Introduction
Does the language have its impact on people’s lives? Hardly anyone thinks about it. Yet in Canada the problem is rather complicated. Because of the dominance of the English language, a great number of problems arise.
According to the existing evidence, the situation concerning the language and the employment in Canada has always been problematic. For instance, commenting on the situation in 2009, Monica Boyd (2009) emphasized that the problem of the immigrants’ integration into the society has increased several times due to the demographic changes:
Today no one would dispute that immigration – particularly within the past twenty-five years – has had a significant impact on Canada’s landscape – both figuratively and literally. The proportion that is foreign born has steadily increased, and currently one out of five Canadians are foreign born. (1)
Considering the abovementioned, one can easily understand the rights for the other cultures and the people speaking different languages must be somewhat infringed. Not knowing how to handle the great number of immigrants, the government is practically unable to suggest the former proper living conditions.
In certain spheres, this problem appears to be the matter of life and death. Therefore, the problem described by Meyerhoff offered quite a number of subjects for further discussion.
However, comparing the descriptions provided by Meyerhoff to the present-day situation, one can claim with certainty that the problem has not been tackled – moreover, it has grown, taking even more space and penetrating the most important spheres of human’s life.
Towards Health Education across Language Barriers
Among the numerous obstacles that non-English speakers encounter on their way to the employment in the sphere of healthcare, one of the most important and complicated ones is the language barrier.
To be more precise, non-English speaking people cannot get access to healthcare, which means that great number of people is doomed to suffer from their health problems, various diseases and even physical and mental disparities due to the inability of accessing the healthcare service.
Therefore, the problem appears to be rather complicated. According to what Buchman says, healthcare service is practically inaccessible to the people who do not speak English: “At present, a significant number of people in Canada do not speak or are not able to communicate sufficiently in, English or French when accessing health care” (6).
There is no doubt that such situation poses considerable threat to the non-English speakers in Canada. In addition, Buchman warns,
In particular, Canada bears a large number of new immigrants, many of whom speak neither French nor English, and some longer-term residents whose command of English or French is not strong enough to facilitate effective communication while accessing health care (6)
Consequently, the foreigners in Canada experience extreme difficulties in getting efficient help concerning their health problems. Among the numerous obstacles that block the non-English speakers’ way to the efficient healthcare service is the inability to explain their problems to the personnel:
Recent immigrants, those with lower levels of education and with low French or English proficiency, seniors and people receiving social assistance tend to have lower levels of literacy and health literacy. About 60% of immigrants fell below Level 3 in prose literacy (considered the minimum level for coping with the demands of everyday life and work in a knowledge economy) compared to 37% for the Canadian-born population (4), Simich (2009) says.
Gainful Employment as Inaccessible as Ever
Another problem that the non-English speakers are to face in Canada is the unemployment. Indeed, according to the recent statistic data, the foreigners are highly unlikely to get a job in Canada, mainly due to the language problems.
While the most prospective positions for the immigrants to Canada are the least paid, there are no chances for gainful employment for the people who have rather weak command of English. According to the data offered by Gilmore (2008), “Canadian-born employees aged 25 to 54 earned $2.28 more per hour than immigrants” (10).
Thus, it is obvious that the problem of the immigrants’ employment has become ever more crucial. As Gilmore marks, the unemployment rates among the non-English speakers reach 15%, which is most upsetting.
This must have been the key factor that presupposed the increase of the unemployment rates among the non-English speakers:
According to 2001 census data, recent immigrants – those living in Canada for less than five years – suffered an unemployment rate of 12.7 per cent, considerably higher than the 7.4 per cent rate among the Canadian-born (12)
Thus, it is evident that the unemployment among the non-English speakers in Canada is one of the most threatening problems.
Through the Hardships of Misconceptions
The last, but not the least, the issue of misunderstanding must also be discussed. Although this problem is not connected directly with the essential issues, it can also cause certain complicacies and even conflicts.
Not being able to convey their ideas to the other people, non-English speakers are constantly facing the danger of being misunderstood. Such misconceptions, often a trifle, can lead to more serious social problems further on when piling into a single mass.
Considering the cultural problems that immigrants and other non-English speaking people have to face in Canada, one must mark the issue of acculturation.
According to the numerous researches, this is rather painstaking process, which the non-English speakers in Canada suffer rather hard. Children seem to suffer these complicacies the most, according to what Georglades (2011) says:
The negative effects of peer harassment at school on depression are exacerbated among immigrant adolescents. Living in neighborhoods with higher concentrations of 1st generation immigrants is associated with a decreased risk for emotional and behavioral problems among immigrant children, but the reverse is true for non-immigrant children (4)
Therefore, the clash of cultures seems to be even more important than the problem of the healthcare and the rest of the complicacies discussed. What the cultural obstacle does is blocking the immigrants’ way into the society, practically making him/her an outcast.
Consequently, the alleged immigrant cannot acculturate to the environment (s)he is living in and is doomed to live the life of a second-rate person, which is rather depressing and even humiliating.
Conclusion
Considering the abovementioned, one can conclude that immigrants and other non-English speakers in Canada experience great difficulties concerning the most important spheres of activity, namely, healthcare, communication and employment.
Closely intertwined, these spheres make the foundation of one’s life, which means that the life of non-English speakers in Canada is rather complicated. It is clear that there are several ways to solve these problems.
First of all, it would be a good idea to employ the staff who could speak the languages of the national minorities to provide them with the sufficient healthcare and help them with the cultural misconceptions that can arise as the non-English speakers socialize with the natives.
This would lead to less mistakes and misunderstandings, yet this would demand certain costs for the specially trained staff and the numerous translators. Alternatively, the government can enhance the English language learning among the non-English speakers.
This seems far more efficient method, yet it does not account of the peculiarities of the non-English speakers who might not be able to master the language – due to either their old age, or their physical or mental imparities, or other reasons.
However, since these are the only possible solutions at present, it would be reasonable to implicate both to help the non-English speakers acculturate to the unusual environment in Canada.
Reference List
Boyd, M. (2009) Immigration trends, language skills and the labour market integration of recent immigrants. Toronto, CA: University of Toronto.
Buchman, S., et al. (2009) Towards a national strategy to combat language barriers to health care. In Journal of Policy Studies: Fall edition 2009 (6-8), Pearson House (Ed.) Ontario, CA: Health Care Policy Center.
Georglades, K., et al. (2011) Childhood immigration and acculturation in Canada.
Montreal, CA: Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development.
Gilmore, J. (2008) The 2008 Canadian immigrant labour market: Analysis of quality of employment. Ottawa, CA: Labour Statistics Division.
Simich, L. (2009) Health literacy and immigrants populations. Toronto, CA: CERIS.