Many small business owners in Canada could be overlooking a key segment of the population when it comes to hiring new workers - immigrants.
According to the most recent Canadian Federation of Independent Business survey, 78 percent of small business owners said that they had not hired any immigrants between 2003 and 2006.
One company that is bucking the trend is Pitney Bowes. According to a recent interview in the Montreal Gazette, the company's president, Deepak Chopra, said that diversity was one of his company's best attributes. He said that the company had tried to make it easier for people of different ethnicities to fit in.
"That really got us into the position where we became comfortable with people who don't look like us or talk like us," Chopra said in an interview with the news source. "The company started offering after-hours language lessons and encouraged opportunities for staff to share their customs and foods."
The issue of immigrants in the workforce was in the headlines recently because of a new mandatory language test. The Toronto Star reports that last month, Ottawa created a mandatory language proficiency test for all immigrants applying for skilled jobs.
