 2006). Part of Ontario’s “Greater Golden Horseshoe”,Brantford (pop. 93,650) is a designated urban growth centre and anticipates acceleratedpopulation growth over the next 6–15 years. Cambridge (pop. 123,900) is one of threegrowing cities forming the Regional Municipality of Waterloo. Many of the LatinAmericans initially arrived in Toronto and subsequently undertook a secondary migra-tion to Brantford and Cambridge in search of cheaper housing. I selected the two citiesas research sites based on a prior research finding that immigrants face less employment

Latin American Immigrants Interpret Their Canadian Employment Experiences

competition and are more likely to form relationships with native-born residents insmaller receiving communities (Wilson-Forsberg 2012). However, since many of thelabour market characteristics encountered by the immigrants are products of pan-Canadian policies and trends, the findings are presumably not unique to the two casecommunities.

My study involved the participation of 24 Latin American-born adults who haveresided in Brantford and Cambridge, Ontario for 1 to 8 years. The identification ofvolunteer participants was theoretical in that the decisions about which data should becollected next were determined by my ongoing interpretation of the data and purposivein that I ensured that men and women representing diverse countries of origin andsocioeconomic backgrounds from the three Canadian immigrant categories were in-cluded in the study (Charmaz 2006). Participants also referred other participants for thestudy, particularly in Brantford where the Latin American population is small, dispersedand more difficult to locate. The limitation of purposive and snowball sampling is thatthe types of people who are available and willing to participate in the study may bedifferent from other members of the population who cannot be located, and this mightintroduce a source of bias. For example, recruiting one skilled participant in Brantfordwho volunteered in the community led me to more skilled Latin Americans whovolunteered in the same capacity. I also recruited participants on the soccer field. Allof these participants were relatively low-skilled men who, coincidently, were married toCanadian women. In short, my sampling strategy in Brantford led to two separatenetworks of participants exhibiting similar characteristics in each network. InCambridge, my sampling was purposive, but much more random since the LatinAmerican population is bigger and participants did not necessarily know each other.Because Cambridge has Latin American restaurants and shops, I was able to sit in theselocales, converse with the Latin American customers and subsequently invite them toparticipate in the study. Along with time spent in these settings, participants wererecruited by consulting with key informants such as the Grand Erie Local ImmigrationPartnership.

Data Collection and Analysis

In an effort to follow the grounded theory method of Glaser and Strauss (1967) asclosely as possible, sampling, data collection and analysis of data were carried out in aconstant iterative process. I conducted intensive interviews with the participants to elicittheir views and opinions in each receiving community during the 1-year period of April2012 to April 2013. Interviews were largely conducted in Spanish (excluding aninterview with one Brazilian participant that was conducted in English). All weresemi-structured, with the questions open-ended and flexible enough to allow respon-dents to elaborate on points of interest and broadly to construct meaning from theirimmigration experiences. Participants were asked to articulate how they confronted thechallenges of adapting to Canada as well as their experiences relating to others in thereceiving community. Employment was not the original purpose of my study andspecific questions about employment were not included in the interview schedule. Inthis respect, the article is an unintended offshoot of my research. Following translation(my own), a detailed content and thematic analysis of all interview transcripts wasconducted with the coding and organizational assistance of qualitative software data

S. Wilson-Forsberg

analysis program NVivo9. Analysis began with “open” coding in which many descrip-tive codes were gathered and labelled. As the codes linked to other codes andcategories, I conducted a more theoretical level of coding whereby patterns and themesemerged in the data. Two core themes are discussed in the remainder of the article: (1)“Working to Live” and (2) “Living to Work”, along with an analysis of the nexus ofemployment experiences and acculturation that exist within these core themes.

Findings

Latin American Immigrants Experience Employment, Underemploymentand Unemployment

While work was not the specific focus of the interviews, it dominated my conversationswith this diverse group of Latin American immigrants. For example, in response to myopen-ended statement: “describe the most difficult aspect of your adaptation to thiscommunity,” all participants managed to shift our verbal exchange from social inter-actions and social inclusion to economic integration. Naturally, these people want tohave their foreign educational qualifications and professional credentials recognized,find good jobs, support their families and contribute to society. As the interviewsprogressed, I began to wonder if an immigrant’s integration into society is in factinfluenced primarily by his or her integration into the labour market. In this respect, thetheme “Working to Live; Living to Work” became a core category with all other themesbranching out of it. Some of the research participants (N=6) arrived in Canadarelatively uneducated and low-skilled, but subsequently underwent technical trainingand work co-op placements in the receiving communities. They are filling occupationsthat might be undesirable to Canadian-born workers, such as painting, construction,cleaning and factory work, but that pay wages that are higher than those in theircountries of origin. Two participants (N=2) were educated in Mexico, but foundsuitable employment in their fields after completing graduate degrees in Canada. Oneparticipant (N=1) was transferred from Buenos Aires to Brantford by the multi-nationalFerrero Rocher. The majority of the research participants (N=15) arrived with univer-sity degrees and extensive professional experience in a wide range of areas, but havebeen unable to find work in their fields, either because their education and professionalqualifications are unrecognized, their English is not fluent enough or because they lack“Canadian experience”. To survive, they have taken jobs that have little to do with theirtalent, vocation or professional training (Table 1).

Working to Live

Six men who participated in the study do not have post-secondary diplomas. Theycome from working class backgrounds, and one—a former temporary farm worker—isnoticeably illiterate. One of the men received permanent residency through humanitar-ian sponsorship. Five of the men married Canadian women and received permanentresidency through family sponsorship. The weight of financial insecurity smothered allbut two of the marriages shortly after immigrating to Canada, but the men remain hereeither for their children or because they have little economic motive to return to their

Latin American Immigrants Interpret Their Canadian Employment Experiences

Tab

le1

Researchparticipants

Nam

e(pseudonym

)Age

range

(years)

Country

oforigin

Immigrant

status

Receiving

community

Occupationin

sending

society

Occupationin

receivingsociety

Family

class(low

-skilled)

1.Cam

ilo35–40

Mexico

Family

class

Brantford

Bar

tender

athotelresort

Renew

ableelectricaltechnician

2.Joel

30–35

Mexico

Family

class

Brantford

Bar

tender

athotelresort

Self-employed

constructionworker

3.Juan

40–45

Mexico

Family

class

Brantford

Temporary

migrant

farm

worker

Paintedkitchens/unemployed

forthelast

5yearsfollowingarm

injury

4.Miguel

35–40

Venezuela

Family

class

Brantford

Petroleum

worker

Truck

driver/heavy

equipm

entoperator

5.Luis

35–40

ElSalvador

Family

class

Cam

bridge

Appliancetechnician

Construction—

employed

bycompany

Family

class(skilled)

6.Daniel

35–40

Guatemala

Family

class

Cam

bridge

Teacher/missionary

Cem

entworker

7.Mercedes

40–45

Chile

Family

class

Cam

bridge

Actress

Unemployed

8.Xenia

30–35

ElSalvador

Family

class

Brantford

Engineer

Internationalsales

rep.(D

implex

North

America)

Hum

anitarian

class(low

-skilled)

9.Caesar

35–40

Colom

bia

Refugee

Cam

bridge

Recycleplantw

orker/taxi

driver

Assem

blylin

e

Hum

anitarian

class(skilled)

10.Jaime

40–45

Colom

bia

Refugee

Cam

bridge

Corporatelawyer

Financialanalyst(W

estonBread/Pan

Bim

bo)

11.B

renda

40–45

Venezuela

Refugee

Brantford

Photographer/business

owner

Factoryassemblylin

e(Ferrero

Chocolates)

Economic(w

omen)

12.S

ofía

45–50

Mexico

Economic

Brantford

Chartered

accountant

Factoryassemblylin

esupervisor

(Western

Waffles)

13.S

haron

35–40

Mexico

Economic

Cam

bridge

Veterinarianwith

Canadian

post-graduatedegree

Veterinarian

S. Wilson-Forsberg

Tab

le1

(contin

ued)

Nam

e(pseudonym

)Age

range

(years)

Country

oforigin

Immigrant

status

Receiving

community

Occupationin

sending

society

Occupationin

receivingsociety

Economic(m

en)

14.A

ndrés(m

arried

toLy

dia)

35–40

Colom

bia

Economic

Brantford

Veterinarian

Welder

15.F

lavio

30–35

Brazil

Economic

Brantford

Wedding/event

planner

Preparingto

enterPo

liceFo

undations

Training

16.H

ector(m

arried

toAna)

40–45

Argentina

Economic

Brantford

Manager

Ferrero

Chocolates

Manager

FerreroChocolatesallmanagers

Italian,

thiscoupleisItalianArgentin

e

17.E

duardo

(married

toLupita)

35–40

Mexico

Economic

Cam

bridge

Marketin

gwith

Canadian

MBA

Mexican

restaurant

co-owner

(self-em

ployed)

Dependentsof

econom

icclass(allwom

en)

18.Julia

35–40

Argentina

Dependent

ofeconom

icclass

Brantford

Teacher

Unemployed

19.M

arcela

30–35

Chile

Dependent

ofeconom

icclass

Brantford

Publicrelatio

ns/

communications

Unemployed

(volunteer

aerobics

instructor

20.L

ydia(m

arried

toAndrés)

35–40

Colom

bia

Dependent

ofeconom

icclass

Brantford

Publicrelatio

ns/

journalism

Master’sdegrees

Unemployed

21.A

na40–45

Mexico

Dependent

ofeconom

icclass

Brantford

Interior

designer

Unemployed

22.L

upita

(married

toEduardo)

35–40

Mexico

Dependent

ofeconom

icclass

Cam

bridge

Marketin

gspecialist

Mexican

restaurant

co-owner

(self-em

ployed)

23.P

aula

40–45

Chile

Dependent

ofeconom

icclass

Cam

bridge

Artist

Unemployed

atthetim

eof

interview/now

self-

employed

artist

24.M

aríaBelén

30–35

Chile

Dependent

ofeconom

icclass

Cam

bridge

Pharmaceutical

representativ

eUnemployed

Latin American Immigrants Interpret Their Canadian Employment Experiences

sending countries. Having left their countries of origin rather abruptly to attend topregnant Canadian wives or to escape violence, the acculturation process is somethingthey appear to take one day at a time. All of the men have received technical training inCanada through federal and provincial government initiatives and all but the formerfarm worker were at the time of our interview working in a full or part time capacity inthe following occupations: (1) construction—self-employed; (2) construction—employed by company; (3) painting; (4) baking bread at an industrial bakery; (5) solarpanel repair; and (6) truck driving and heavy equipment operation. For these low-skilled immigrants, work is associated with survival in the early years after immigratingto Canada and independence from government “handouts” in the later years. The sixmen expressed the desire to improve their families’ financial situations or to return totheir home countries after saving enough money. All reported satisfaction with theirlives in Brantford and Cambridge and thought that they had integrated sufficiently intothe communities. They are however aware of better paying jobs in the Albertaoil sands and acknowledged that they would be willing to undertake a second-ary migration westward if given that opportunity. They further reported thatbecause wages are higher in Canada than those back home, they are willing towork in the types of jobs that Canadian-born workers shun, and they do notgive a great deal of thought to the low social status associated with those jobs.The men bring with them little in the way of human and economic capital, butwith respect to behaviour: a combination of resourcefulness, spirit of adventure,willingness to start from scratch and a desire to learn.

Camilo and Joel

Camilo and Joel are from Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula and they have both been inBrantford for less than 6 years. The Mexican men met their Canadian wives whiletending bar at Cancun hotels. Their stories are remarkably similar in that they dated theCanadian women in Mexico; within a matter of months, the women became pregnant,married the men and brought them to Canada on tourist visas. Permanent residency waslater obtained through family class sponsorship. Undereducated but highly resourceful,once in Brantford, Camilo and Joel were able to make the most of opportunitiespresented to them. Joel, for example, interacted with the receiving community andlabour market through soccer:

Well in the beginning everything about Canada was difficult. It’s just the life; it’stotally different from Mexico. Like in all aspects like it is hyper-organized… Butthen I got involved in soccer. When I joined soccer I got to meet a lot of people.Everybody liked how my sense of humour was and my ability to play the game.So I don’t have friends, I have buddies. Basically my soccer buddies are the onesI hang out with. I go to the pub every other night just to chat with them (Joel,Mexico).

It was through his primarily Latin American, but also native-born “soccer buddies”that Joel ascertained what the “Mexican Jobs” were in Brantford, i.e. those jobs thatCanadians will not do. Eventually, he started his own construction business specializingin private home renovations and used his soccer network to advertise his services:

S. Wilson-Forsberg

When I looked around I thought, “I’ll do whichever of those jobs you don’twant.” And I realized you don’t want to work in construction; you don’t wantwork in garbage collection, painting, cleaning and all that stuff so I thought, “I’lldo it because there’s a need for it.” I saw construction and I said “oh there’s agood opportunity.” In Mexico houses are made out of cement, not wood so I hadto learn everything. I apprenticed with some builders in Hamilton. I thought “it’sjust wood; if it doesn’t work, if I mess it up I’ll just chop it down and put it backup until its good.” And it did happen like that a lot of the time (Joel, Mexico).

Trial and error and long hours of work paid off for Joel. Eventually, he and his wifewere able get a mortgage and become home owners. “I am a Canadian citizen now. Iown a house on my own piece of land. That is my greatest accomplishment,” he says.“Since we came we had to fight to get ahead. Credit here is big. For us, having no creditis worse than having bad credit. So we started from nothing, from scratch.”

Camilo and his wife settled in Brantford following a secondary migration fromKingston, Ontario. Camilo planned to pursue a college diploma in tourism then returnto Mexico to manage a resort restaurant. With his wife at home attending to their baby,he attended community college during the day and cleaned office buildings at night.The tourism diploma went uncompleted and the marriage dissolved, but when dating anAboriginal woman on the Six Nations Reserve near Brantford, he found himself in theright place at the right time. The federal government could not fill the allotted spots in arenewable electricity training program they were offering on the reserve and theyallowed Camilo to take part. He completed the training and was hired by the companywhere he did a work co-op placement. Making a salary barely above minimum wageand having avoided deportation when his family class sponsorship through his ex-wifebecame null and void, Camilo contends he is happy and moving ahead: “My life wasokay in Cancun, but I didn’t make enough money. When I was given the opportunity tocome to Canada I took it because I thought I could get ahead and I think I am makingprogress every day.” Camilo’s story is unique because rather than integrating intomainstream society, he took a step back from it and was accepted into Six Nations:

Let’s just say I get along with everyone. After I split up with my wife I didn’thave a place to live so some of the Six Nations guys gave me a tent and allowedme to sleep on their property. Now I live in a house with my girlfriend on SixNations. Because I am at least part Mayan, they say I am one of them and acceptme <laughing.> My Six Nations friends make fun of my accent they say “youlook like an Indian but you don’t speak like an Indian.” I have learned so muchabout First Nations people in Canada. They have a proud beautiful heritage(Camilo, Mexico).

Living to Work

Immigrants, whose foreign education and experience are not recognized in Canada,lose access to the occupations they previously held—an effect known as deskilling(Bauder 2003). As noted by Harald Bauder, “de-skilling particularly affects newarrivals in the skilled-workers category and prevents them from reaping the full benefit

Latin American Immigrants Interpret Their Canadian Employment Experiences

of their skills and of the nominal amount of their education. Ironically, immigrants inthis category are selected by a point system that gives credit to education and creden-tials that are not recognized in Canada” (Bauder 2003, p. 708). Six of the LatinAmerican immigrants who participated in my study (four men and two women) wereselected by the Canadian Government for their technical and professional training, age,labour market experience and knowledge of one official language. With the exceptionof the two Mexican research participants who completed their post-graduate educationin Canada and the Argentine participant who was transferred by his employer, none ofthe economic immigrants had their foreign qualifications recognized upon settling inOntario. Along with the men and women who were given permanent residency throughthe point system, seven women entered Canada as dependents of husbands who werethe principal applicants under the economic class category. Although equally aseducated and skilled as their husbands, many of them have put their careers on holdto be the primary caregivers for young children. Three more skilled participants (oneman and two women) are married to Canadians and received permanent residencythrough family sponsorship; and two (one man and one woman) are university-educated refugees.

The 15 Latin American immigrants who have effectively been deskilled by theCanadian labour market have had a more challenging adaptation to Southwestern Ontario.For them, work is more than survival, it is who they are. Work is associated withidentity, self-esteem, social status and independence. All but the two refugees meticu-lously planned their migration to Canada. They visited Canada—some of them travel-ling from coast to coast—studied Canada and were excited to resume their lives inCanada. But as the acculturation process proceeded, they found themselves constantlychallenged by new requirements to change, recreate, deconstruct and reconstruct theirvision of the world and of themselves (Sonn and Lewis 2009). Mercedes’ words nicelycapture this personal transformation:

When I lived in Chile I thought I could accomplish anything and be whatever orwhoever I wanted to be. I thought I could overcome any obstacle. But I thinkmigration has caused me to lose that idealism. I lost it gradually I think. I thoughtso many doors would be open to me. But the doors kept closing, one after theother. Eventually “se me acabo la pila” (my battery wore out). I no longer had theenergy to achieve my goals (Mercedes, Chile).

These men and women bring with them not only their ethnic identities, but also howthey see themselves as workers. They are clearly struggling to revise and reformulatetheir self-identifications with their former occupations and overcome feelings of inad-equacy in the receiving society (Gelatt 2013). Having immigrated to Southwestern Ontarioequipped with human, cultural and, in most cases, economic capital, the deskilled LatinAmerican immigrants took jobs that native-born Canadians have little desire to do. Butbeing overqualified, they do not go to work every day with the enthusiasm of Joel orCamilo. By comparing their employment situation simultaneously to the sendingsociety and the receiving society, their employment frame of reference is more trans-national than their relatively low-skilled Latin American counterparts. The deskilledLatin Americans are aware of how Canadian-born workers perform in the occupationsin which they themselves had trained. Being from middle-class urban backgrounds,

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their quality of life and social position in Canada (the “developed country”) are muchlower than they were in Argentina, Colombia or Mexico (the “developing countries”).These people enjoyed considerable career and economic advantages back home.Professional identity defined their access to places, opportunities and resources in theirsocieties of origin, but migration to Canada levelled the playing field (Li et al. 1995).They are often reminded of their diminished social position by family and friends backhome and by other immigrants in the receiving communities. But, for better or forworse, they stay. “We stay in Canada for our children,” they say. All of the participantscontend that their children are receiving a good education in Canada and will bepresented with opportunities that they themselves will not have. Public security alsokeeps them here: “When my children leave in the morning for school I know that theywill return,” says Brenda. That alone is reason to persevere.

Andrés and Lydia

Andrés, a licensed veterinarian specializing in large animals, received permanentresidency in Canada as an economic immigrant in 2007. His wife Lydia, a journalistwith two graduate degrees, came as his dependent. Andrés had planned to upgrade hisskills and write an equivalency exam through the Ontario Veterinary College in Guelph,but none of his Colombian or US experience was recognized. With a baby on the wayand Lydia’s English not fluent enough to continue her journalism career, Andrés took ajob welding street signs in Cambridge. He wants to upgrade his veterinary skills andpay the $14,000 fee to write the licensing equivalency exam, but does not have the timeor the money to pursue this goal:

I never imagined that I would come to Canada and work as a welder. In ColombiaI inseminated cows… Being a veterinarian is a big part of my identity. Work isjust work now. I don’t enjoy it. I don’t identify with it. Life is very mechanicalhere. We work like machines and we are treated like machines. There is nohuman contact, no warmth… When you work in these conditions for so longyour self-esteem suffers. You begin to lose the real you. You begin to lose hopeand the only way out of the sadness is to return to your homeland (Andrés,Colombia).

During our interview, Andrés continually turned the conversation to the topic offoreign qualification recognition and he was noticeably self-conscious about his currentjob. Unlike the other participants who largely associate with co-nationals, he does notinteract with other Colombians in the area, possibly because he is no longer of the samesocial class that he was in Colombia: “Personally I don’t like Colombians. <laughing>I recognize them anywhere…. they cluster together and gossip about one another, thisone was talking about that one and that one was talking about this one. And I hatethat.” Although Andrés prefers to keep his distance from fellow Colombians, hereported that his friends are Latin Americans and other immigrants. Lydia, for herpart, was hired in a temporary capacity by a national association focusing onimmigrant-related matters. Her contract was not renewed by an employer whoclaimed he could not understand her accent. She was told to reapply followingmore English language training.

Latin American Immigrants Interpret Their Canadian Employment Experiences

Jaime

The son of an army general, Jaime practiced corporate law in Bogotá, Colombia. Heworked hard and was rewarded with a comfortable lifestyle. As a favour to a friend,Jaime took on a criminal case against government paramilitary forces accused oftorture. He began living a “double life,” working with corporate clients in an officialcapacity and taking human rights cases under the table. But when one of the humanrights cases went public, Jaime’s cover was blown. He narrowly escaped beingdetained, tortured and “disappeared.” With a promise that his father and brother wouldbe safe, Jaime gathered all of his documents, applied for a tourist visa and bought areturn ticket to Toronto. When he arrived in Canada, he claimed asylum. While Jaime’suniversity degrees were accepted, he was unable to practice civil law in Ontario.Following a year of English classes, he entered a Master’s program and was able tolive on student loans and research assistantships. When the university funds weredepleted, Jaime turned to cleaning office buildings, working as a hotel porter, assem-bling car parts and finally working as a financial analyst. Deskilled like the economicimmigrants, Jaime’s attitude toward the receiving community was positive for a while.Initially, he experienced a tremendous sense of euphoria at his situation:

You know something? That first year in Canada, doing that kind of physical workand being seen as a refugee at the lowest rank of society; that was one of thehappiest years of my life. <laughing> I was studying English, living on welfare,cleaning, feeding my family out of the food bank and I was happy… Nobody waschasing us, no worries about the kind of work I did. I never realized how worriedI was as a lawyer. But that year I was worry free. I even enjoyed cleaning. I hadso many dreams in my head. I had the possibility to start a brand new life and Iwas excited (Jaime, Colombia).

Nevertheless, the longer Jaime stayed in Cambridge, the more the euphoria heinitially experienced dwindled. At the age of 42, he is professionally unfulfilled,economically unstable, and in his opinion, not particularly integrated into Canadianor Colombian society. He longs to return to law school to get his career back. But thistime as a different person: “I brought a couple of my expensive lawyer suits to Canada.Sometimes I look at them and wonder “who was that guy who dressed like this?” Thatwasn’t me. No, no I don’t care about that life anymore.”

Marcela

Marcela left Chile for Canada when her husband was transferred to a multi-nationalengineering firm in Brantford specializing in pulp and paper machinery. She handledcommunications for the city of Talca, a career that is now curbed by her unrecognizeduniversity degree and less than fluent English. After a year of searching for adminis-trative assistant jobs in Brantford, Marcela gave up and stayed home with her youngson. She maintains that she left her identity behind in Chile:

I have skills, but what use are they if I can’t use them in Canada? But I could notfind a job… It was lonely not having adult conversations; just sitting in four walls

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all day everyday waiting for my husband to come home. I was Geoff’s wife andAlex’s mother, but not Marcela. Where was Marcela? Well I guess Marcela wasleft behind in Chile. I was a wife and a mother but I was missing the woman; thewoman part (Marcela, Chile).

Almost all of the skilled participants referred to their former careers as pieces ofthemselves. But like Marcela, the skilled women who immigrated to Canada asdependents of their husbands not only lost their careers, they also became housebound.Until their children attend school full time, the absence of a familial support system orhired help in the receiving community has diminished their earning power and exac-erbated their workload (see also: Liversage 2009). For these women, loss of career alsosignifies a loss of independence, loneliness, boredom and a cruel introduction tosomething they did not have to experience back home where middle class familiescan afford domestic help: housework.

I was dependant on my husband for everything. He even had to make friends forme because I was trapped in the house doing housework. I hadn’t even donehousework before. We had maids in San Salvador to do that for us. By the end ofthat first year in Brantford I didn’t know who I was anymore. I mean I was smartback at home. I was one of only a handful of women to graduate with anengineering degree. I certainly didn’t want to spend my time cooking andcleaning. I felt so lonely and isolated. My husband was working, his entire familywas working; everyone was working but me (Xenia, El Salvador).

For these women, obstacles related to their gender have further complicated thelabour market barriers confronting them. Immigrant women tend to have pooreremployment outcomes than immigrant men and native-born women (Dominguez andHombrados 2006). Due to women’s less than equal status in the private sphere and thecultural norms surrounding domestic work, they tend to work a second shift at home.The migration experience did not shatter the gendered division of housework. In LatinAmerica, these women were responsible for the house and children, but theyoutsourced the work to other (poorer) women so that they could pursue careers outsidethe home. Being housebound also provides little opportunity for these women to learnor perfect English and it hinders the development of deep and diverse connections withthe receiving community.

Analysis and Discussion

Acculturation Intentions and Employment Experiences

Modern life revolves around employment and work is still the fundamental organizingconcept in society (McLaren et al. 2004). With employment playing such a pivotal rolein most people’s lives, it is not surprising that it would influence an immigrant’sacculturation to the receiving society (Buffoe 2010). As noted in the literature review,participation in suitable work is closely associated with psychological well-being. Itprovides a source of social and economic independence, self-fulfillment, and is

Latin American Immigrants Interpret Their Canadian Employment Experiences

therefore a vital means of integration into the wider society (Pavalko 1988). All of theLatin American immigrants who participated in my study claim to have experiencedlabour market constraints in Ontario, but their perceptions differ across immigrantclasses.

The deskilled Latin American participants’ intentions to acculturate were firstformed in the pre-migration period when they methodically planned their new livesin Canada and they were subsequently transformed in the post-migration period bytheir experiences with employment. For these immigrants, identity and sense ofbelonging appear to be firmly affixed to their former occupations. Being underem-ployed or unemployed (in the case of the women who stay at home) appears to haveexacerbated acculturative stress and has prevented them from fully participating in theeconomic and social fabric of Canada (see also Aycan and Berry 1996; Grant andNadin 2007). To revisit the literature discussed earlier in the article, acculturationintentions are very much a function of a minority group’s needs and desires in relationto the opportunities provided by the majority group (Arends-Toth and van de Vijver2003). Immigrants who perceive rejection from the receiving society are less likely todevelop positive relationships with the receiving society and are less likely to success-fully integrate (Van Oudenhoven et al. 2006 [literature review]; Bourhis et al. 1997). Asnoted by Daniel: “Engineers driving taxis and medical doctors washing floors inhospitals are not contributing their full potential to society, nor do they feel goodenough about themselves to even want to contribute” (Daniel, Guatemala). Peter Grantand Shevaun Nadin write that “even if the Canadian experience and credentialsrequirement is not the result of deliberate discrimination, it surely must appear so tomany of these new Canadians who are struggling to achieve full economic integration”(Grant and Nadin 2007, p. 143). If they regard the de-recognition of their credentialsand experience as discrimination, this might raise reciprocal negative perceptions in theimmigrants that lead them to detach from the receiving society (Jasinskaja-Lahti et al.2009). For this and other reasons, the deskilled participants’ acculturation is notproceeding as they had initially intended in the pre-migration period, and they preferto use the term “adapting” rather than “integrating.”

Although limited by a small sample size (N=6), the acculturation intentions of thelow-skilled Latin American participants appear to have been be more ad hoc and lessinfluenced by experiences with employment. These men seem to interact more with thewider receiving society despite a preference for speaking Spanish and socializing withco-national peers. They have little contact with family and friends in their sendingsocieties, and through soccer, and, to a lesser extent through Canadian spouses theyhave joined social networks that have eased their adaptation to Brantford andCambridge. They have taken a relatively straight path toward acculturation—graduallyshedding their past ethnic and professional identities to integrate into the receivingcommunities (in the case of Camilo, an alternate receiving community). Joel, forexample, says that his values and morals have changed since coming to Canada:“Down in Mexico it is kinda like survival of the fittest. In Mexico you trust no one. Ihad to learn how to trust people… but now I trust people here.” As low-skilledimmigrants, they feel like they are getting ahead in Southwestern Ontario because theyset their acculturation bar lower than their deskilled counterparts. In this sense, the low-skilled immigrants have a short-term advantage over the skilled immigrants in that theyhave jobs and access to Canadian experience through various government-funded

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technical programs. Jeffrey Reitz suggests, however, that this advantage diminishes inthe long-term because less educated immigrants tend to be less resilient in respondingto labour market difficulties when they arise (Reitz 2012).

Latin Americans as Instrumental Adapters

Whether low-skilled, highly skilled or deskilled; whether they view their experienceswith employment in Brantford and Cambridge as positive or negative, the LatinAmerican immigrants who participated in this study persevere. They are graduallydeveloping their survival skills, or in their words, “learning to follow the rules in ahyper-organized society.” The low-skilled participants have loosened their orientationtoward their country of origin, while the deskilled participants appear to live in a stateof ambivalence both “here” and “there” as they attempt to reconfigure their professionalidentities to better adapt to the receiving society. The Latin Americans have trained orhope to retrain and upgrade their credentials to better fit the Canadian labour market.However, for the most part, they appear to be searching for other ways to identify withthe receiving society beyond the workplace. While specific coping strategies arebeyond the scope and space limitations of this article, it is important to note that allof the participants volunteer in their receiving communities. The volunteering, howev-er, does not go beyond their national groups or a wider group of immigrants who haveshared similar lived experiences. For example, the Mexicans volunteer their services totemporary Mexican farm workers; the Colombians assist Colombian refugees, and theChileans are involved in community arts initiatives organized by other Chileans. Thereis little evidence in my research findings of deep connections being made with thenative-born population of the receiving communities. Volunteering is an indicator ofsocial integration, yet all of the Latin American immigrants who participated in thisstudy appear to be what Levitt (1998) calls “instrumental adapters,” relating to thereceiving society on an as-needed basis. None appear to be purposeful innovators,aggressively searching for and absorbing new things, and meeting new people (Levitt1998). The deskilled participants especially, reported that their inability to successfullyintegrate into the economy has hindered the development of frequent and intense tieswith Canadian-born members of the receiving society.

My findings also suggest that for the skilled Latin Americans, professional identityis much more associated with socioeconomic status than ethnic identity (see also Liet al. 1995). Having been uprooted from their professional lives, these deskilledimmigrants not only limit interactions with the native-born population, they rely onnostalgic notions of identity and culture by primarily associating with co-nationals ofsimilar education levels. These professional men and women were the elites at thecentre of Latin American society, whereas the low-skilled immigrants occupied arelatively marginal position in society. Paula’s words are especially revealing of thesignificance of perceived socio-economic status for Latin American professionals inCanada:

Have you ever stopped to notice that our group of Chileans are all highlyeducated? We have little in common with the rural Central Americans orColombians who arrived as refugees or for that matter the Mexican farm mi-grants. Look, Latin America is known to be the most unequal region in the

Latin American Immigrants Interpret Their Canadian Employment Experiences

world… That is the reality. It is not surprising that those social divisions are re-established in Canada. In fact the social divisions are more exaggerated in Canadabecause education is immensely important here (Paula, Chile).

Conclusions

The research findings offered in this article suggest that the interpretation of employ-ment experiences by Latin American immigrants residing in the Southwestern Ontariocities of Brantford and Cambridge influences their decisions to interact with the receivingcommunities. The low-skilled Latin Americans who acquired permanent residencythrough family and humanitarian sponsorship have not integrated into Canada’s econ-omy any more than their deskilled (largely economic) counterparts; they merelyperceive their employment situation as better than it was back home. The deskilledLatin Americans perceive their employment situation as worse than it was back homeand worse than that of their Canadian-born counterparts. The sad irony of thesefindings is that the immigrants who planned a seamless integration into Canada andwho bring the most resources with them with respect to human and economic capitalexperience the most gruelling adaptation to the receiving society. The realities lived bythe majority of the skilled Latin Americans who participated in my research are farfrom the expectations they had before coming to Southwestern Ontario. Their inabilityto find suitable jobs means that they have not been able to rebuild their social networksand develop the personal and collective resources to find professional success. Theyappear to be confronted with a seemingly permanent situation of perceived inferiorityand little perceived control over the acculturation process. On the contrary, thoserelatively low-skilled Latin American immigrants with few resources at their disposaland low initial expectations for integration are able to start from scratch, seize oppor-tunities, and, in their eyes, gradually get ahead. The second sad irony is that despiteCanada’s point system that privileges highly skilled workers and despite its institution-alized multicultural policies, many Latin Americans in Canada still find themselves inthe same niche semi-skilled and unskilled jobs that they perform in the United Stateswhere integration programs and services for immigrants are non-existent or ad hoc at best.

My qualitative study is unique in that I deliberately sampled both skilled and low-skilled immigrants from Latin America residing outside of Canada’s largest cities toexamine their adaptation to two communities. While interviewing these participants, Ilearned through serendipity that one specific environmental factor—the labour mar-ket—affects their decisions to identify and interact to the fullest degree with thereceiving society. The findings I presented in this article are similar to those found inprevious studies using a socio-psychological perspective on foreign credentialingproblems in Canada (e.g. Grant and Nadin 2007; Krahn et al. 2000). Prior researchon immigrants’ experiences with employment in Canada also demonstrates howdeskilled immigrants cope with losing their occupations: by reinventing themselvesin new occupations and finding new identities (e.g. Shuval 2000) and throughretraining and volunteering to obtain Canadian experience (e.g. Slade et al. 2005).Also present in the academic debate is the growing recognition that the structuralbarriers to suitable employment for immigrants should not be treated as natural, taken-

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for-granted policies and practices, but rather as a product of unequal power relationsbased on race, ethnicity, gender and class. Many employers and professional bodies inCanada are making it unnecessarily difficult for racialized immigrants to access highlyskilled occupations in Canada through the institutional rejection of their foreigncredentials and work experience (e.g. Bauder 2003; Buzdugan and Halli 2009).While we know that policymakers are working on the issue of immigrant underem-ployment and unemployment, there continues to be a great deal of analysis neededregarding what immigrants are doing about these deeply entrenched yet subtle forms ofinstitutional discrimination. For many immigrants, particularly those who lack social,political or economic power, the narrative around employment and acculturation barriersare either negative, narrow or “written” by others for them (Rappaport 1995). A topic offurther study would see immigrants as agents of change: using collective action to takegreater control over their own acculturation and write their own narrative. One partic-ipant picked up on this issue and so I will conclude this article with her words:

You come to this country full of hope; you come with your own story; you comewith a life that you already worked long and hard to build, and all of these thingsget taken away. But on the bright side you have a chance to have a fresh start. Youhave a chance to realize that maybe what I did in Mexico or Colombia was notthe right choice; maybe I should try something else in Canada. Immigration givesyou the opportunity to discover yourself and write a new story (Lupita, Mexico).

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Latin American Immigrants Interpret Their Canadian Employment Experiences