This review of Canada’s labour migration policy is the tenth in a series conducted by the OECD Secretariat as a follow-up to the 2009 High Level Policy Forum on International Migration. The rationale for this initiative was the recent growth in labour migration observed in many countries and the likelihood that recourse to labour migration would increase in the context of demographic ageing. Prior to the global economic crisis of the late 2000s, many countries had made substantial changes to labour migration policies with a view to facilitating recruitment from abroad. With the introduction of these changes, more prominence was accorded to the question of their effectiveness, and more broadly to the objectives of labour migration policy in general. Although the economic crisis put a damper on labour migration movements, it did not stop them entirely, and interest in labour migration policy is unlikely to diminish in the near future.

Canada has not only the largest in terms of numbers, but also the most elaborate and longest-standing skilled labour migration system in the OECD. Largely as a result of many decades of managed labour migration, more than one in five people in Canada is foreign-born, one of the highest shares in the OECD. 60% of Canada’s foreign-born population are highly educated, the highest percentage OECD-wide. A broad range of settlement services for labour migrants and their families, both pre- and post-arrival, complement the system and overall integration outcomes of migrants and their native-born children are better than in most other OECD countries. Against this backdrop, Canada is widely seen as a role model for successful migration management.

Canada has the largest and longest-standing skilled labour migration programme…

Further strengthen the consistency and selection of permanent labour migration

This chapter outlines the context for labour migration to Canada. It provides an overview of labour migration in international comparison, the current domestic labour market situation and demographic outlook and discusses the historical evolution of the Canadian labour migration system. Partly as a result of the longest-standing and largest skilled migration programme in the OECD, Canada has the highest-educated immigrant population in the OECD. Overall labour market conditions are favourable and the impact of demographic change is less severely felt than elsewhere.

This chapter first traces how the Canadian selection system for permanent labour migrants has evolved since the introduction of the points-based system in 1967. It then describes and analyses the Express Entry (EE) system. This two-step selection system, introduced in 2015, builds a pool of eligible candidates (Expression of Interest) from which labour migrants are selected (Invitation to Apply). The chapter then compares and contrasts EE to two main peer systems in other countries – SkillSelect in Australia and the Skilled Migrant Expression of Interest system in New Zealand. The chapter also analyses the performance of Express Entry during its first four years of operation. It details how well EE is fulfilling the objectives laid out at its inception: i) greater flexibility in selection and application management; ii) better responsiveness to labour market and regional needs; and iii) quicker application processing.

This chapter describes and analyses the two streams via which temporary labour migrants come to Canada: the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program and the International Mobility Program (IMP). It also looks at a specific sub-group of temporary immigrants — international students — who since 2014 enjoy extended working rights. The chapter outlines how the labour-market-tested TFW Program, has become rather tightly managed and has continuously declined in overall numbers while the IMP has grown substantially. It also discusses some specific elements of the system, such as the policies for caregivers and, more generally, the role of two-step (temporary to permanent) migration in international comparison.

Co-operation between the federal and provincial/territorial (PT) governments in migration management is a particular feature of the Canadian immigration system and attributable to Canada’s federal governance. This chapter first briefly describes the responsibilities of the federal and PT governments, including the Quebec programmes, and their evolution over time. The chapter then compares the profiles of federally and provincially selected immigrants as well as their labour market outcomes, before analysing the inter-provincial mobility of provincially and federally selected immigrants. A final section analyses the settlement patterns of provincially selected immigrants within provinces and territories.