In 2020, my team colleagues and I were invited to speak at an online conference on the subject of diversity and inclusion. This opportunity was both thrilling and significant, allowing me to draw upon my insights gained from working with a career education program designed to support immigrant women. Additionally, I incorporated my personal experiences as an internationally trained professional, newcomer, and mother. Specifically, my presentation centered on the job search process in Canada through the lens of diversity and inclusion.

Diversity and Inclusion in Job Search

Today, I would like to talk about “diversity and inclusion in job search”, focusing specifically on the marginalized group that we’ve been supporting – immigrant mothers. As my colleague mentioned, being an immigrant itself is challenging. On top of that, being a mother adds another layer to the barriers that they face in the labour market. When we talk about diversity and inclusion, we often think in terms of gender and race, but if we expand our definition, we see that subgroups exist. I believe immigrant working mothers or immigrant mothers looking for work is one such group.

My personal journey

I’d like to share my own personal story as an immigrant working mother. Before moving to Canada, I was a working professional with 5 years of experience in a very successful global company. I loved my job and my life back home, but I said no to the good things to say yes to the best things in my life.

In my first year in Canada, I experienced a huge transition both as an immigrant and also as a mother. I always wanted to return to work after having a child but that was tough. I didn’t have a good support system, had no professional networks and had career gaps, just to name a few. I was eager to find my identity back as a working professional, but there were some systemic barriers.

After a lot of trial and error, I got lucky and got a job offer, but it was still challenging to find an opportunity that embraced my differences as an immigrant working mother. Now I am grateful to be working at the YWCA that offers a supportive and inclusive environment. Even before the pandemic, I was able to work in a flexible and supportive culture, which provided a sustainable environment to continue my life and passion as a professional working mother. I now see many mothers like me in leadership positions in the organization and this definitely increases my motivation and commitment to the role.

Barriers experienced by immigrant mothers in pursuing career

Looking back on my experience as a career advisor and facilitator for the Elevate Skills program, we’ve supported over 85 immigrant women in seven different cohorts. Many of our participants were immigrant mothers. So for this reason, sometimes we had little kids in the workshops participate as very special guests, especially during these times when our meetings are conducted through the online format, it is not uncommon to hear a child crying and jumping into the camera and saying hi.

From my experience working with immigrant mothers so far, they were the most resilient people that I’ve ever met. While experiencing various transitions, they were eager to learn and develop their skills more than anyone else in the group. 

However, there were unique systemic barriers that they were facing in the labour market. Most participants had career gaps which could be considered a red flag from employers. And many of them had limited support systems in terms of child care and which made it even more challenging to re-enter the workforce with traditional office hours. 

We once had a client who was an IT professional with many years of experience back in her home country. While her spouse achieved professional development with fatherhood bonuses, she, as an immigrant mother, was experiencing a 5-year career gap. She applied for an entry level position but due to the lack of a support system for her children attending school, it was not an easy decision to going back to normal office hours. From that point, I questioned: If her career gap wasn’t considered a drawback or penalty; if there was affordable, reliable and available child care for her children; if there were more opportunities to work flexible hours; what would have been different? 

Despite many roadblocks, we heard of amazing stories too. I noticed that many immigrant mothers used negative language when they described their working gaps or experiences as mothers, such as “I’m just a mom. I didn’t do anything over the last two years to care for my children.”, which I believe is not true. I’m pretty sure that they’ve learned and developed many skills during that time. So I encourage them to value their own experience as mothers and highlighted their transferrable skills in the job search process. One of our participants decided to write about her volunteer experience at children’s school on her resume and got her first interview in Canada after having career gaps. And another participant decided to take online courses for career transition, and told me that she realized “being a mother made me a better student and a better person.”, which I totally agreed with.

Recommendations for Employers to Foster Diversity and Inclusion in Talent Acquisition

I believe the individual efforts are important but I don’t think they are enough to make a meaningful difference, without the employers’ efforts. And here are a few suggestions I’d like to recommend:

First, value their experience as a mother. Mothers have so many transferable skills in addition to their professional skills. Mothers are project manager, event planner, administrative officer, and financial manager at home. Especially for immigrant mothers, they’re second to none in terms of being resilient, responsible, and adaptable to change. 

Second, try to reduce unconscious biases and stereotypes of mothers as lacking flexibility and having lower work commitment or performance, which is not true.

Last but not least, cultivate supportive and inclusive cultures. Consider job sharing options, reduced hours or flexible hours. As we’re transitioning to a new norm, I think now is the time to question and redefine so called ‘ideal-worker norm’ and to be more creative in rebuilding work cultures for embracing diverse populations. 

Closing

From what I observed from immigrant mothers, success in job search doesn’t just mean getting a job or making money. Instead, it means finding back their identity as a working professional, contributing to the Canadian community, achieving economic inclusion, and most importantly, being a role model for their own immigrant children. 

When we invest in diversity and inclusion and embrace marginalized groups and allow them to be different, I believe that makes Canada as Canada. Thank you.