Professional organizations versus international medical graduates and foreign-trained engineers

This paper explores the exclusionary practices in Canada conducted by professional organizations towards international medical graduates (IMG’s) and foreign-trained engineers through a literature review and critical discourse analysis of the certification process. The political economy approach explains the constant need of Canada to bring highly skilled immigrants but there is a discrepancy between their selection and the labour market outcome. The discourse analysis reveals that professional organizations use policies and regulations (that protect the White mainstream Canadian values) as a legitimate tool to impose tough requirements that devaluate IMG’s and foreign-trained engineers’ credentials/work experiences and prevent them from practicing their professions in Canada.