E79: Shamira Madhany is working on fixing Canada's annual $50B loss in GDP

To celebrate #IWD2025, The Newcomers Podcast will be publishing daily episodes between March 2nd - 8th celebrating a female immigrant. Come celebrate with us as we tell the stories of some of the many amazing immigrant heroines.

Join us as we explore the bitter-sweet world of the immigrant.

For our fourth #IWD2025 episode, I'm speaking with Shamira Madhany, Managing Director & Deputy Executive Director at World Education Services (WES).

“We're having the wrong conversation about immigration.” If there's one person qualified to say this, It's Shamira. Her family came to Canada from Kenya in the early 1970s, fleeing potential political instability after Idi Amin expelled Ugandan Asians.

Despite being well-educated with business experience, Shamira's father couldn't find employment in his field. Her father took a job at a golf club (cleaning, picking up towels), while her mother worked in a factory.

This experience led to Shamira's life mission—solving the disconnect between Canada's need for workers and the barriers preventing high-skilled immigrants from getting jobs.

In her words, “I don’t want to give out umbrellas anymore because it’s too tiring. I want to change the climate.”

In this conversation, Shamira and I explore how it felt watching her parents struggle to find their footing after immigrating to Canada. We also chat about:

* Why she joined WES

* The economic impact of immigrant underemployment

* The cost of workforce shortages to Canadian businesses

* The biggest issue with the Canadian immigration system

* How we can connect the macro (immigration policy) with the micro (the immigrant experience

* The work she and a host of other amazing souls are doing to make it easier for high-skilled immigrants to get the jobs they deserve, and more good stuff.

Official Links

👋🏽 Follow Shamira on LinkedIn

🫶🏽 Learn more about WES

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thenewcomerspod.com