Costi

I am sure this organization (whose name means nothing in particular in English as it is an acronym for a phrase in the Italian of its founders) does a lot of good work with immigrants, but my own experience last year was most disappointing. I joined a program which was supposed to help immigrants such as myself with professional backgrounds.
It was to consist of a four-​week (!), full day class in how to prepare for employment in Canada (no, they would not let me skip it due to a similar cultural background as an Amercian) and then what I really wanted out of it, a career counselor with placement contacts at specific companies.
There were about 15 or so folks in the class, representing a variety of cultures and countries but primarily Pacific, South Asian and Central American. There was no one from East Asia. Since that was the case, they could have actually skipped the part of the module that dealt with differences in cultural communication styles perceived as shyness, as these primarily affect East Asians and had little to do with the backgounds of the participants.
In general the class was fairly useful, though I was able to help some of the other people almost as much as the instructor in some areas, especially those involving cultural differences. It did have an interviewing session with videotape that was helpful.
But after the class and the meeting with their career placement person, I realized they would do little in the way of actual networking help. This was confirmed when I got an email two weeks later that they were discontinuing their program for foreign trained professionals. No reason was given; knowing that it is a non-​profit, I think people would have been understanding if they said their funding was cut, but they did not even state that. I found my current job through CareerBridge which I have previously reviewed.
In general I think Toronto and Canada does much better in placing educated immigrants in jobs cleaning toilets than they do at using their talents. I am also somewhat disgusted at Canada, as an immigrant, for worrying so much about «visible minorities», most of whom are people born here and less about the waste of talent among highly educated first generation immigrants. The only way Canada can change this is strict legislation prohibiting employment discrimination by country of previous work experience (for those with legal residence) status. In general, the United States needs no such legislation for professional or administrative positions — discrimination there is more likely to be based on race or gender.