About

CHANGING THE CANVAS highlights the experiences of immigrants of colour in the workforce. These stories remind us that real people live behind the statistics about racism, barriers to employment, chronic poverty, and failures with how Canada recognizes foreign credentials or prior learning assessments.

Canada’s workforce is undergoing tremendous change. It is an evolving picture – a dynamic landscape of jobs and cutbacks, opportunities and gaps; a canvas that includes massive loss of manufacturing jobs, spikes in lower paying service sector jobs, and some rabid regional growth.

This canvas depicts an unprecedented number of aging workers, declining birth rates, and lots of colour.

By 2030, population growth in Canada will be 100% dependent upon immigrants. In as soon as six years, some projections suggest Canada will be 100% dependent on immigration as a principal source for our labour force growth.

During the 1980s and 90s, over 75% of new immigrants came from the ‘global south’ – places where people of colour are dominant. As of 2005, 80% of those making Canada their new home came from Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and the Pacific rim. Today, nearly 50% of Canada’s population is of an ethnic origin other than British, French or native-born Canadian. Between immigration and related factors, it is expected that by 2017 – Canada’s 150th birthday – 1 in 5 people here will be a person of colour.

This colouring of the workforce is indeed happening, necessitating CHANGE in terms of how we support it. The challenge will be to rid the CANVAS of the racism, social exclusion, and economic injustice that too many immigrants and workers of colour continue to endure.

CHANGING THE CANVAS intends to stimulate debate on some ongoing critical questions:

  • What challenges face immigrant workers of colour in Canada?
  • What discriminatory attitudes and practices persist in Canadian workplaces, and how?
  • What policy/legislative changes are needed to improve the situation and experiences of immigrant workers of colour?
  • What can people do to support the transformation of Canadian workplaces into places of opportunity for immigrant workers of colour?
  • How can policy makers and elected officials act in support of policy/legislative recommendations?

The CHANGING THE CANVAS project is built around three components: stories, research, and education.

This initiative aspires to …

  • promote the need for Canadian workplaces that are free of racism, harassment, and barriers to achievement/advancement for immigrant workers of colour
  • strengthen the participation of immigrant workers of colour in the Canadian workforce
  • stimulate policy dialogue on matters related to immigrant workers of colour
  • Changing the Canvas is a project of the Canadian Labour Congress, made possible with funding from Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

To download a flash movie promotion of this project click here.

For inquiries: info@changingthecanvas.org