Racism in the Canadian Job Market

Racism in the Canadian job market

Canada is a country of diversity, often described as a multicultural nation. However; what is the true essence of this statement? Simply acknowledged, this expression like any other can be defined in a matter of words. Canadians are not of one culture, background, race or heritage. This can minimally be the exquisite clarity of multiculturalism in Canada. Instead Canadians today make up a mosaic of nations, reflecting an infinite assortment of cultural heritages and racial groups. This is what makes our nation Canada.

Although Canada may be a multicultural nation, but does this statement represent the 33,100,000 people that frame our country. Of course multiculturalism is nothing but a label, however; a significant one. It is what drives people to Canada, only to deceive them when it comes to the job market. Multiculturalism and respect of all ethnicities doesn't seem to apply in the workforce. As to, discrimination is surely present in basically all workplaces. Discrimination comes in many shades- language, color, race, religion and political affiliation. In the job market many of these shades seem to be factors in selecting employees. This is due to an ignorant belief of prejudice; a preconceived opinion. This is when people make judgments based on assumptions, not on reality.

Prejudice is definitely found in the job market, especially towards ethnicities. People believe it is a matter of linguistic skills, however; it is truly chauvinism. Chauvinism is an excessive prejudiced loyalty to a particular gender, group or cause. In this case employers prefer to employ English people, rather than ethnic ones. This makes them loyal to that certain group; manifestly, this can be defined as chauvinism.

Evidence is there for those who ask for proof, on behalf of this belief. It is a proven verity that employers prefer to employ English people, rather than ethnic ones. This is can be represented in the study made by the University of B.C. The study was carried out by economics professor, Philip Oreopoulos.

His study consisted of 6,000 résumés, compiled by him and his team of five research assistants. These résumés were made to represent applicants with English or non-English names. They were sent to 2,000 different job postings offered by Canadian employers in the greater Toronto area, between May and October of 2009.

The study revealed that Canadians with English names have a better chance of receiving a job than those with Chinese, Indian or Pakistani names. English names like Jill Wilson and John Martin received forty percent more interview call backs than the identical résumés with names like Sana khan or lei li. This shows true chauvinism as clarified in my statements above. The résumés were identical and all the résumés Oreopoulos used for his research followed these three certain