A substantial number of immigrants are not only blocked from entering the professions for which they trained and were then recruited to Canada, but a substantial portion of them are not in any type or form of secure employment. Instead, Canadian newcomers often face substandard, precarious and sometimes dangerous working conditions. Immigrants are the invisible hands in our marketplaces, sewing our clothes, packaging our food, driving our taxies, or washing our dishes after a restaurant meal. They perform many of the key support activities which allow the rest of us to work, like minding our children, and cleaning our homes and our places of work. This study attempts to document the realities of these shadow economies that grassroots organizations, advocacy groups, and community agencies in east end Toronto hear from clients.