Quebec to help foreign-trained professionals

New subsidies for employers; But participants must be accredited by professional association in province

By MARIAN SCOTT,
Souce: The GazetteDecember 16, 2009



Fatma Zohra Kaddour Fellag hoped to practise her profession - dentistry - when she immigrated to Montreal from Algeria in 2005.

Her husband, Azzedine Kihal, aspired to continue his 27-year career as a chemical engineer.

Four years later, after both were unable to become accredited in their respective professions, Kihal has finally found work as a pastry chef, while Kaddour Fellag is a newly qualified dental technician.

Such tales are common among the 45,000 immigrants who arrive in Quebec each year.

And as the St. Léonard couple see it, Quebec's latest effort to help foreign-trained professionals won't change much for the many former doctors driving Montreal taxis and former nurses working as domestics.

Yesterday, Immigration and Cultural Communities Minister Yolande James announced a new program to encourage employers to hire foreign-trained professionals.

Starting in January, the province will offer subsidies to employers who take on professionals who earned their credentials outside Quebec.

But to be eligible, participants must be accredited by a professional association in Quebec.

That's cold comfort for critics who claim barriers facing immigrant professionals are too high.

"The major obstacle is our credentials and curriculum not being recognized," said Jesusa Nicolas, a nurse at Jewish General Hospital who has campaigned on behalf of foreign-trained nurses for the Filipino Nurses Association.

During a news conference at the Old Port, James deplored that many foreign-born professionals are wasting their training and experience when there is a desperate need for doctors, nurses and other practitioners.

"We need that foreign talent," she said.

About 15 per cent of immigrants of working age are trained in fields regulated by Quebec's professional associations, said Claude Fradette, a spokesperson for the Department of Immigration and Cultural Communities.

That covers 45 fields, including doctors, nurses, pharmacists, psychologists, midwives, lawyers, dentists, dental hygienists, engineers, veterinarians and agronomists.

About 1,400 immigrants to Quebec are accredited by professional associations each year and that number is rising because of recent efforts to facilitate their access to the professions, he said.

Professional orders of doctors, dentists and nurses have introduced training sessions to help foreign-trained professionals prepare for competency exams.

As a result, the proportion of foreign-trained doctors who passed the exams rose from 30 per cent in 2003 to 70 per cent last year, James said.

About five foreign doctors were accredited each year a decade ago, while 60 to 70 now qualify annually, she added.

But James said while it is important to help immigrants become qualified, it is essential to safeguard standards.

"We're not going to say we have to lower the requirements, but we did say, 'What can we do to help these people?' " she said.

"The ultimate goal is for people to have the opportunity to work in their field at the level of their competence."

The program, dubbed IPOP (an acronym for Intégration en emploi de personnes formées à l'étranger référés par un ordre professionnel), will pay half the salary of foreign-trained professionals, to a maximum of the minimum wage, for 30 weeks.

It also offers a $1,500 subsidy to provide support for professionals hired under the program. It will be funded by Emploi Québec, said James, who predicted that 100 workers will apply next year.

Marisol Miró, a representative of the Ordre des dentistes du Québec, said the order has made efforts to facilitate certification of foreign-trained dentists without lowering standards.

"We cannot do that (reduce standards), because our mission is to protect the public," she said.

Kaddour Fellag said the bar facing foreign professionals is still set too high.

Last year, she was among 40 foreign dentists who competed for two spots in a condensed three-year dentistry program at the Université de Montréal. Her 69 per cent grade in the entrance exam was not nearly enough to get in.

She plans to find work as a dental hygienist and hopes one day to upgrade her skills enough to practise dentistry again.

"I'm not the only one," Kaddour Fellag said. "There are thousands of us."

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Are you planning to visit Canada?
Vía crucis por una visa canadiense

Si está pensando en ir a Canadá como turista, empresario o trabajador, piénselo dos veces antes de experimentar un vía crucis y dejarse amarrar por la mafia de la burocracia canadiense.

Evítese dolores de cabeza y piense si no es mejor disfrutar de unas vacaciones al sabor de las pescadillas en vez del salmón.

El tormento para solicitar una visa se inicia al bajar de la página web el listado de requisitos, formatos de solicitud e instructivo de llenado: son confusos y tienen errores (hasta en las cuotas a pagar).

Pero si quiere aclarar cualquier duda, entérese de que no hay modo de hacerlo. Como inocente mexicana solicité mi visa al considerar que cumplo con todos los requisitos, pero me negaron el documento argumentando no haberlos convencido de querer regresar a mi país al término de las vacaciones debido a mi capacidad económica.

Negada la visa, pregunto al gobierno de Canadá: ¿quién me va a rembolsar los 7 mil pesos perdidos que suman el pago de solicitud de visas, cheques de caja, mensajería y la penalización impuesta por la línea aérea al tener que modificar mi itinerario? ¿Creen que volveremos a desear hacer una visita a su país?

Valeria Macías Rodríguez


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Con la muerte de Arturo Beltran Leyva
Los ganones son El Chapo y Los Zetas: especialista

Fuente: El Universal
Ciudad de México / Jueves 17 de diciembre de 2009

México seguirá como punto de traslado de la droga, y el lugar de Beltrán Leyva será rápidamente ocupado por otros cabecillas de su grupo o gente del Chapo Guzmán o los Zetas, prevé el especialista Eduardo Correa

Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán y los Zetas son los principales beneficiados con la caída y muerte de Arturo Beltrán Leyva, considera el especialista en temas del narcotráfico, Eduardo Correa.

“Ambos ganan, los Zetas porque se quedarán con parte del mercado, y el Chapo porque se quitó a un enemigo potencialmente muy grande”.

Correa no descarta una traición de parte de los Zetas a Beltrán Leyva, recientemente aliados.

“Hay una situación análoga de la alianza entre los Zetas y Osiel Cárdenas, que al poco tiempo de haberse hecho, Osiel acabó en la cárcel y extraditado a Estados Unidos, en el caso actual la fractura que se dio entre el Chapo y Beltrán Leyva llevó a que éste se aliara con los Zetas y vea los resultados”, explica.

Asimismo, los Zetas y el Chapo, y otros del grupo de Beltrán Leyva, ocuparán su lugar. “Esto no indica que efectivamente se gana la guerra, lo único que nos dice es que van a aparecer otros cabecillas a reemplazar a Beltrán Leyva o algunos ya existentes ocuparan su puesto”, agrega.

“Lo que tenemos es que si el gobierno mexicano va a salir con una carta de triunfalismo como lo está haciendo ya el presidente Felipe Calderón, la contraparte, El Chapo y los Zetas sentirán también una sensación de triunfo, y tienen un campo virgen, (dejado por Beltrán Leyva).

“Dadas las cifras del costo de la cocaína en Estados Unidos el negocio seguirá moviéndose, solo cambiara el nombre del figuronón que se asesina ahora”, reitera el investigador.

La muerte violenta del hermano del líder del Cártel de Juárez ni siquiera servirá como persuasivo para evitar que la población en general se introduzca al negocio del narcotráfico.

“No es que sirva de ejemplo a la sociedad o que no se meterán porque uno está muerto, cuando las puertas están cerradas y se debe elegir entre morirse de hambre con una situación quebrada o hacerse millonario durante algún tiempo le apostaran a lo último, aunque el costo sea la vida”, concluye.