Backgrounder - The proposed Canadian Experience Class

A skilled temporary foreign worker’s presence in Canada is often driven by an employer’s request to have a position staffed by someone outside of Canada when he/she is not able to find a Canadian to do the job. Employers invest in their workers; when workers leave Canada, so too does their investment. Foreign workers become familiar with their community. International students in Canada are likely to eventually obtain a Canadian post-secondary educational credential. During their time studying (and later on the job), they establish social networks and gain perspective on the Canadian job market.

Such skilled temporary foreign workers and graduates, make ideal candidates for permanent immigration. Their experience with Canadian society and knowledge of the Canadian labour market, combined with their language skills make them likely to do well as newcomers.

Currently, there is no immigration pathway that values experience in Canada as a key indicator of a newcomer’s likelihood to succeed. The existing federal Skilled Worker Program was designed for overseas immigration and therefore does not focus on experience gained in Canada. Skilled temporary foreign workers and graduates may not qualify to immigrate under it. The Canadian Experience Class would create a new avenue for economic immigration that would complement others such as the Federal Skilled Worker Program and the Provincial Nominee Program. For those already in Canada wishing to immigrate, the principal avenue would then become the Canadian Experience Class.

This proposed program would do more to retain those already here. International students and foreign workers would be more likely to choose Canada if they knew their experience here would help them stay should they eventually wish to apply to stay in Canada permanently.

The proposed change would have other benefits as well. Under these proposed changes, the Canadian Experience Class would go further to spread the benefits of immigration to parts of Canada that have not traditionally known its dividends. We know that skilled workers are most likely to settle in Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver. Temporary foreign workers and students are located more broadly across Canada because they are driven by employer demand or the attraction of a specific college or university. Wherever the opportunities are, they follow. If a temporary foreign worker or student eventually decided to apply to stay permanently, he/she would be more inclined to stay where social and economic prospects have already been established and where he/she arrived initially as a temporary foreign worker or student.

Another significant benefit of the proposed change would be that Canada could see more diversity in the types of skills in its newcomers. The Canadian Experience Class has the potential to allow more skilled tradespersons, who often lack sufficient formal education to qualify in the federal Skilled Worker Program, to come to Canada permanently.