Overall, the majority of our respondents experience a sense of isolation at work. In particular, the interviews reveal that the lack of communication with co-workers stems mostly from the short amount of time allocated for breaks, and in some cases the ways in which staff are organized in some LTC settings.

We don’t have really time for chatting with the co-workers on the lunch time. No socializing. (Ontario Care Worker J17)

Interviewer: Okay. Tell me how you spend your breaks and what do you do during your lunch break?
Care Worker: Sometimes I eat. Sometimes I just rest my feet. [laughing] Usually our purpose is to just get rest because we are running and running and running. Yeah, that’s how we spend. Food is secondary.
Interviewer: So do you talk to your colleagues during your lunch breaks?
Care Worker: Sometimes because of the time sometimes you are alone or just one or two like that. Sometimes when you come they are already leaving like that. So it’s not... we don’t have a lot of communication. We communicate during the job. (Ontario Care Worker J14)

The pace of the work and having to work across more than one job exacerbated these feelings.

One of the problems raised by a few employers interviewed had to do with how sometimes immigrant care workers tend to join “cliques” which separates the staff workforce. For instance, commenting on the influence that employing immigrant workers had on staff relations in his facility two employers, noted:

Nurses tend to form a camaraderie given that they have experienced or are experiencing the same issues with regards to immigration, gaining accreditation and employment. ... strong relationships given similar cultural and ethnic backgrounds. (Employer, online survey)

They [immigrant care workers] can kind of group up or clique up. We try and stay away from that. (BC Employer 8)

Furthermore, when an issue arises between immigrant employees and Canadian employees, some immigrant care workers felt that employers tend to side with the Canadians.

Travailleur: Mais quelquefois, par exemple, avec les anciennes infirmières, elle se laissait dire les choses et elle croyait plus les anciennes et je crois qu'elle a dû être plus juste avec tout le monde, quand il y avait quelque chose par exemple que c'est pas fait. Non, elle a dit quelque chose et des choses comme ça.

Intervieweuse: Est-ce qu'elle explique clairement ses attentes de ses employés?
Travailleur: Elle explique à tout le monde mais toujours elle préférait avoir plus l'opinion des anciennes pour voir comment va tout le travail.

[Care Worker: But a few times, for example, with the older nurses, they were told certain things and they believed the older (Québec-trained nurses) and I think that they should have been more fair with everyone when, for example, something was not done. No, they said something, and that’s the way it was.

Interviewer: Did they clearly explain their expectations to their employees?
Care Worker: They explained to everyone, but they always preferred having the opinion of the older (Québec trained nurses) when finding out how the work was going.”](QUÉBEC Care Worker 6)

Otherwise, most of the immigrant care-workers report that their relationship with Canadian as well as with other immigrant co-workers is very good. This is supported by the findings of the employer survey where out of 93 respondents, 26 respondents thought staff relations improved by employing immigrant workers, 7 respondents thought that the impact of employing immigrant workers greatly improved staff relations at their facility and 10 respondents thought staff relations changed by employing immigrant workers (see figure V.2).

Some of these immigrant care workers reveal that their skills and work are often praised by the staff in the facilities. For example, commenting on such positive attitude of co-workers towards her skills and work, one immigrant care worker said:

Some other nurse she said to me that I was so fast like to, like to take care of the patients... She said ‘Oh you are doing pretty good in doing that job, like that fast’, you know, ‘cause it’s difficult to do it that fast. (Ontario Care Worker J3)

Still, others note that their Canadian co-workers tend to complain about their language or more specifically, their accent:

For example in the nursing home it was nightmare. The first week I was in the dementia unit and the Canadian lady who was there ... she was like the Queen of Sheba. We were one Canadian student and me. And she said to the other student who is a really good person she said ‘She doesn’t have a good English. I can’t understand why she wants to come to work or to do something.’ (Ontario Care Worker A8)

Our employer survey also reveals that immigrant workers’ language difficulties coupled with their culturally specific way of delivering care can often cause tensions between themselves and their Canadian co-workers. For instance, commenting on these issues, one employer who participated in the online survey wrote:

Employing immigrant workers often leads to conflict due to difficulty in communication and a belief that care should be delivered in a particular fashion. (Employer, online survey)

In Québec, tensions between Canadian staff and immigrant care workers are sometimes exacerbated because Canadian staff are perceived as feeling that immigrant workers are taking away their jobs:

Il y avait d'autres que quelquefois on a des problèmes pour les relations, parce que par exemple, s'ils ont beaucoup (de travailleurs immigrant) de là bas ils pensent qu'on arrête pour enlever ses postes ou avoir d'autre chose. Quelquefois c'est des choses comme ça.

[There are others, sometimes, that give us problems in terms of work relations, because, for instance, if they have lots (of immigrant care workers) over there, they think that we are trying to take away their jobs or something else. Sometimes, it’s things like that.] (QUÉBEC Care Worker 6)

It has also been noted that while there can exist tension between Canadian staff and immigrant care workers, problems may also arise between immigrant care workers of different or even the same cultural backgrounds.

La plupart sont accueillants parce qu'ils sont des immigrants, la plupart. Il y a beaucoup d'Haïtiens dans le milieu, des Roumains, des Philippins. Mais bien sûr il y a des latinos, par exemple, qui travaillent bien avec les Philippins parce qu'on aime travailler fort et tranquille.

[Most of them are welcoming because they are immigrants, most of them. There are a lot of Haitians working in the field, Romanians, Filipinos. But of course, there are Latinos, for instance, that work well with Filipinos, because we like working hard and calmly.] (QUÉBEC Care Worker 6).

Among those who feel welcomed by Canadian staff, there are some who argue that this is the case only due to the fact that Canadian co-workers desperately need them in order to adequately respond to their working demands. For instance, in making such an argument, two workers from B.C. said:

Well, welcome in the sense ... because they don’t have a choice because they only have two hands to do the work and they need six or eight hands to do it. So they don’t have choice in that way. (BC Care Worker 10)

Well they need us. [laughing] Basically that’s why we’re welcome. (BC Care Worker5)

On the other hand, some of the immigrant care workers who feel overqualified for the position they hold in Canada can cause other issues with co-workers that require careful negotiation on the part of the immigrant care worker. One internationally trained doctor, for instance, who works as a nursing coordinator in a long-term care facility is sometimes asked for medical advice by the other staff at the facility because they know of his qualifications. This, of course, puts him in a situation that carries ethical and legal implications:

Care Worker: They asked me, because they know that I have medical background, they ask me all the time, what is your opinion on this? Do you think it’s ...
Interviewer: Do you mind them doing that?
Care Worker: No and yes. The doctors appreciate, because I go there and assess the patient. And I know what to look for. So when I’m talking with a specialist, I already know the way he thinks, the way a doctor thinks. So, sometimes they ask me what do you think the patient has? Because I already assessed the patient. Sometimes they’ll bring a nurse in for needles and, because they are old, they have tiny veins, they cannot set IVs and the patient needs an IV because he’s dehydrated. So then they call me and they told me, sorry, but they cannot do it ... and I go there and I cannot do it myself, because it’s not legal. I don’t have the licence to do that. (QUÉBEC Care Worker 2)

Still, some immigrant care workers note that Canadian staff have a negative attitude towards their higher educational credentials. For instance, describing her relationship with co-workers, one nurse with MD credentials noted:

First time they [were] kind of like intimidated because I had a higher education. Actually they want to work with people the same [level] ... They don’t want to work with very high education people. (Ontario Care Worker 12)