Canadian Recruitment Firms Target Irish Workers, Despite Questions At Home

Canadian recruitment firm, the Diamond Group of Companies, is opening a UK and European headquarters in Dublin in a big to attract Irish workers to fill jobs in Canada.

Diamond Group plans to recruit around 1,000 Irish workers to relocate to Canada, to feed a growing demand for English-speaking workers from overseas.

It is estimated that Canada will have need 150,000 temporary workers from abroad every year during the next five years.

Audrey Guth, president of the Diamond Group of Companies, said Ireland was chosen as a European base because the firm wants to recruit most of its new workers from within the country.

Guth told the Irish Examiner that the Irish population was a rich source of skilled, educated English speakers, with a good work ethic.

The company says it will recruit 1,000 workers in Ireland during the next year and about the same number annually until 2016.

Jason Kenny, Canada’s immigration minister, recently introduced a ruling allowing Canadian companies to pay foreign workers less. Kenny also proposes allowing immigrants to apply to become permanent residents after a year in the country, rather than two as was previously required.

Canadian companies have relied on foreign workers in the past, especially in Alberta’s oil and business, but the labor movement has criticized the move, according to the Calgary Herald.

Various groups have decried recruiting foreign workers absurd when there are able-bodied Canadians to do the work and the nation’s unemployment rate is at 7.3%.

Under the new provisions, companies will also be able to pay temporary foreign workers 15% less than Canadian workers, putting downward pressure on local workers’ wages.

It has been estimated by the province that Alberta alone could see the additional need for more than 100,000 workers during the the next decade, the Herald reported.

Irish workers moving to Canada will have the opportunity of obtaining contracts lasting as long as two years.

Despite the controversy, Canadian companies are capitalizing on Ireland’s nearly 19%, unemployment rate, the worst in 20 years. Record numbers of Irish workers are leaving the country.

Job fair recruiting for jobs overseas are becoming common in Dublin. One of these, the Working Abroad Expo, takes place 6 – 7 October 2012 in Dublin.

Diamond Global Canada specializes in recruiting workers in the skilled trades, food service and construction industry for clients on the Canada’s east coast, Newfoundland, Saskatchewan and Alberta.

It’s likely that more businesses in Canada will have an Irish brogue in the near future.

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