Alberta is Diverse, But is it Inclusive?
Over 23,000 newcomers moved from outside Canada to make Alberta home in the last quarter of 2018. Most of this people are from Asia, and Africa who will feed into the growing newcomer multicultural communities that diversifies Alberta.
For sure one in four Albertan was born abroad. Racially speaking, Alberta is diverse, going through statistics or taking a casual look on the streets of major Albertan cities. It’s diverse, and now what? The big question is, is Alberta inclusive? Let me put it this way, Diversity is to open the door which has and is currently happening. Do newcomers feel inclusive? Do they feel at home? When people are happy, they give their best, any where, every where. How can we make newcomers feel at home in our work places, communities, cities, towns, and counties, and make use of this colossal human resources in talent, skills, and experiences that is not being put into proper use?
What Takes Steam Off Inclusion in Alberta?
When newcomers come to Alberta from abroad, their biggest focus is to survive while looking for jobs that match their skills. They hit the ground running with survival jobs that they have never done, or have done long time ago in their youth. It takes a long time for many to transition to career jobs or to re-invent themselves and change careers due to no recognition of their credentials, experience and accomplishments through no fault of their own – the “Canadian Experience Syndrome”. This poses the first question, when you feel at home, you feel appreciated, you do not doubt yourself and your qualifications. When this happens, it raises the question of inclusion.
Inclusion goes way beyond recognition of qualifications to accessing opportunities. Most job opportunities are advertised through the usual channels, organization website, and today through social media, and in a reduced number of cases, mainstream media. Effective inclusion is engagement, involvement, reaching out through effective channels. Newcomer multicultural communities are able to find and apply for jobs, where ever the jobs are advertised because they need to survive. Unfortunately, this struggle for survival making newcomers feel like a shadow of their once confident selves, coupled with their lack of recognition of their experiences, accomplishments, credentials, takes off the steam that they were greeted with on landing at the Toronto Airport. This cancels out the involvement of newcomers in community building and social stuffs such as election, volunteering on Boards, Committees, and other community building exercises with decision making power and or opportunity to share their opinions and visions, that will otherwise make them feel inclusive. This implies that organizational, governmental, community, and political leaders trying to engage multicultural communities need to move away from business as usual strategies to new ways of reaching out such as presentations to specific community groups, churches, and community media, or call it ethnic media, and targeted use of social media.
Those that can Effectively Engage will Carry the Day
It is the role of the leader to attract followers or to figure out how to attract followers, not for the followers to figure out how to follow the leader. The years 2019 and 2020 will see Alberta and Federal elections to choose political leaders. In the same line, organizations will need quality manpower and volunteers, and municipalities will be seeking good people to help build their communities. Effective engagement of multicultural communities, this fastest growing part of Alberta’s population will be at the centre of this process. Those that can effectively engage will carry the day.
