Here’s Why You Should Listen to Shamira Madhany’s The Newcomers Podcast Episode Again

Hello, I'd really like to grow this email list. If you enjoy this newsletter, it would mean the world to Jola and I if you encouraged one friend/fellow immigrant/colleague to subscribe…Very likely, the the only thing you will get in return is warm fuzzy feelings, and if I can attribute it to you, I’d personally send you a thank you email.

I love a good conversation. And the thing about good conversations is that you end up further down the rabbit hole, grinning like a well-fed hamster, with your thoughts leached all over your notepad like Legos.

My episode with Shamira Madhany, Managing Director of WES, was exactly this way. We talked about her journey to public service and WES and how it’s granted her a front-row seat to the disconnect between Canada’s immigration ambitions and how we value immigrant talent.

Some context: Shamira joined WES in 2018 after over two decades of public service. Before that, she was the Assistant Deputy Minister, Health, Social, Education and Children’s Policy, The Ontario Cabinet Office. She also served as the chief architect of several government programs that helped highly skilled immigrants to obtain employment in their fields. Shamira played a significant role in the launch of WES Canada in 2000 during her tenure at the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration as Provincial Lead, Access to Professions and Trades.

Here’s some hard data on Canadian immigration from Shamira and more:

1. The economic cost is humongous: According to RBC Economics, Canada loses C$50 billion in GDP annually due to the immigrant wage gap. Meanwhile, Canadian businesses report losing $38 billion a year from workforce shortages. Immigrant unemployment is 9.1% compared to 6.2% overall, while 20% for racialized and refugee youth—all amid labor shortages.

2. The public narrative is focused on the wrong things: The discourse is fixated on the number of immigrants coming into Canada instead of how well we integrate those already here. Polls show Canadians believe immigrants are a net positive to the economy, while wanting fewer newcomers. These contradictions indicate a misunderstanding of the real issues. As Shamira says, “The narrative has to change from how many immigrants to bring in to what we need to do to remain competitive.”

3. The experience of highly skilled immigrants means nothing: Before granting entry, Canada does a great job of assessing the immigrant’s academic credentials. However, everything goes downhill from there. Employers struggle to interpret foreign work experience. The newcomers are treated like fresh graduates. And we end up with senior engineers driving Uber or doctors working in warehouses.

4. The human in the loop suffers: We often focus on the economic costs because they’re quantifiable. But what of the human in the loop? As Wunmi Adekanbi describes it in her episode, it’s a ‘triple loss’: the immigrant’s home country loses talent, Canada doesn’t gain anything from an underemployed immigrant who can’t live up to their full potential, and the immigrant loses their sense of identity and purpose along the way. Shamira thinks Canadians need to cultivate empathy “and put themselves into the shoes of these individuals, even for three minutes.” Canadian immigration needs to be approached with both “head” (economic data) and “heart” (human understanding).

5. Solutions exist, but we need better coordination: Shamira proposes that we:

   1. Create standardized tools for assessing immigrants’ real skills, not just their paperwork.

   2. And place coordination in the Prime Minister’s Office to break down silos between Immigration, Employment, and Health ministries. “It’s not a decision-making table, it’s a coordinating table,” she explains.

6. We can get it right through collective action: Shamira is optimistic and sees the increased public conversation on immigration as an opportunity. Her closing metaphor captures her philosophy: “I don’t want to give out umbrellas anymore. I want to change the climate.