CASE STUDY FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This section is divided into two parts that explore the complexities of the livelihoods of migrants and the implications of sport participation. The first section discusses experiences migrants have that are outside of the field of sport, which could have implications on the way in which migrants approach and participate in sport. The second section directly considers the utility of sport within the settlement process and the implications of sport participation for migrants in Toronto.

Participants’ Experience Settling in Canada

The findings of this study suggest that some participants experienced difficulties in establishing employment within their field of expertise due to the privileging of Canadian qualifications over others earned in foreign countries and the preferential regard for previous Canadian employment. These factors further disrupted the participants’ livelihoods and may more broadly represent a rigid systemic barrier that impedes full participation of migrants within Canadian society and the consequential underutilization of their human capital.

There were two notable barriers that negatively influenced the livelihoods of participants. The first was the requirement of professional organizations for migrants to accredit foreign credentials. The second barrier was understood to be the continued presence of discriminatory hiring practices, most commonly referred to by participants as the requirement of “Canadian experience.” The combination of these two barriers affected the way migrants procured economic capital, which also illustrated the value of Canadian cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1986). Provincial governing bodies in Canada regulate different industries to ensure Canadian ethical and quality standards are maintained. Although migrants can come to Canada with equal or comparable education and experience, professional governing bodies have the authority to refuse to recognize foreign credentials (Bauder, 2003a). This resulted in the requirement that some participants had to enroll in postsecondary institutions to become accredited within their professional field. Jess, a mother of two with a graduate degree in social work who had immigrated from Pakistan in 2011 with her husband, elected to pursue accreditation programs and commented on the redundancy of the employment process,

You need to retrain . . . which is redundant. [Regulations are] professional walls, they also served to exclude. . . . Whether it’s unions, whether it’s professional associations, whether whatever you may call them . . . by asking for so much local [education and experience] it’s a way of exclusion.

Jess considered the requirement of migrants to pursue accreditation for their foreign education and professional experience to be a redundant measure that could be further indicative of professional organizations seeking to exclude migrants from Canadian professional labor markets.

The requirement of the pursuit of accreditation programs in order to obtain an employment in a previous field of expertise could place migrants in a financially precarious position. Meg, a former university professor from Columbia, now in the service industry, was unable to pursue accreditation programs in her field due to the lengthy approvals process and her lack of financial capacity. She commented,

I was a university teacher. . . . I went to find a position in the field of financial planning. . . . I try [sic] to validate my diploma in local services. . . . I couldn’t study to receive a licence because the bank wouldn’t [let me] borrow money. . . . I work cleaning or other organizing stuff that immigrants have to do. . . . That doesn’t make sense, that doesn’t help this country to grow.

Migrants arriving in Canada with equal educational and professional experiences are expected to contribute to the economic growth of the country (IRCC, 2019), yet they are constrained in their capacity to do so. The regulation of foreign credentials creates, for some, a redundancy that places an insurmountable financial burden on them that they are expected to absorb. Their participation in professional accreditation programs was also understood to be indicative of participants’ loss of net earnings due to their inability to establish employment within their field of experience as well as their loss of time that could otherwise have been utilized for income generation.

Participants in this study also experienced discriminatory hiring practices based on the requirement of Canadian experience (e.g. Bauder, 2003a; Ferrer & Riddell, 2008). Requiring Canadian experience was understood by the authors to suggest a perceived lack of cohesion between Canadian industries and the participants’ expectations. The perceived lack of cohesion was understood to be indicative of the presence of a Canadian form of Bourdieu’s cultural capital that held greater value within Canadian labor markets in comparison to cultural capital accrued in a foreign system. Pedro, a participant from Bangalore, India, argued that the discrimination on the basis of Canadian experience created cultural stratification within Canadian society where foreign cultural capital could be considered of less value relative to Canadian cultural capital. Pedro remarked,

I think honestly that’s a joke [the requirement of Canadian experience] . . . they make it look like Canada is this country that is so different than everybody in the world, and they put it on a pedestal . . . I don’t have Canadian experience, “I have international experience.” . . . They will also have to learn—those that have been here for so many years—will also have to learn to adapt to people outside of their own culture as well.

The preference for Canadian credentials has the potential to situate new migrants who possess international experience in a difficult economic predicament due to the barriers that constrain the production of an equivalent form of Canadian cultural capital. In terms of acculturation, the preference for Canadian cultural capital also constrains the ability of migrants to utilize acculturation strategies that are reflective of integration (Berry, 1992).

Participants who experienced hurdles to employment within their field of experience altered their search for employment by looking for positions that were outside of their field of expertise. This finding is similar to the results discussed by other researchers (e.g. Bauder, 2003a; Ferrer & Riddell, 2008), whereby the presence or lack of Canadian cultural capital is a method of differentiating between applicants. Consequently, the participants needed to convince prospective employers of their knowledge of Canadian workplace culture, rather than referencing their previous international professional experience. Barriers to employment and regulatory requirements that persuaded participants to pursue professional accreditation programs to validate their international experience were also factors that encouraged other participants to pursue work outside of their field of expertise and professional knowledge. This strategy is similar to strategies other scholars have documented (Picot & Sweetman, 2012; Xue, 2008) and reflects more broadly the pervasive issue of underutilizing human capital arriving in Canada.

Participants of this study who accepted positions in the secondary labor market were highly educated and possessed extensive experience that was gained in their country of origin. However, it appeared that due to the disruptions in their livelihoods, participants elected to exchange their human capital for economic capital that was valued less than what they perceived it was worth. This symbolizes a disjuncture of culture within the Canadian social class. The potential outcome could reflect a population segmented along lines of cultural upbringing, which highlights the reservation of primary labor market positions for Canadian-born citizens. The exclusion of foreign credentials from Canadian labor markets is problematic for a country that will be increasingly reliant on immigration to maintain population growth (Morency et al., 2017), yet this exclusion of credentials is attractive from the perspective of industry (Bauder, 2003a). According to the federal Department of Finance (DoF) (2014), Canada will need to have a “flexible labour force” (p. 4) to meet the challenges of increasing globalization. The experiences of participants represented in this study who expressed difficulty in obtaining positions in their field of experience is reflective of the DoF’s message stressing a flexible labor pool that could fill these positions.

Potentially indicative of the difficulties that some participants experienced in obtaining employment were their strategies to develop and accrue social and cultural capital. Participants of this study initially developed personal relationships and fostered social capital through culturally similar groups. A participant from Japan with a professional background in finance said she developed a friendship with an established Korean migrant. She considered this individual to be culturally similar: “I think she came to talk to me because I am Asian.” This strategy of developing social relationships with culturally similar peers was understood to be attractive for some participants due to its ease to engender social capital with little acculturative stress. For example, Pedro first developed relationships through his ethnic religious community: “My community was my family and my church. I did not struggle as much. I did not have to grow as much.” Similar to the findings of other scholars, the accrual of social capital with culturally similar groups had the potential to reduce the acculturative stress of participants (Loizos, 2000).

This strategy for developing social capital, however, was understood to reflect an acculturation strategy of separation (Berry, 1992) and the notion that separation could be linked to a form of social capital that is only valuable within particular contexts (Bourdieu, 1984) or social groups. Similar to other research (e.g., Li, 2007), it was understood that the diversity of participants’ social networks was predominately limited to culturally similar groups. An acculturation strategy that is reflective of separation (Berry, 1992) could be unsupportive for other migrants wishing to exchange social capital for the transmission of Canadian cultural capital. The reduced cultural diversity within social networks could negatively impact the group’s capacity to accrue a Canadian form of cultural capital and access employment opportunities, thereby accruing economic capital and establishing a livelihood within Canada.

However, once social networks were established, some participants elected to pursue crosscultural relationships that had the potential of developing relationships with people of different backgrounds. Some participants leveraged their relationships with culturally similar groups to facilitate introductions with individuals who were outside of their cultural networks. For instance, Elara said, “Well, she had another Korean friend too . . . [and] they were a member of the, you know, club [tennis club], and then yeah, that’s how [I] start to [sic] getting to know the people.” This approach to developing relationships was reflective of acculturation strategy of integration. It is also indicative of the strategies participants used to leverage similarities in either of the domains of social or cultural capital.

The strategies of acculturation that some participants utilized could be indicative of their capacity to accrue social and cultural capital that could be leveraged to positively affect their livelihoods. The difficulty that some participants experienced in gaining access to Canadian labor markets could be a result of the limited diversity in their social capital, and therefore, cultural capital. As we will discuss in the next section, sport is uniquely positioned to engender social and cultural cohesion across different ethnic groups (Coakley & Donnelly, 2002; Sport Canada, 2012).

However, the disruption in the livelihoods of some participants could affect their strategies to engage with sport programming. Therefore, the capacity of some of the participants to accrue the potential benefits, or different forms of capital, that sport could engender was understood to be limited. The result could indicate the constraints migrant families experience accruing different forms of capital through sport due to their financial capacity that may inhibit their ability to participate. As the following section will discuss, sport could be further utilized to facilitate bridging between the Canadian population and migrants who elect to pursue acculturation strategies that are reflective of separation. However, further processes need to be developed that include complexities of the migrant’s acculturation experiences within the framework of sport to ensure that migrants have the opportunity to participate in sport programming.

Sport in Acculturation Experiences

This study’s findings suggest that sport has the ability to attract diverse populations to a central area due to its capacity to act as a common ground (Hatzigeorgiadis et al., 2013). The common ground that sport can create was understood to have the potential to cultivate new social relationships that could accrue different forms of capital. A participant from Holland who had immigrated to Canada in 2017 recognized the role sport played in facilitating social connections, commenting that,

The socializing part is a big part of sport in general. . . . [Sport] is such an easy thing to do worldwide. . . . [For example] if you join a tennis club, that’s an instant social network that you build on . . . you have a common denominator.

The utility of sport to engender social relationships could positively affect the livelihoods of migrants who had experiences similar to Meg and Pedro. Utilizing sport as a medium to express frustrations could also facilitate the development of social networks within which migrants could accrue knowledge, recommendations, or advice that could have the potential to produce of a form of capital and positively affect their livelihoods. This could facilitate their adoption of strategies of acculturation that are reflective of integration (Berry, 1992). The utility of sport in the acculturation experience of migrants could be the opportunity sport provides for fostering the social development of migrants (Darnell & Dao, 2017).

The accrual of knowledge or advice was understood to be representative of a form of cultural capital that some of the participants perceived as lacking. The accrual of a Canadian form of cultural capital was interpreted to have the potential to positively affect the livelihoods of participants due to the barriers of entry to Canadian professional markets. The notion, therefore, that sport could “assist in the integration of new Canadians” (Sport Canada, 2012, p. 14) and provide the opportunities for newcomers to foster novel relationships should therefore not be undervalued.

The outcomes of sport participation, however, did not equally benefit all participants and could be indicative of the habitus of migrants. The findings of this study suggest that although sport could facilitate the development of a form of social or cultural capital, new migrants to Canada are more interested in the production of a more concrete form of capital, such as earning money through supplemental employment, pursuing professional accreditation, or developing language proficiency through coursework. First, and particularly salient among some of the participants of this study, were the difficulties in procuring employment and the subsequent financial insecurities. These factors could have limited the participants’ abilities to participate fully in sport and experience the possible benefits of developing social relationships. Without sufficient economic capital it was understood that the participants were less likely to participate in sport programming for extended periods of time. Although mentioning they were financially secure, Jada commented on the financial challenges of sport participation: “It’s just because of the money thing too . . . because it’s costly still—it [sport] costs a lot of money.” Participants who were understood to have experienced financial insecurity due to disruptions in their livelihoods elected to pursue accreditation programs, language training, or further employment in the secondary labor market. Pedro commented on his initial limited participation in sport programming: “I had to work, I had to take care of my family, I had to make sure that there was a job always at hand and there was money coming in.” These alternatives to sport were understood by the authors to illustrate a form of cultural capital and were perceived by participants to be of greater benefit to their livelihoods than capital developed through sport participation. The authors understood that this form of cultural capital accrual was also understood as an acculturation strategy that was reflective of integration and the necessity of shedding cultural features (Berry, 1992). Several participants perceived gaining cultural capital that could be utilized within Canadian culture as a strategy to accrue economic capital.

The second factor that limited the utility of sport to engender analogous outcomes for all participants was language proficiency. Similar to the strategies participants utilized to develop social relationships, many participants elected to pursue cultural sport programming. Cultural sport programming was understood to include participants of similar linguistic backgrounds, which was perceived to be more attractive for those who were lacking proficiency in English.

The authors understood that the cultural sport programming pursued by participants was indicative of an acculturation strategy that reflected separation and a habitus that elected to maintain cultural identity. The preference of participants ramming for culturally similar sport programming could more broadly be illustrative of the limitations of sport to embody a universal language (United Nations, 2005), which can act as a mechanism to bridge crosscultural divides and seemingly engender an acculturation strategy that could reflect integration (Berry, 1992). Importantly, these findings reflect a contrary conclusion. The limited capacity of some participants to communicate verbally across crosscultural groups during their participation in sport facilitated the separation of cultural groups on the basis of language. Without encouraging the engagement of cultural groups, sport could prove to be a mechanism that further separates cultural groups. Furthermore, if sport is expected to achieve positive social outcomes, an equal mechanism that also facilitates communication must be developed off of the playing field and outside of the arena.

Third, the findings of this study also suggest that sport-specific cultural capital such as sport proficiency and skill level could facilitate the development of social and cultural capital and engender an unequal distribution of the benefits of sport participation. For example, Jada, a former youth tennis protégé, benefitted socially from her level of skill, stating that, “I must say that it speeds things up [development of friendships] if you have a certain level [of skill]. You get an instant—people respect you. People look differently at you.” Given her level of skill, Jada was able to engender social capital through the platform sport provided, which subsequently could also be exchanged for cultural capital. Other participants, such as Emily, who experienced difficulty in developing social relationships through sport due to her modest skill level, appeared not to have experienced a similar opportunity to exchange cultural capital for social capital. The limited sporting ability of participants therefore effected their capacity to accrue social capital within the same period and required that they invest more of their resources to produce results that were similar to those of higher skill.

Similar to the findings of other research (e.g., Rich et al., 2015), the findings of this study may be indicative of the limitations of sport to foster social relationships equitably in a way that could be used to “assist in the integration of new Canadians” (Sport Canada, 2012, p. 14). Factors that influence the livelihoods of participants, such as the creation and maintenance of these relationships, may also be dependent on the proximity of the participants to sport (Coakley & Donnelly, 2002). As alluded to by other scholars, the accrual of social capital by the participants of this study and its exchange for cultural capital could have been an inclination of the participants’ willingness to engage in crosscultural relationships (Frisby, 2011). Consequently, participants who elected to engage with sport programming as a step in their settlement process could already be employing acculturation strategies that are reflective of integration. On the other hand, migrants who utilized acculturation strategies reflective of separation may be less attracted to engaging with services that deliver sport, and as a result, they did not receive the new forms of capital that sport participation could accrue. Comprehensive approaches that include migrants utilizing strategies of separation could illuminate the broader nuances of the role sport plays in the livelihoods of migrants. Furthermore, the habitus of migrants who elect to utilize a strategy that is reflective of separation could also be indicative of their willingness to engage with services that are not culturally traditional outside of sport but that could positively influence their livelihoods.

The inequality of capital transmission with regard to sport participation, as Coalter (2007, 2010) remarks, is contrary to the perception of sport as a common denominator as described by some participants. Considering that a number of studies warn that sport could reproduce or exacerbate social exclusion (Janssens & Verweel, 2014; Spaaij et al., 2014), simply offering sport programming to migrant populations with the preconceived notion that sport could act as a “common denominator” to produce positive social outcomes may be insufficient in addressing the experiences of migrants utilizing different acculturation strategies. Further research into the implications of combining sport with other services, such as a “plus sport” (Coalter, 2010) model, whereby sport is a hook for the engagement and delivery of settlement services (e.g., language services, capacity development) to migrant populations, could be a pathway for the IRCC to include sport within its toolbox of settlement strategies.