foundation of canada asia pacific - Content Tagged with

and colleagues were educated in Canada. Although they are proud and confident of their
Asian heritage, they do not want to be pegged as “Asian experts” who are only needed when
there is an Asian business issue to be handled. This stereotyping, which on the surface may
seem positive, can be a career obstacle, psychologically if not materially.
56
It is ironic that non-Asian Canadians who have consciously set out to develop Asian expertise
by studying a language and attending one of the Asian business studies courses available
in Canada believe they are often overlooked by Canadian business. Anecdotal evidence
suggests managers will often turn instead to Asian Canadians whose claim to Asian
expertise is only a language skill. A group of graduates of the Asia Pacific Co-operative
Management Program at Vancouver’s Capilano College, who spent time working in Asia,
reported that while employers in Canada appeared to value their functional skills, they
saw no real business benefit in their experience of Asia. 6 It was seen by employers as
mostly a “character builder.” On the other hand, non-Canadian companies in Asia were
quick to pick up their services and were prepared to pay a premium for their international
expertise. Some Canadian managers seem to feel that postings in Asia or those requiring
frequent travel to Asia are choice positions that should go to senior employees whose
skill is in knowing their own companies and products, rather than in having a high level
of competency in Asian business practices. Alternately, when they think language is a
factor, they hire English-speaking local staff to operate their overseas offices for them.
A survey in 1997 of Canadian companies with offices in Japan, our largest Asian market,
found that only about 15 of the 70 Canadian companies responding had Canadians in
the most senior position. (By contrast, 356 out of 450 Japanese companies operating
in Canada had Japanese CEOs.) 7 The survey found that “only a small percentage of the
companies surveyed appeared at all interested in hiring graduates produced by [Canada’s
Asian business] programs.” 8 This trend seems to be continuing in Canada, with employers
looking to Asian Canadians as the equivalent of “local hires.”
BRAIN DRAIN IN THE MAKING
The risk for Canada and the challenge for policymakers is that, as globalization gives
even greater mobility to highly qualified staff, Asian business graduates or Asian Canadian
professionals will feel frustrated at home and will seek greater acceptance elsewhere.
(Of course, this concern is not exclusive to professionals with Asian backgrounds.) There
is already anecdotal evidence of some Canadian-educated children of Asian immigrants
returning to their parents’ former homelands because of a perceived or real lack of career
opportunities in Canada. If young Asian Canadians do not feel they are reaching their full
potential in their careers, or Asian business graduates feel their qualifications are overlooked
at home, they may leave Canada, exacerbating the brain drain.
Canada has gained from its ability to attract business immigrants with connections to
Hong Kong, Taiwan, China or India. But we cannot forever be confident of our attraction
as a future home for these skilled and affluent immigrants. A time will come when we
will have to compete more keenly with other countries for educated individuals with
international business know-how. Instead of looking overseas, Canada should start to
look inward to the talented human resource pool already in the country. Among this
group are young bicultural Asian Canadians who are in a unique position to be trained in