It's a vicious cycle for many immigrants: no Canadian experience, no work. And Canada loses out on the skills trained individuals bring to this country.
One of the main problems these skilled workers face is a lack of Canadian credentials.
But with the help of programs offered through many of our community colleges - from evaluation to upgrading to job search advice - immigrants can bridge this gap and contribute in their particular fields.
An expert retrains
Mojgan Nadafi, by anyone's standards, is world class in her profession. Holding a Masters' in Midwifery from Shiraz University in south-western Iran, Ms. Nadafi, now 34, taught at her alma mater and published academic papers internationally, including in the U.S. medical magazine Contemporary OB/GYN.
When she emigrated to Canada in 2006 to be with her Iranian-Canadian husband she had to retrain, taking an international midwifery pre-registration program in Toronto.
"After I arrived, I started looking for jobs and e-mailed the [Canadian Association Of Midwives]and they sent me to the IMPP. But to get to this program you need to pass two English exams: writing/reading and speaking. I was pretty good at reading and writing English because I wrote articles.
"But for speaking I had to try hard," she said.
"When I came to Canada they accepted your Master's, but I couldn't start working without taking the program. But that is okay, because they don't know you and it's about Mom's health and baby's health."
She completed the course in nine months, and was offered three jobs out of the six she applied for. She is now with Thames Valley Midwives in London, Ont.
She says she was confident in her skills but there were other challenges.
"I had to pay a lot for the whole (IMPP) program: $18,000 to $20,000 for a nine-month course. It was hard because my baby was three months old and I had no family to help, so my husband stayed home. He's a keeper," she said, laughing.
Now she finally feels settled.
"I love my clients and this practice. It's getting much easier. I work really hard, but, then, I did in Iran, too."
Finding her dream job
Upon arriving in Vancouver from Iran six years ago, experienced engineer Sepide Ghafoori went into sales. It was, she said, an attempt to get her ahead in Canada.
"I went into sales in order to learn the English language. ... It put me right in it. You have to think that something better is waiting for you, and I did, but it was tough, challenging," she said.
It was a smart gamble for the electrical engineering degree holder, 33, who attended Tehran Polytechnic University, and worked for four years as a member of an electronics design team in Tehran before emigrating.
But she found no work after arriving here, and this sapped her confidence.
"Unfortunately, I found it almost close to impossible to find something in my field. So I thought that instead of wasting time, I would upgrade my knowledge," Ms. Ghafoori said.
But she enrolled in engineering at the British Columbia Institute of Technology, changing her specialty from electricity to power generation. And for two years, she worked for Canada's largest subatomic physics laboratory, Triumf. But then the recession hit hard.
"The job market was really terrible, I was laid off, so I started looking for tools to help me. I couldn't find out why I couldn't be hired."
Ms. Ghafoori went into the Skills Connect for Immigrants program at Douglas College and learned how connect with Canadian employers.
"It gave me some motivation to keep moving forward and not give up. It didn't help directly, but seeing people in the same boat as me, that was helpful."
Now she has her dream job, with BC Hydro, and hopes to increase her qualifications to rise through the ranks of the company.
Moving west in order to move on
Muhammad Anwar, from the Jammu-Kashmir region of northern Pakistan, said that, despite his background in engineering, he ended up driving a taxi in Toronto and working at odd jobs after moving to Canada in 2002. He was frequently told he was unsuccessful because he had no Canadian experience in his field.
"It was very difficult. I worked as a security guard, a salesperson, at Petro-Canada, all in Toronto," the 40-year-old recalls. "This was over three years. At that time, I totally lost my confidence, and I felt like I lost everything. Finally, I had to decide to pull myself to my feet."
Mr. Anwar gained admission into Concordia in 2005, where he completed a Master's in Engineering in 2007. Still, he had trouble finding work in engineering.
"After my studies, I started applying everywhere. I got interviews in the U.S.A. but not Toronto. They were not successful. A lot of my friends advised me to move to Calgary because of the boom."
So he moved in the spring of 2008 and found himself in a town where "every third or fourth person are engineers."
He got a career coach and job search advice at Direction for Immigrants, a program operated by Bow Valley College in Calgary, but funded by the provincial and federal governments.
He then took his exams for his practical engineering accreditation with the Engineering Association of Alberta.
For the last 18 months he has been with SNC-Lavalin in Calgary, overseeing nine substation projects in Alberta and British Columbia and around 35 staff.
"I think the system is a big problem. When I landed here, I had dreams and wanted to work here. The process to come to my field of work takes a lot of struggle and patience. You can't lose hope and confidence."
Passport to work
The Skills Passport program, begun last fall by the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology, turns the immigration career experience around for potential Canadians and the employers who want to hire them.
The program, which helps employers evaluate potential employees before they immigrate to Canada, offers an assessment service that will guarantee English language proficiency to designated levels, and will guarantee technical skills against SIAST certificate and diploma program standards.
So far, says program director David Harvey, 54 applicants have been assessed in Ukraine, most for English proficiency, 15 for welding assessments. The next assessments are due to be made in Manila in April, and Vietnam after that.
"Our program means immigrants can apply for immigration after they've had a job offer, and employers can rely on our advice," he says.
At the moment the program is only run in Saskatchewan, but Mr. Harvey says they are able to help employers from other parts of Canada find skilled workers overseas. They're not recruiters, he emphasized, but assessors.
"It's not revolutionary, but we think we're making the system much better."