The Voices of Visible Minorities: Speaking Out on Breaking Down Barriers

This briefing, based on focus groups with visible minorities in management, supervisory and professional roles, explores barriers facing visible minorities in the workplace. It describes how visible minorities have overcome barriers to success, and it outlines their advice on how Canadian organizations might fully maximize the talents of this growing pool of labour.

Document Highlights

Looming skills shortages underscore the need for Canada to attract large numbers of skilled immigrants, the majority of whom will be visible minorities. But many visible minorities, both Canadian-born and immigrant, find their talents are not being fully used. This briefing, based on focus groups with visible minorities in management, supervisory and professional roles, speaks to a number of barriers faced by visible minorities in getting work and advancing within their organizations. Importantly, it describes various approaches that visible minorities have taken to overcome barriers to success. The final part of the briefing outlines visible minorities’ advice to Canadian organizations on how they might fully maximize the talents of this growing pool of labour. As the briefing notes, this is no longer just “a nice thing” to do; it has become business-critical.