RAHUL BHARDWAJ

How do we attract, engage, and retain immigrant workers to Canada?

Rahul Bhardwaj’s answers to these questions should be taken seriously. He knows first-hand the challenges faced on both sides of the immigrant employment equation thanks to years with the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council and his current role as President/CEO of the Toronto Community Foundation.

Bhardwaj is motivated by the facts: Immigrants face twice the unemployment rate as long-term citizens in Canada and are typically hired at half the salary, if hired at all.

Here, Bhadwaj reviews the wide-ranging factors related to the question of immigrant employment. An overarching problem, he says, is how to match immigrants’ expectations with those of our marketplace.

Bhardwaj supports initiatives that strive for coordination of standards, the establishment of understandable and transparent processes for immigrant workers, as well as their right to appeal.

By the year 2011, all new net growth to our labour force will be through immigration.