KASHFI KABIR

Country of Origin: Bangladesh
Arrival in Canada:

Kashfi considers herself lucky. Within 15 days of arriving in Canada, she was working in a pizza shop and back in school to train for her current job as a dental assistant.

On the other hand, her husband, – a Ph.D. holder – could find neither a professional nor blue collar job. Kashfi knows first-hand the kind of toll chronic unemployment can take: her husband’s frustration with not being recognized for his qualifications turned into depression and anger, eventually leading the couple to divorce. While Kashfi has succeeded in making the best of a difficult situation, she feels for newcomers with professional experience and post secondary education who arrive to discover a lack of jobs. Kashfi wants the Canadian government to “be fair about this” – most newcomers apply for ‘skilled worker immigration’, so why not be more explicit about which job sectors actually require foreign workers?

Kashfi knows first-hand the kind of toll chronic unemployment can take: her husband’s frustration with not being recognized for his qualifications turned into depression and anger, eventually leading the couple to divorce.