This week on Canada AM, a series will focus on issues surrounding immigration. The first part of the series looks at the struggles of new immigrants to have their foreign credentials recognized in their efforts to find jobs in Canada.
Despite the fact that many Canadians are finding it hard to get a family doctor, many foreign-trained doctors are finding it hard to obtain work, according to a medical practitioner familiar with the experience.
Dr. Doris Kyerematang has just completed a term as the president of the Manitoba College of Family and Physicians and owns and operates her own clinic. However, her most recent success would not have happened if she had followed the advice she received when she first arrived in the country.
"I was told I couldn't practice here," Kyerematang told CTV's Canada AM. "It was quite a shock. Everywhere the message was, there are no opportunities for international medical graduates."
Kyerematang is originally from Ghana and obtained her medical degree in Norway in 1992 where she practiced until 1995.
She eventually came to Canada, moving to Winnipeg with her family and had to enroll in a two-year family medicine residency program at the University of Manitoba before she could practice.
Kyerematang cites the limited number of residencies open to foreign-trained doctors as playing the biggest role in restricting the access of foreign trained medical professionals to positions in this country.
"The biggest area definitely was the lack of positions. With the lack of positions, information was so guarded," Kyerematang told Canada AM. "One did not know where to go to get information on what one needed to do to secure even one of these two positions that were being offered in Manitoba."
According to a 2006 report from the Fraser Institute, Canada needs to rely on foreign-trained doctors to help reconcile the doctor shortage in the country.
In November, the College of Family Physicians of Canada said the family doctor shortage is hampering efforts to decrease wait times for health care.
Foreign doctors are finding it hard to get jobs at a time when approximately five million Canadians do not have family doctors. Currently, around 25 per cent of Canada's family doctors are now international medical graduates.
To increase the numbers of foreign trained doctors, Kyerematang feels that one strategy would be to make the evaluation exam for medical graduates more accessible and available for medical professionals who would like to take it. Kyerematang speaks from personal experience on this issue.
"There was no exam location in Winnipeg," she said. "So I had to travel into Toronto ... For a new immigrant there was a bit of cost involved with that."
While Kyerematang never gave up in her efforts to become a medical professional in this country, many of her potential colleagues have ventured down different career paths.
"The word on the streets was in Canada, 'Oh there are international medical graduates who have been here years and years and some are doing other jobs. It's a total career change. Look at doing something else. There's no hope'," Kyerematang said.
If you have any questions or comments regarding this series please email them to immigrationquestions@ctv.ca
