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Victor Neagu is seasoned government relations and communications professional with two decades of global leadership experience in strategic communications, project management, public diplomacy and government relations in the public, private and non-profit sectors. Throughout his career, he has engaged governments, private sector companies, civil society organizations, academia and media to catalyze partnerships, investments and research in support of economic, social and environmental reforms, in more than 30 countries across Africa, Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe and Latin America.
In this episode, Victor and I chat about the following and more:
How the dominance of networks in hiring puts newcomers at a structural disadvantage
How eliminating barriers to labor mobility between provinces could create more competition and opportunity
Why more newcomer voices in politics at every level, city, provincial, federal, is essential to changing policy
Why we need to move the immigration debate from quantity to quality of integration
Chapters
0:00 What's the Canadian dream for the immigrant?
1:06 Intro
3:01 Victor's mixed picture of Canada before he committed
6:35 Settling in vs. belonging
12:10 Don't normalize underachievement
16:12 Why networking is important in Canada
21:12 Bringing meritocracy into the labor market
29:24 Canada's institutional mindset
39:36 On foreign-trained doctors
44:29 From numbers to quality of integration
49:00 Immigrants bring expertise
52:51 Outro
Some takeaways
The smaller the network, the stronger the need to network. In a market of 41 million people, with highly localized labor markets, networks become the dominant hiring currency. And for newcomers who arrive without the Canadian education, the social context, or the connections, that's a disadvantage they have to overcome.
Canada's institutional mindset favors stability over growth, and that mindset affects everything else. The institutional preference for status quo shows up in the quasi-monopolies across industries, the cost of phone bills and insurance, the trade dependence on the United States, and the snail-like approach to building the infrastructure needed for diversification. Victor says this trickles into the labor market, into salaries, into the cost of living, and is a major reason why skilled immigrants hit a ceiling and leave.
The Canadian immigration debate needs to shift from numbers to quality of integration. Victor points out that Canada has been talking about becoming a country of 100 million since the 1910s. We're still at 41 million. Part of the reason is that people keep coming and leaving. If the policy conversation shifts from "how many people did we bring in this year" to "how well did they integrate and what prevented them from reaching their potential," you start asking entirely different questions. You ask about retention. About credential recognition across provinces. About why someone with a career in international development applied for hundreds of jobs and got silence. That alone would transform how settlement support is designed and how communities engage with newcomers.
Links:
Where to find Victor:
Read his piece where he reflects on his seven years in Canada
The Newcomers resources:
Want to work with us? Check out The Newcomers Media Kit.
Want more immigrant interviews? Listen to The Newcomers Podcast.
Looking to find out what Canadian immigration program you’re eligible for? Check out our Who’s Eligible For series.
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