This Immigration Firm Is Helping Employers Find Workers At Home And Abroad
FREDERICTON – Swallow Immigration Consultancy has been helping immigrants come and settle in New Brunswick for years. But it now wants to help the province’s employers fill their staff shortages, too.
“We realize that so many employers are suffering from skilled worker shortages in New Brunswick,” said co-founder Nousheen Pourjahani. “Sometimes they call us to find out how they can hire someone from overseas, so we give them some information and guide them on how they can get permission from the provincial or federal government.”
Pourjahani, an immigration consultant certified by Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council, says often employers aren’t aware of programs that can help them hire workers within Canada and abroad.
At the same time, they’re facing chronic shortages of qualified applicants to fill jobs.
Pourjahani and her team want to help.
“There are so many good [immigration] programs in New Brunswick, but I believe that many employers don’t know about these programs,” she said, adding they may end up in processes that take longer time.
“In New Brunswick, there are opportunities for employers to hire graduate students, international students and to hire people from overseas too.”
Swallow Immigration Consultancy Inc. is already working with UNB to attract students, and it previously worked with the New Brunswick government as one of the Designated Immigration Representatives to attract entrepreneurs to the province.
The company also works with various immigration agencies in East Asia, the Middle East and Europe. So, it has access to workers with varying skills that are seeking to move to Canada.
“There are qualified skilled worker candidates outside, and they are good for Canada and New Brunswickers companies’ staff shortage. What we’re trying to do is to bring them to New Brunswick,” says Pourjahani.
Prior to Covid-19 travel restrictions, Pourjahani and her team would also visit various countries to introduce New Brunswick and its various immigration programs. Now, those sessions have gone online.
While Swallow Immigration’s core work is to help immigrants through the immigration process, they also help connect qualified clients with employers that are looking for employees. That latter part is free of cost, says Pourjahani.
“Right now, there is a big shortage of personal support workers in our health care system (healthcare or senior or nursing homes). We can help the system to have qualified workers.”
She says connecting immigrants to the right job opportunities is crucial.
“One of the reasons that so many people are leaving for other provinces is because they don’t feel that here is the right place to stay because they cannot find a job, or they cannot create a network,” she said. “But if we can help them through this, then maybe they’ll stay.”
Helping immigrants settle is a personal work for Pourjahani and her husband, Kayvon Ameeri, who is also her business partner. They emigrated to Canada from Iran in 2006.
“We thought, going through the immigration industry is something we are willing to do because we can help people who are interested to move to Canada. We have such an experience before,” she said.
She said having a trusted immigration consultant is key for many people wanting to immigrate to Canada because the paperwork and immigration process can be confusing and overwhelming without a professional’s guidance.
“We thought we can be in the role of helping immigrants during the immigration process to get here in the right way because there are so many ghost consultants around that take their money and do nothing,” she said. “People lose their time and money, and never get here.”
It’s important to have guidance once they land in New Brunswick as well.
“We really want to help New Brunswick to grow. We’re short in population, skilled people and students, so our commitment is helping the province to grow, bring more people here, and once again, we can help employers get familiar with different N.B. immigration programs which allow them to complete their staff shortage by foreign skilled people” she said.
This story is sponsored by Swallow Immigration Consultancy.