Digital platforms give the chance to obtain employment in the field they were trained in for foreign-trained healthcare professionals who are unemployed or underemployed on the Canadian labor market.
Even though there is a scarcity of healthcare workers in Canada, immigrant caregivers are having trouble finding work and are exploring for alternatives. Gig platforms, where workers from other countries are overrepresented, are one of these alternatives.
Consider a new nurse from the Philippines who is seeking registration in the nursing profession. She can’t practice as a registered nurse without a license, but in the interim she might accept a job from a virtual care platform like care.com to look after a client with dementia twice a week.Many immigrant care workers turn to these platforms while waiting for accreditation to find meaningful employment. Considering the Canadian health sector is so chronically short-staffed, this suggests that Canada is struggling to support the integration of immigrant workers into the care sector.
The majority of caregivers in Canada’s healthcare system are immigrants. They account for more than 40% of the nurse aides and support staff in Ontario, according to Statistics Canada.
To supplement the shortage of care workers in Canada, personal support workers, nurse assistants, and orderlies are required. Nonetheless, many people encounter obstacles when trying to find respectable jobs in the care sector.
Notwithstanding Canada’s merit-based point system, which is intended to choose immigrants to fill skilled labor market gaps, applicants frequently encounter legal, economic, and policy obstacles.Some immigrants, for example, struggle to get international professional degrees recognized in Canada. Other barriers include long wait times from licensing authorities, restrictive testing requirements and a lack of training opportunities.
For immigrant care professionals facing employment barriers, care platforms seemingly offer an opportunity for them to work in their field. But while digital platform work can be a stepping-stone for new immigrants in Canada, for some it only offers them a temporary reprieve while they figure out how to find permanent jobs in the health-care industry.
