Alona Vasylieva is a Ukrainian-born freelance journalist, weekly newspaper columnist and former international flight attendant based in Canada.

Canada spends a lot of time pitching itself abroad as a welcoming, progressive home for top global talent. But once you actually land, the reality hits pretty quickly: a decade of high-level international experience is suddenly treated like it never happened, all because of the mysterious “lack of Canadian experience.”

When the war started in Ukraine in 2022, my family and I uprooted our lives and moved to Canada. Even before leaving home, I spent endless hours researching the Canadian aviation market and sending out resumes, eager to hit the ground running.

Coming from nearly 10 years as a senior international flight attendant, I was confident I could continue my career path. Cruising at 35,000 feet, I had spent a decade managing medical emergencies, leading cross-cultural crew teams and navigating high-stress human crises. In aviation, every major airline provides its own intensive qualification training anyway, so local education was never the real issue.

Hit an institutional wall

Yet, I hit an institutional wall almost instantly. It turned out you cannot even work as a flight attendant on a work permit — you must first hold permanent resident status.

Put on pause by administrative rules long before anyone even evaluated my actual skills, I had to adapt. I was fortunate to secure an office job as a receptionist at a local insurance company in small-town Ontario, while our application for permanent residency entered what has now become a two-year waiting game.

To keep my sanity through this long period of limbo, I decided to lean back into my university degree in international journalism. I returned to my keyboard and started telling stories again, eventually writing a weekly column for our local newspaper.

Do I regret making the move? No, I don’t. Coming from a bustling European capital, I used to believe the stereotype that only big cities offer big opportunities. But putting down roots in a quiet Canadian community showed me the immense strength of local support, warmth, and genuine human connection.

People who immigrated to Canada years ago often say it can take up to a decade to truly feel at home — and even then, there are no guarantees. I am convinced this transition would be far less stressful and far more meaningful, if newcomers were allowed to build on the careers they brought with them. True integration happens when you know your skills are valued and that you are actively contributing to the country that welcomed you.

Looking around, I know my story is far from unique. Walk through any Canadian city and you’ll find foreign-trained doctors, engineers and educators caught in the exact same loop. To make things worse, public debate often blames newcomers for broader issues like housing shortages or job competition.

But that argument completely misses the mark. Highly qualified immigrants aren’t taking high-level careers away from anyone; instead, they end up competing with each other for entry-level jobs just to pay the bills and survive while waiting for official approvals.

Nobody who fled war or uprooted their life is looking for shortcuts or handouts. To afford high recertification fees, licensing exams and mandatory retraining — all while navigating multi-year visa delays — skilled immigrants are forced to work multiple physically exhausting jobs.

Look at health care: Canada faces a desperate shortage of doctors, with emergency rooms closing across the country. Meanwhile, foreign-trained medical professionals are packing boxes in warehouses because the system lacks a streamlined pathway to recognize what they already know.

Failing Canadians

The system isn’t protecting Canadians — it is failing them.

Canada isn’t losing anything by helping foreign talent adapt quickly — it actually wins big when it does. Short, focused qualification courses that teach local regulations would allow skilled newcomers to start contributing where they are needed most, almost immediately.

Throwing away years of hard-earned international experience is a tragic waste of human potential. Canada doesn’t need to fear foreign backgrounds, it needs to use them. Building bridges instead of administrative walls isn’t just good for immigrants, it’s smart for Canada.

Opinion | As an immigrant unable to work in my field I can tell you the system isn’t protecting Canadians — it is failing them