Toronto: The Government of Canada is making easier for newcomer women to find a job by providing support and services. This team will help women to highlight their talents and experiences when they settle in Canada.
According to research, some newcomer women face multiple barriers when they try to find the work to settle in Canada. This also includes gender- and race-based discrimination, precarious or low-income employment, lack of affordable childcare, and weak social and employment supports.
The government has selected 22 organizations across the country after recognizing their challenges. The organizations will understand visible minority newcomer women, the barriers they face, and their circumstances and launch projects in the next 2 years that will be:
- Develop and test innovative approaches to enable more visible minority newcomer women to find a job and succeed at work;
- Support smaller organizations to increase their capacity to serve visible minority newcomer women and enable them to overcome barriers to employment; and/or
- Increase the digital literacy of visible minority newcomer women to access and advance within the Canadian labour market.
The Government is committed to the full and equal participation of all women and girls, which is essential to Canada’s economic growth and prosperity.
This isn’t just about getting jobs for women; it’s also about providing a sense of dignity and belonging. Canada’s gender equality is for all women, not just for some said by Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship.
“Visible minority newcomer women face many intersecting barriers when trying to find a job. If we want to advance gender equality, we need to acknowledge that they exist and actively work to dismantle them. Everyone deserves to be able to develop their skills and find a good job so that they can take care of themselves and their family. And through this pilot project, we can better ensure that all women have an equal opportunity at success.”
Canada Government:
- The Government of Canada is providing $7.5 million within two years of selected 22 organizations to deliver these projects.
- In December 2018, the government launched an expression of interest process to solicit proposals from organizations for new projects.
- Visible minority newcomer women have the lowest median annual income of all newcomer groups at $26,624, compared to non-visible minority newcomer women ($30,074), visible minority newcomer men ($35,574), and non-visible minority newcomer men ($42,591).
- Visible minority newcomer women are more likely to be unemployed. The unemployment rate of visible minority newcomer women (9.7%) is higher than that of visible minority (8.5%) and non-visible minority (6.4%) newcomer men, based on the 2016 Census.
