Government policy and practice

A. Immigration

There are a number of concerns related to women and immigration policy. For the point of view of obstacles to learning opportunities, the most serious are the admission status under which women generally enter and the education, occupational training/skills/experience, and the language skills of individual women Briefly these concerns are as follows:

Approximately one-half of adult women immigrants are admitted to Canada under a non-working and/or dependent status. Most often they accompany their husband (often an independent immigrant) and are classed as dependent, "non-working spouses". They may also accompany other family members as a dependent, "non-working other". Or they may enter as sponsored or nominated immigrants destined to join some family member already well-established here, again as a dependent person. The general category for all such persons in immigration statistics is "not destined for the labour force".

Immigrants who are destined for the labour force have two advantages: (a) their education, occupational training/skills/experience, and language skills are assessed at the time of application. This assessment then becomes a matter of record and can be drawn on as a credential of sorts; and (b) the independent immigrant is eligible for assistance from the CEIC for finding and securing a job; defraying the costs of settlement; occupational training to bring him/her up to Canadian standards and requirements in the assessed occupation; and language training to bring his/her fluency in French or English up to the level necessary in his/her job.

Immigrants who are not destined for the labour force are not assessed and are classed as unskilled labour. The CEIC considers that unskilled labourers does not require further training unless there are no jobs to be found. In terms of language training the following passage from a policy review document sets out the position taken by the CEIC:

"Language training for immigrants ... is intended to help persons who cannot obtain work in their normal occupation because they lack fluency in the relevant official language. Recent studies, however, show that in many cases it is not being provided to the right people. A significant proportion of trainees withdraw from the labour force after training, , many of them "to keep house". The great majority of persons in this group are dependents. The intention, therefore, is to provide language courses with training allowances primarily to immigrants, who made independent applications, since these are the ones who have been selected for their ability to contribute skills to Canada's economy Language training without allowances may be offered in some cases to immigrants in other categories, although there are many low-cost courses available to them through both public and private agencies in Canada."^l (underlining ours)