World Education Services (WES) is a non-profit social enterprise dedicated to helping international students, immigrants, and refugees achieve their educational and career goals in the United States and Canada. The weekly roundup includes research, stories, and events of interest to the Canadian immigration and settlement community. This content has been created by WES and is reproduced here with their permission, in partnership.
Effectively immediately, Alberta’s provincial nominee program – Alberta Advantage Immigration Program (AAIP) has added “having relatives in the province” to their candidate selection criteria for Alberta’s Express entry stream. This unique feature is now available only in Alberta, and the province has allocated 25% of its notifications of interest to individuals with both immediate family ties in Alberta, and who have experience in high demand occupations required in the province. With job vacancies of nearly 100,000 and predictions of an additional 33,00 more by 2025, this strategy hopes to address many of the labour shortages in the province.
A recent report has found that although racialized people are more likely to earn a bachelor’s degree or higher when compared to their non-racialized, non-Indigenous counterparts, they are less likely to find jobs that offer the same pay and benefits following graduation. The report notes that many racialized populations including Korean, Chinese, South Asian, Japanese, Arab and Filipinos had education levels well above the national average. However, Southeast Asian populations had lower levels of education which could be attributed to many arriving as refugees to Canada. Furthermore, there were variations in educational outcomes among Latin American and Black populations. The report notes that Latin American immigrants who arrived to Canada in 2001 or later were more likely to have a bachelor’s degree or higher. Similarly, first and second-generation Black Canadians who were born in Africa or had at least one parent born in Africa were likely to have obtained a bachelor’s degree or higher. Among women, West Asian and Arab graduates experience the largest income gaps earning 15-16% less than their non-racialized and non-Indigenous counterparts. Among men, Black, Southeast Asian, Filipino, Chinese and Korean graduates had the lowest employment incomes earning between 11-13% less than their non-racialized, non-Indigenous counterparts.
World Employment and Social Outlook Trends 2023 (ILO)
The International Labour Organization released their latest installment of the World Employment and Social Outlook Trends series, highlighting key forecasts in global labour market and justice efforts for 2023. According to latest research, several conflicts have contributed to labour market challenges globally. Post-pandemic recovery efforts, war, displacement crises, looming recessions, and environmental catastrophes have presented a climate of uncertainty around decent work. Currently, the global jobs gap stands at 473 million people - at a rate of 12.3 percent, a measure that highlights the unmet need for employment in the world. Women and young people continue to experience disparate access to decent employment as the participation rate of women is at 47.4 percent when compared to 72.3 for men. The unemployment rate of young people aged 15-24 is nearly three times that of adults over 25, where more than one in five youth are not in education, employment, or training (NEET). Global employment is expected to expand by 1.0 percent in 2023 (compared to 2.3 percent in 2022). However, projections for 2023 demonstrate that labour market improvement will vary across regions, where Africa is expected to experience a growth rate of nearly 3 percent; 1 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean; while Europe, Asia, and North America are expected to see limited growth with a rise in unemployment.
‘Welcome Corps’ a potential lifeline for refugees (The PIE)
The 'Welcome Corps' is a new private sponsorship pathway that seeks to support the resettlement of refugees in the United States. Private sponsorship pathways have proven to be effective in supporting the resettlement of displaced persons – an avenue where Canada has seen success for nearly a decade. Previously, humanitarian pathways in the US have been in response to specific displacement crises - most recently for Afghan, Ukrainian, and Venezuelan nationals. In collaboration with the US Department of State and Department of Health, the program will enable individual US citizens to privately sponsor displaced individuals, matching applicants approved for resettlement with sponsors. The Departments are calling on 10,000 Americans to support 5,000 refugees as part of the program’s first iteration. Through this initiative, sponsors will assist in financial support and connecting newcomers to essential resettlement services like housing and accommodation, education, language training, and employment. According to officials, a program is under development to support refugee post-secondary students in accessing higher education by way of sponsorship – more information to follow in coming months.