Let’s talk about Canada's cybersecurity sector:
- Estimates suggest a shortfall of 25,000 to 30,000 professionals, a number meant to grow to 100,000 by 2035
- Racialized immigrants remain underrepresented, despite accounting for the majority of IT workers
- Racialized immigrant women encounter the most barriers that limit their integration and career progression
From latest research by researchers Atty Mashatan, Rupa Banerjee and postdoctoral fellow Sepideh Borzoo
Bridging Divides researchers conducted 55 in-depth interviews with foreign-born cybersecurity professionals in Canada. Here's what they found:
The layered realities of exclusion
- Overlapping forms of discrimination
- Being placed in strenuous positions, with minimal control over tasks or schedules
- Exclusion from non-technical roles requiring relationship-building due to foreign accents or cultural backgrounds
For immigrant women, these experiences were further compounded with:
An industry defined by masculine norms
- Heavy workloads and long hours
- Navigating workplace relationships in which they were frequently talked over and silenced
- Having to prioritize work over family
- An implicit requirement to avoid any display of weaknessHaving to prioritize work over family
Ensuring equity requires more than superficial diversity initiatives
Change requires a collaborative approach and addressing:
- Stereotypical behaviours
- Systemic factors
This would involve changing:
- Workplace culture
- Policies on both immigration and organizational levels
- Hiring, training and mentoring processes
💻 #LatestResearch: Canada's cybersecurity sector needs talent. A growing workforce gap, projected to reach 100,000 by 2035, is colliding with barriers faced by racialized immigrant professionals, especially women. 1/2 🧵
