| Many immigrant professionals have difficulty navigating through Canadian systems of professional regulation and consequently endure the devaluation of their foreign professional credentials. Self-governing professional bodies establish and maintain standards of qualification and practice, supposedly to protect the Canadian public. This thesis investigates this claim through an examination of the origins of Canadian engineering regulatory bodies and their contemporary practices with regards to foreign-trained immigrants. An analysis of historical documents and interviews with administrators and councilors of regulatory bodies, government officials, engineering recruiters and foreign-trained engineers reveals that institutional qualification standards in part demand particular culture- and country-specific, non-technical knowledge from candidates. The results show further that institutional structures and licensing criteria as well as social practices associated with habitus and cultural capital combine to disadvantage foreign-trained applicants for licensing. The requirement of Canadian work experience, in particular, reveals these processes. |
