Temporary foreign workers in Canada are increasingly using economic immigration programs – and most often the federal Canadian Experience Class (CEC) and Provincial Nominee Programs (PNP) to get their permanent resident status, a Statistics Canada study reveals.
“Within the economic class, the … PNP and the CEC have emerged as the primary immigration pathways for work permit holders while the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSW) and other economic programs such as (the Caregiver programs) and Quebec selection have diminished in importance,” the statistical and demographic services agency notes in its latest report.
In Foreign Workers In Canada: Differences In The Transition To Permanent Residency Across Work Permit Programs, analysts Yuqian Lu and Feng Hou note that by the end of 2022 more than 955,000 temporary foreign workers who obtained their first work permits from 2006 to 2020 had transitioned had gotten their permanent residency.
Among those who got their first work permit from 2006 to 2010, 86 per cent got their permanent residency through economic immigration programs.
But among those who got their first work permit from 2016 to 2020, 93 per cent snagged their permanent residency through economic programs.
Read More
Canada Ranks Fifth Globally for Asylum Claims in 2023, UNHCR Reports
Ontario Issues 212 Express Entry Invitations To French-Speaking Skilled Worker Candidates
OINP Updates Requirements for Hiring Mobile Workers
The Statistics Canada analysts caution against reading too much into this trend, however, as they think some of the change in approach to gaining permanent residency among the more recent arrivals may have been influenced by the restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The immigration pathways of the 2016-to-2020 cohort were likely influenced by special measures adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic when economic immigration was primarily processed through the … CEC,” they note.
A big reason for the boom in the use of economic programs to gain permanent residency is the growth of the Post-Graduate Work Program (PGWP) and the rise in the number of spouses and common-law partners of skilled workers and international students.
“Their shares among work permit holders transitioning to permanent residency increased significantly, from 29 per cent in the 2006-to-2010 cohort to 73 per cent in the 2016-to-2020 cohort,” the analysts noted.
Another Statistics Canada report reveals immigrants in Canada are increasingly taking a bigger share of both lower-level jobs that Canadians are unwilling to do and also taking on more professional jobs than ever before.
In Immigration and the shifting occupational distribution in Canada, 2001 to 2021, Garnett Picot and Hou revealed immigrants increasingly filled lower-level positions throughout the country during that 20-year period.
“The results of this study indicate that the role of immigrant workers in low-skilled occupations has increased,” the researchers report.
“Together with temporary foreign workers, they filled some of the low-skilled jobs that previously would have been occupied by Canadian-born workers.”
Immigrants Taking More Entry-Level And Professional Jobs
Canadian workers moved away from lower-skilled jobs during those two decades, leaving them ripe for immigrants seeking jobs and hoping to gain their permanent residency through economic immigration programs.
“From 2001 to 2021, employment in lower-skilled occupations contracted by 500,000. As Canadian-born workers moved out of this skill level in a substantial way, reducing their employment by 860,000, together, immigrant workers and temporary foreign workers increased their employment in these lower-skilled jobs by 360,000,” report Picot and Hou.
“Hence, to some extent, immigrant workers and temporary foreign workers backfilled Canadian-born workers as they moved away from lower-skilled jobs. This pattern was similar for labourers, the lowest skill-level group. The number of Canadian-born labourers declined, while the employment contribution by immigrant labourers and temporary foreign workers increased.”
While that trend might suggest employers are primarily using immigrants as a source of cheap labour, that’s not the whole picture. Immigrants to Canada are also increasingly taking up high-paying, professional positions.
“Occupations at the professional skill level showed the fastest employment growth in Canada, with occupations at the managerial and technical skill levels close behind (during those 20 years),” report the researchers.
“Immigrant workers were more likely than Canadian-born workers to move into professional jobs. However, their tendency to be in managerial or technical jobs was little changed, unlike the tendency for workers born in Canada.”
From 2001 through to 2021, the number of immigrant workers in professional occupations rose by almost 92.4 per cent, from 543,800 to 1,046,200, while the number of Canadian workers in those types of occupations grew by a more modest 30.3 per cent, from 1,885,000 to 2,456,500.
“Over the 20-year period, total employment increased by 18 per cent,” noted the researchers.
“Professional occupations expanded the fastest, with a 48 per cent surge. Managerial jobs saw the second-highest growth rate at 36 per cent, followed by employment in technical occupations, up 31 per cent. In contrast, employment in lower-skilled jobs fell by 11 per cent.”
