Narratives of Intercultural and Holistic Transformative Learning Experiences of Professional Immigrants: Expanding Learning through Relationships

Colombians with university degrees still struggle to find their professional place and quality of life in their home country (country of origin). Therefore, many professional Colombians (individuals with a university degree) immigrate to Canada to not only succeed professionally, but also to improve their quality of life. However, many immigrants discover that having professional experience and credentials from their home country and speaking the target language are not enough to facilitate quick entry into the job market, within their professional field, and to integrate into their host communities so they could feel professionally successful. According to Armony’s (2014) quantitative study, Colombian immigrants have experienced the most discrimination, unemployment, and poverty of any Latin American cultural group of immigrants in Canada. The purpose of this qualitative study with narrative inquiry methodology was to explore the professional pathways of eight professional Colombian immigrants who felt successful in Canada and had two or more years of adaptation and integration to answer the following question: To what extent did professional Colombian immigrants experience holistic Transformative Learning (TL) and enhance Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) after living in Canada for two or more years, on their path to professional success? The participants implemented various learning strategies that cultivated interpersonal connections that fostered changes in their frames of reference; they became more open-minded, flexible, resilient, and humble, experiencing various levels of holistic TL while enhancing their ICC.