How do we understand what policies exist to address racialized un/underemployment and the hiring and promotion of newcomers living in Canada? Our first step is to review the existing literature on racialized employment in Alberta and identify policies at a provincial and federal level that help bridge the gap for racialized individuals and newcomers to find gainful employment. Liam Greene, an undergraduate student at MacEwan University with experience in anthropology research, has compiled a comprehensive literature review for our research purposes.

Liam’s literature review covered a wide range of topics such as racialized Edmontonian and newcomers’ integration into the labour market, policies about equitable access to the labour market, immigrant experiences of the workplace, and of trying to find work. One of the highlights from Liam’s review is the idea of immigration influencing factors (e.g., what attracts immigrants to any one city? How does a city retain newcomers?).

From this literature review, we learned things like one of the most influential factors in attracting newcomers to any one city - like Edmonton or Calgary - is the presence of family and friends who already live in the area (Derwing & Krahn 2008). Newcomers’ perceptions of job prospects also play a role in attracting immigration, as well as perceptions of what the quality of life would look like in a new city. Additionally, Liam’s work helped our team understand how federal immigration caps affect the ability of municipalities and provinces to attract and retain immigrants.

Why is this an important part of our research process? Well, reviewing relevant literature gives us a solid understanding of racialized individuals’ experiences of employment in Alberta and the existing policies around employment equity. This evidence-based knowledge will be helpful during our data analysis stage, of course. But it also helps us refine the questions we might ask during semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions, which we are in the process of collecting.

How do we understand what policies exist to address racialized un/underemployment and the hiring and promotion of newcomers living in Canada? Our first step is to review the existing literature on racialized employment in Alberta and identify policies at a provincial and federal level that help bridge the gap for racialized individuals and newcomers to find gainful employment. Liam Greene, an undergraduate student at MacEwan University with experience in anthropology research, has compiled a comprehensive literature review for our research purposes.

Liam’s literature review covered a wide range of topics such as racialized Edmontonian and newcomers’ integration into the labour market, policies about equitable access to the labour market, immigrant experiences of the workplace, and of trying to find work. One of the highlights from Liam’s review is the idea of immigration influencing factors (e.g., what attracts immigrants to any one city? How does a city retain newcomers?).

From this literature review, we learned things like one of the most influential factors in attracting newcomers to any one city - like Edmonton or Calgary - is the presence of family and friends who already live in the area (Derwing & Krahn 2008). Newcomers’ perceptions of job prospects also play a role in attracting immigration, as well as perceptions of what the quality of life would look like in a new city. Additionally, Liam’s work helped our team understand how federal immigration caps affect the ability of municipalities and provinces to attract and retain immigrants.

Why is this an important part of our research process? Well, reviewing relevant literature gives us a solid understanding of racialized individuals’ experiences of employment in Alberta and the existing policies around employment equity. This evidence-based knowledge will be helpful during our data analysis stage, of course. But it also helps us refine the questions we might ask during semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions, which we are in the process of collecting.