By Ingi Hong

The movie Dr. Cabbie (2014) reminded me of my frustrating experience in trying to get my education status recognized in Canada. The main character is a doctor from India who struggles to find a job in Canada and ends up working as a taxi driver. I immigrated to Canada with three years of Early Childhood Education and five years of work experience. However, my education and experience were useless according to the College of ECE. It was hard to accept that my three years of education in Korea, which upholds one of the highest worldwide education standards, is inferior to the two-year course in Canada.

In my collage, I tried to express unfairness in recognizing immigrant education. At the top of it, professionals celebrate their achievements outside of Canada, and the image of the road represents their immigration journey. People think of Canada as diverse, equitable and full of opportunity place.

The bottom half of the collage expresses people’s struggle and frustration because their education and career are not recognized, so they have to jump into survival jobs. The banner’s text says that although people are welcome in Canada, everything has to start from scratch.  Guo & Shan (2013) noted that the Canadian equivalency assessment has to change its “deficit approach in viewing the knowledge and experiences brought in by ‘the other.’ Instead, it embraces cultural difference and diversity as positive and desirable assets”(p. 478). Thus, for immigrant education recognition equity, the Canadian government needs to adjust the regulations, review the evaluation standards, and involve Ontario regulatory colleges in deciding the evaluation of immigrants’ education and credentials. The Ontario government recently announced that the regulatory colleges of doctors and nurses had adjusted their regulations to register foreigner-trained doctors and nurses (Jones, 2022).

It is the first step for removing the barriers for every immigrant professional, eliminating redundant education and improving the process of continuing their careers in Canada.

References

Guo, S. & Shan, H. (2013). The politics of recognition: Critical discourse analysis of recent PLAR policies for immigrant professionals in Canada. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 32(4), 464–480. DOI: 10.1080/02601370.2013.778073

Pouliot, J-F. (2014). Dr. Cabbie [Movie]. Salman Khan Films; Entertainment One. StudioCanal; Caramel Film. Firsttake Entertainment.

Jones, A. (2022, August 04). Ontario regulatory colleges have 2 weeks to find ways to register foreign-trained nurses, doctors faster. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/international-nurses-ontario-1.6541173