Federal immigration department employees reporting racist workplace behaviour, says survey

Warning: this story contains offensive language

A report examining workplace racism atImmigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) describesrepeated instances of employees and supervisors usingoffensive terms with theirracialized colleagues.

The 20-page document, compiled by thepublic opinion research company Pollara Strategic Insights,was presented to IRCC in June and recently posted online.

The report is based on ten two-hourfocus groups with 54 IRCC employees Pollaraconducted for the departmentin March.

Multiple employees told Pollara they'd heard racist language used in the workplace. The report describes what it calls multiple reports of racist "microagressions" in the IRCCworkplace, including:

• Staff membersdescribinga department section known for having a lot of racialized employees as"the ghetto."
• Staff members asking to touch aracialized employee's hair, or mocking the hairstyles of racialized employees.
• A manager callingIndigenous people lazy, or calling colonialism "good."
• "Widespread"references in the workplaceto certain African nations as "the dirty 30."

"You just feel like, now that I'm speaking out, am I also going to be looked like as one of those angry Black women for speaking up?" the report quotesone employee as saying.

Racialized employees also told Pollarathey've beenpassed over for international assignments and "professional development opportunities." The report says one manager claimed that theirevaluation of a racialized employee wasoverridden "by someone above them to promote a non-racialized employee instead."

Racialized IRCC staffers told Pollarathatthey're marginalized in the workplace kept in "precarious temporary contract positions disproportionately and for a long time" which preventthem from"advocating for their own rights" to promotionor from speaking out against racist incidents.

Pollara also saidparticipants in the focus groups warned thatracism in the workplace"can and probably must impact case processing." They cited"discriminatory rules for processing immigration applications for some countries or regions," including additional financial document requirements for applicantsfrom Nigeria.

CBCrequested an interview withImmigration MinisterMarco Mendicinotwo days ago. Today, the department said he was too busy for an interview.

In a statement, IRCC said it takes the "opinions expressed in the focus groups very seriously" and is taking action.

Some of those actionspredate Pollara's research, such as the task force on eliminating racism launched by the IRCC back in July 2020.

The department said it is consulting with "external stakeholders on how to identify and address systemic barriers in policy and program delivery" and has implemented mandatory unconscious bias training for employees and executives.It alsohas named an anti-racism representative foreach of its sections.

IRCC insisted it is committed to thefair and non-discriminatory application of immigration procedures.

Asked about Pollara's report, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said hewas alarmed.

"The fact that there are allegations and concerns of racism in adepartment that deals with people who are racializedis deeply, deeply troubling and cannot continue," he said.

This isn't IRCC's first attempt at a reckoning with workplace racism.In February 2021, the department held a town hall to discuss a survey some 2,712 employees completed on the subject last year.

According toa summary of that surveyobtained by CBC News, 65 per cent of Black employees and 55 per cent of visible minorities reported experiencing micro-aggressions; thatnumber was only 13 per cent among non-racialized employees.

Meanwhile, 53 per cent of non-racializedIRCCemployees reported believing that"individuals of different races/ethnic origins" have the same career opportunities as white people; so did 48 per cent of Indigenous employees. But 55 per cent of visible minorities reportedthey have fewer such careeropportunities.

More than a third of visible minorityand Indigenous staff members surveyedsaid they were confident in the ability ofIRCC's leadership to create a workplace free of discrimination.