Search

Research shows a positive association between skilled migration and innovation. Related literature however is largely limited to the use of proxies such as patents, and publications. There is also a lack of attention to how innovation is accomplished in practices. This paper addresses these gaps with an examination of the innovative contributions made by immigrant engineers in Canada. Conceptually, informed by practice-based theories, it conceives innovation as a sociocultural and sociomaterial process that leads to the transformation of the object/motives of activities, i.e. the problem space to which actions are directed. Empirically, drawing on a thematic and situational analysis of the career accounts of 32 immigrant engineers, it shows that immigrants expand engineering practices by introducing, inter alias, new technologies, products, processes, policies and standards. It further traces the rise of the problem spaces, and the ways in which engineering objects and other practitioners are knotted into practices of innovation. It argues that while immigrants manage to introduce epistemic objects through continuous learning and knowledge translation, it is through the enrolment of other practitioners, and technologies and tools that relations of differences and power are (re)negotiated, and new ways of doing become amplified as innovation at work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work examines the qualifications recognition and career development experiences of internationally educated engineers (immigrants to Canada) through the interaction of boundary crossing and liberal fairness ideals embedded in the qualifications recognition process. The work explored how immigrant engineers experienced boundary crossing, evidence for learning at the boundary, and the dynamic tension between immigrant engineers’ personal transitions within structural commitments to standardization and regulation. Data were collected from 18 voluntary participants who had immigrated to Canada and completed a qualifications recognition process to become registered as professional engineers in Canada and who were in active professional engineering practice. The data provided evidence of changes to immigrant engineers’ personal identity and professional practice, where these changes were forms of learning that facilitated the boundary crossing from newcomer to legitimate participant in the Canadian engineering profession. However, the data did not provide evidence of learning as collaborative co-development of new processes forallactors – newcomers and long-time Canadians alike. Instead, the resilience of the Canadian profession to true integration in favour of an expectation of assimilation of newcomer practices into the Canadian mainstream was illuminated, due to the dominance of foundational commitments in the Canadian qualifications recognition processes to liberal fairness ideals as political mechanisms of risk reduction and access to the profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article emerges from a mixed-method study that explored the relationship between underemployment faced by internationally trained engineers and their satisfaction with life in Canada. A survey was conducted with 309 internationally trained engineers. A significantly greater proportion of survey respondents without a job in an engineering field reported being dissatisfied with life in Canada (36% vs. 22%, p < .01); and reported not having plans to settle permanently in Canada (54% vs. 40%, p < .05) compared to those with jobs in the engineering field. The study highlights the human costs and economic costs of underemployment of internationally trained engineers. Qualitative data from 20 in-depth interviews provide insights into the relationship between underemployment and life satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recognition at the full professional level of engineers coming from two different countries with totally different systems is a very difficult task. However, in the context of globalization of all human activities, particularly engineering services, it is essential that well-developed countries take very serious efforts using an open-minded approach to establish the parameters that will permit the ultimate objective of international recognition to be achieved. While there are many ways to move toward this objective, one recognized method of making very important steps is certainly the signature of mutual recognition agreements by major players in the trade of engineering services. In this context, this paper presents the features of a bilateral agreement that has been signed between France and Canada for the recognition of engineers at the full professional level from both countries. This agreement is the first of its kind for Canada. Many features of the agreement are worthy of note for others trying to identify the parameters to achieve an agreement between two countries having very different systems. How this success was achieved is explained, giving full attention to those factors that contributed to the conclusion of this agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]