Helping hand
RATNA OMIDVAR has helped change the way Canada treats immigrants
RatnaOmidvar arrived in Canada from Iran
in 1981. Like scores of new immi-
grants, she had no job despite a
bagful of qualifications and it
took her six years to find her feet
in her new adopted country. That
made her wonder: “How much
longer does it take for other peo-
ple to settle down in Canada?”
Unlike most other immigrants,
she decided to do something
about it.
She started working for Skills
for Change, a non-governmental
organization that helped new
immigrants. She joined Maytree
in 1998 “partly because I realized
that in order to achieve my objec-
tive I needed to work with differ-
ent tools. Maytree, a private
foundation that promotes equity
and prosperity through leader-
ship building, gave me access to
those tools.”
She is now president of
Maytree. Under her leadership,
Maytree founded the Toronto
Region Immigrant Employment
Council to create opportunities
for skilled immigrants to connect
to the local labor market. It
works with all levels of govern-
ment, enhancing coordination
and effecting more responsive
policy and programs for skilled employment.
The TRIEC’s main emphasis is on bridge-building programs
for international graduates so that they can gain some
Canadian experience — that is so crucial for new immigrants to
find jobs in their own profession in Canada. The TRIEC has
mentored more than 3,000 international graduates and more
than 1,000 have gone through internship programs. Most
importantly, says Omidvar, many employers are now changing
their hiring policies and procedures.
She’s too modest to take credit for the positive changes in the
Canadian labor market. “There’s a much deeper and mature
understanding of my key message that Canada will not succeed
unless immigrants succeed,” she says. “Therefore, integration of
immigrants is not the responsibility of immigrants or of the
government — but the whole society,” Omidvar says she’s happy
that the mindset is changing “in the government at all levels,
also amongst professional regulatory bodies and amongst
Canada’s leading employers.”
She firmly believes that “success of new immigrants is part of
the mainstream success.”
To underline that, she points out that according to a
Conference Board of Canada,
Canada loses $4 billion every year
because international graduates
are under-employed. The study
was conducted in the year 2000. By
now, the cost Canada is paying
because of not properly utilizing
the talent pool of new immigrants
is likely to have doubled.
“I started to become aware of the
scope and depth of the problem
because of its complexity: One level
of government brings an immigrant into the country, another
level of government is responsible
for their education and training.
And a third level of government is
responsible for regulating and issuing credentials — and the employers hire whom they like,” Omidvar
explains.
An alumnus of the Kumaun
University in Nainital,
Uttarakhand and Delhi University,
she learnt German in Pune and
went on a scholarship to Munich,
Germany, where she met her
Iranian husband.
Amongst the dozens of government task forces she has been
appointed to, she was member of
the Transition Advisory Board to
the Premier of Ontario in 2003,
when Dalton McGuinty was elected the head of Canada’s most populated province.
