





































Emerging Perspectives 
ep.journalhosting.ucalgary.ca 
 
 

*botoo@ucalgary.ca 

 
Finding Employment: The Experiences of Ghanaian Male Immigrants in Canada 

Benedict Kojo Otoo* 

University of Calgary 

Canada continues to attract skilled labour from all over the world. My personal story 

about my struggles as an immigrant to Canada led me to further explore the 

experiences of Ghanaian men in Canada, looking for professional work. This study 

attempted to showcase the narrative of employment through the lens of Ghanaian male 

immigrants. The men in this study all had a minimum educational qualification of a 

university degree. The goal of the study was to give voice to Ghanaian males who have 

immigrated to Canada within the last two years and their experiences of seeking and 

securing employment. I used a narrative inquiry methodology to capture the stories 

and experiences of the participants through semi-structured interviews. Analysis 

focused on identifying recurring themes or patterns that appeared through the 

interviews. In the study I discussed the hurdles they encountered as immigrants and 

the support system that assisted them in settling down in the country as they sought to 

find jobs. The findings included hope, optimism, and belief in their new country. The 

study proposed changes and improvements for immigration reform for skilled 

immigrants. The study adds perspectives from immigrant men of colour to assist 

immigration policymaking in Canada.  

 

Key words: Employment; immigrants; Ghanaian men; experience; narrative inquiry 

 

Otoo, B. K. (2020). Finding employment: The experiences of Ghanaian male 

immigrants in Canada. Emerging Perspectives, 4(1), 8-12. 

 

Canada attracts immigrants from all over the world (Immigration, Refugees and 

Citizenship Canada, 2019). Since the early 1970s, the average employment earnings of 

immigrants have declined steadily compared to those of Canadian-born workers (Kustec, 2012; 

Picot, 2008). Immigrants typically resort to doing menial jobs to survive—working in lower-

level positions relative to employment they would be taking up in their home countries (Nakhaie 

& Kazemipur, 2013). Several reasons account for this trend. They include discrimination 

(Dechief & Oreopoulos, 2012); lack of recognition of foreign credentials and work experience in 

source countries (Ferrer & Riddell, 2008); and a growing and competitive labour market seeking 

highly educated Canadians (Picot, 2008). In this study, I sought to understand the challenges 

Ghanaian male immigrants faced when looking for employment.  

Methodology 

I employed a narrative inquiry approach to explore the stories Ghanaian men live and tell 

daily as immigrants to Canada. The choice of narrative inquiry as a methodology is ideal for 

“capturing the detailed stories or life experiences of the lives of a small number of individuals” 



Otoo / Emerging Perspectives (2020)  9 

(Creswell, 2014, p. 55). My perspective as a Ghanaian male immigrant increased my curiosity to 

learn more about the experiences of  other Ghanaian male immigrants. These stories show the 

confluence of social influences on a person’s life, environment, and history (Clandinin & Rosiek, 

2007). I interviewed five Ghanaian men in western Canada. My participants were university 

graduates who held stable jobs as professionals before immigrating to Canada. They had worked 

full-time for a minimum of three years in Ghana before immigrating to Canada to seek new 

opportunities. 

Methods 

This principal focus of the research was guided by the key question that inquired about the 

challenges and opportunities experienced as Ghanaian male immigrants to Canada. I audio-

recorded one-on-one semi-structured interviews and asked a range of questions including the 

type of work they did before immigrating to Canada, the reasons they chose to immigrate to 

Canada, and significant moments and experiences they encountered in Canada. I analyzed the 

audio-transcriptions for recurring categories and themes (Hendricks, 2012). I also referenced my 

notes and compared them to the interview data. The emerging themes from my study became the 

building blocks of my research. I employed a coding process to systemically categorize and 

reduce the codes to a workable number of themes. I aligned the final themes to answer my 

research questions (Bui, 2013).  

Findings 

The findings were based on the dialogues, stories, and experiences shared by my research 

participants during the interviews, which were revealing, insightful, and thought-provoking. The 

pivotal path to finding jobs was a theme that emerged from the study. The first task as a male 

immigrant—from a Ghanaian cultural norm, where men are seen as the head of the family—is to 

get a job, take care of one’s family, and pay the bills. The participants were all highly skilled and 

finding a job in their area of expertise was crucial to their success in securing employment, being 

financially stable, and taking care of their families. Networking, mentorship, having a Canadian 

education, volunteering, and internships all played important roles in their quest to find jobs. It is 

worth mentioning some of the salient phrases and words that are exemplars of the path-to-jobs 

theme. Among a select few are “who you know,” “getting into the mind of the employer,” 

“overqualified,” and “networking.” The literature that supports the challenge of job searching for 

immigrants can be found in works on immigrant labour market integration (Li, 2008; Nakhaie & 

Kazemipur, 2013). 

This study examined the influence of immigrants' economic experiences on the degree of 

their attachment to Canada, as well as the nature of the interaction between immigrants and the 

host society. When such interactions are pleasant and consistent with immigrants' expectations, 

the final outcome is a strong sense of attachment to the host society. This study raises new 

questions as to how roadblocks to seeking jobs can be reduced and how integrating immigrants 

into the Canadian workforce can be made easier, so that skilled arrivals can contribute their 

quota to the Canadian economy. This can be achieved by more government participation in the 

integration process of new immigrants, such as offering employers and organizations tax 

incentives to employ highly trained immigrants (Otoo, 2018). Skilled immigrants are here to 

contribute their quota and help to build Canada. They possess knowledge, expertise, and 

experience, and did not come with the intention of being dependent on the social system. These 

trained immigrants want decent jobs and want to see themselves as fully fledged members of 



Otoo / Emerging Perspectives (2020)  10 

Canadian society, who are contributing their quota to the country they have chosen to live in. It 

should not be too much of a challenge for employers to harness what these educated immigrants 

have to offer. Most of them speak English, French, or even both languages. The caveat for an 

incentive approach is that if it is not well implemented and monitored, it may lead to potential 

abuse by employers, and the whole purpose can be defeated. Abuse could take the form of 

employers hiring immigrants just for the tax exemption, and then letting them go. Employment 

could be possibly tied to a retention policy for the tax incentive effectively take place. 

Another finding was that the lack of Canadian work experience impacted the immigrant’s 

abilities to find a job. As one participant put it:  

But then again, I spoke to some few colleagues, spoke to some few agencies, and pretty 

much I lacked the Canadian experience, so to speak. I think that working at some of Canadian 

retail stores—for example, I worked in [local store] as an overnight support manager. And 

then I worked in [local store]. So, if you have all these on your resume, employers tend to 

kind of pay attention to some of these things, like, “Hey, you’ve had pretty much very good 

interactions with the Canadian society,” and then it pretty much helps out. 

The road to finding a job was fraught with many challenges and difficulties for the participants. 

Some of the challenges involved the non- recognition of foreign credentials. One participant put it 

this way: 

Well, again, one of the challenges for immigrants is, even your type of education and degree 

being accepted in a system, they have a required system where they check your records. 

Done that. And since I studied in a developed country, yeah, so I knew that my degrees, 

education should be accepted here. 

This participant had a doctorate degree from Germany, but still struggled to find employment. 

Nevertheless, almost all participants found meaningful work at some point in their job search 

through networking and volunteering. One participant addressed how this helped him find 

employment:  

They have this networking program that they used to do. Yeah. I think they did that once 

every month. So yeah. I was attending that every single month to get networks, and also try to 

see if that can help me at least get a job. Yeah, so. Eventually, like I said, through the mentorship 

program, that’s why I got through. I got an interview for a job.   

Although the work was meaningful and was somewhat related to their prior experience, 

almost all the participants had to start from entry level positions within their given fields. One of 

the participants highlighted employment discrimination and believed that some jobs were 

reserved solely for Canadian-born citizens.  

The findings from this research regarding the non-recognition of academic credentials 

acquired outside of Canada, the lack of job opportunities for immigrants, and the need for 

Canadian experience situates my study within existing literature and confirms the work of 

various scholars (Buzdugan & Halli, 2009; Creese & Wiebe, 2012). All the interviewees 

experienced these personal and social challenges as immigrants to Canada. They were dismayed 

to find out that employers did not recognize their qualifications. Four out of the five participants 

had to do other forms of ancillary courses, ranging from certificate courses to postgraduate 

diplomas so that prospective employers could see that they had some Canadian education.  

Limitations and Future Direction 

My own biases as a researcher stem from the fact that I am also a skilled and 

internationally trained Ghanaian immigrant. As a researcher, it is important to identify and 



Otoo / Emerging Perspectives (2020)  11 

acknowledge my biases (Bloomberg & Volpe, 2015). According to Czarniawska (2011), the 

limitation of narrative inquiry as a research methodology is the differing capacity and interest by 

people in relation to storytelling. A qualitative case study as a methodology also offers an 

opportunity to address similar research questions.  

One area for potential future research is related to the experiences of internationally trained 

women of colour who immigrate to Canada. I see merit in extending research to understand the 

perspectives of these women; in particular (a) how have their gender and colour aided or 

hindered them in finding meaningful work, and (b) how have they coped with or without family 

in adjusting to a new country? The study offered a platform for the participants to have a voice in 

the job search discussion from the perspective of minority men of colour from Africa. 

References 

Bloomberg, L. D., & Volpe, M. (2015). Completing your qualitative dissertation: A road map 

from beginning to end. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 

Bui, Y. N. (2013). How to write a master’s thesis. London, England: Sage. 

Buzdugan, R., & Halli, S. S. (2009). Labor market experiences of Canadian immigrants with 

focus on foreign education and experience. International Migration Review, 43(2), 366–

386. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-7379.2009.00768.x 

Clandinin, D. J., & Rosiek, G. (2007). Mapping a landscape of narrative inquiry: Borderland, 

spaces and tensions. In D. J. Clandinin (Ed.), Handbook of narrative inquiry: Mapping a 

methodology (pp. 35–75). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 

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Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods 

approaches (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 

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Kustec, S. (2012). The role of migrant labour supply in the Canadian labour market. Ottawa, 

ON: Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Retrieved from 

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Otoo, B. K. (2018). The experiences of internationally trained Ghanaian male immigrants in 

Canada (Unpublished master's thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada. 

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development at Statistics Canada: Ottawa, ON: Statistics Canada. 

 


