Empowering newcomer workers by addressing racism and xenophobia: a promising pilot

ABSTRACT Though immigrant employment gaps are typically articulated as newcomer skill-deficits, evidence suggests structural oppression and intercultural ignorance creates greater barriers to newcomers’ success. In this article we describe a project in a small Canadian city that flipped the dominant narrative to confront xenophobia and racism through intercultural intelligence interventions with local employers. By positioning newcomers as reverse mentors, the project disrupted typical power relationships, empowering newcomers with a platform and tools to voice their experiences and directly address structural inequity in the labour market. Their expertise and abilities were validated through the project and by employers. In this paper we outline the implementation, outcomes, challenges and future opportunities for incorporating similar approaches in existing newcomer-employment strategies to further the voices of, and empower, newcomer jobseekers.