Naomi Alboim is the senior policy fellow at the Canada Excellence Research Chair on Migration and Integration at Ryerson University. Karen Cohl is a consultant specializing in access to justice and immigration policy issues. Tommy Pham is a law student at the University of Toronto.
On May 6, the federal government launched a new opportunity for temporary residents to become permanent residents in Canada. The Temporary Resident to Permanent Resident Pathway is open to recent international graduates of Canadian institutions and to workers with experience in designated health care and other essential occupations.
There are legitimate concerns about the program because it excludes refugee claimants, people without immigration status and people with low levels of official language ability, even though they have worked tirelessly in essential occupations during the pandemic. Nonetheless, the program is a welcome development. It will help Canada achieve its immigration targets and enable more than 90,000 temporary residents and their families to make the transition to permanent residence.
The stream for recent international graduates rapidly reached its cap of 40,000 applications. By contrast, six weeks after the program launch, the government had received less than 10 per cent of the 20,000 maximum applications in the health care stream and less than 50 per cent of the 30,000 in the essential non-health stream. This is an indication that barriers may be preventing eligible applicants in those two streams from submitting an application.
One could argue all applicants are treated equally in that they are subject to essentially the same requirements. This does not mean, however, they are treated equitably. The reality is some workers, especially in lower-skilled occupations, may effectively be excluded because of the nature of the application process.
Imagine the difference in the capacity of two fictional eligible applicants, Mahalia and Javier, to prepare and submit a complex and costly online application. Mahalia is an international student who has recently graduated with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry. She has superior English language skills, digital literacy, access to a computer, a supportive employer and sufficient funds to pay the required fees and to obtain help from an immigration consultant.
Javier is a seasonal agricultural worker on a farm in a rural community. He has no access to a computer, no transportation to the closest urban centre to obtain various assessments and documents, no time off or assistance to complete the application, and insufficient funds to pay the required fees and related costs. Although Javier meets the minimum language level for the program, his proficiency is insufficient to work through the highly technical application process. Javier fears his employer will fire him if he applies for permanent residence. And he knows he would not be entitled to a bridging open work permit to continue employment while the government processes his application.
Many permits issued under Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program are for lower-skilled occupations that have also been designated as essential and eligible under the new Pathway program. General farm workers topped the list of essential non-health occupations with 48,885 permits issued in 2019. There was also significant uptake from home child-care providers, greenhouse workers, truck drivers and personal support workers.
If the Pathway program is truly equitable, a significant portion of successful applications will be for people with experience in these lower-skilled occupations. They are clearly in demand since employers must undergo a labour market impact assessment before being permitted to hire a temporary foreign worker from abroad.
With only a few months left in the window to submit applications, any improvements in the implementation process to remove barriers must be highly focused and quickly implemented. Without intervention, the program may remain undersubscribed or filled almost entirely with higher-skilled workers.
We recommend the government focus on generating applications from workers in essential occupations where few have applied. This will be especially important for people in the skilled trades and lower-skilled occupations, as they have few other opportunities to transition to permanent residence. We also recommend making the process more accessible by delaying certain fees and final steps until the application has been approved in principle, issues we explore in our recent paper Equitable Access.
The Temporary Resident to Permanent Resident Pathway represents an opportunity for Canada to continue to benefit from the skills brought by temporary workers to a variety of essential occupations. An equitable approach to implementation will help to fully realize the promise of this new program.
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