The Role of Employers in Selecting Highly Skilled Immigrants: Potentials and Limitations

Efforts to improve employment outcomes for new immigrants in Canada have focused on encouraging employers to participate in the selection of highly-skilled immigrants through the Express Entry “expression of interest” pool, and through a “two-step” process in which they offer temporary employment to foreign residents who may then qualify for permanent status based on a positive record of employment in Canada. Evidence suggests that: (1) employers have found the administrative procedures for sponsoring new immigrants cumbersome and have used it only sparingly to fill positions requiring the most highly-skilled workers; (2) employers have made greater use of temporary immigration schemes, but the employment success of those persons who become permanent immigrants has been limited to a relatively small group in the very highest income categories, disproportionately from European backgrounds. In both cases, it remains unclear how employer participation might be increased to meet immigration targets for the most highly-skilled. The well-known employer reluctance to hire immigrants already in Canada for the highest-level employment, particularly those of Asian, African, and Latin American origins, would seem to apply also to their involvement in selecting potential immigrants from outside the country.