Improvements to selection and settlement process sets stage for long-term prosperity for Canada
The growing gap in labour market outcomes between newcomers and native-born Canadians is one of the country’s most pressing public policy challenges. The good news, according to this report from TD Economics, is a radical overhaul of the immigration system is not required to achieve significant positive change.
Intergovernmental Immigration Agreements and Public Accountability
This article assesses the Canadian intergovernmental agreements regarding immigrant selection and settlement services. The Canada-Ontario agreement allows for the province to participate in the planning and ongoing assessment of settlement services in Ontario. However, the author suggests a need for improvement in outcome measurement and public accountability.
Two-step Migration: Australia's Experience
This article examines Australia’s “two-step” migration system that aims to make former international students skilled migrants. Following a policy change allowing for international students to be immediately eligible to migrate, most students opted for private colleges that offered courses from the Migration Occupations in Demand List. Serious abuses arose, so the government introduced several reforms: more emphasis on English language ability, recent Australian work experience, and professional rather than trade-sector training.
The Economic Integration of Immigrants in Metropolitan Vancouver
IRPP's study finds English fluency is an even greater factor in economic integration than education in Vancouver. Language plays the central role in shaping the economic opportunities available to newcomers, and if selection policies do not change – and there is no indication that they will in the near future – more attention must be devoted to the provision of high-quality English-language education to immigrants to Vancouver as soon as they arrive
