This November 2025 P2P Conference workshop examined how Canada can better leverage immigrant talent through workforce integration, upskilling, and pathways to entrepreneurship. Drawing on national research, presenters identified systemic barriers that limit newcomer participation and highlight policy and program solutions that support equitable employment outcomes. Presenters discussed strategies for improving access to skills development, credential recognition, and entrepreneurial supports. The session also explored emerging evidence on how AI and digital transformation are reshaping employer hiring practices, skill requirements, and opportunities for immigrant workers. Presenters discussed initiatives advancing newcomer inclusion and practical approaches that help immigrants transition into meaningful employment and entrepreneurship.
Presenters:
AI-generated transcript:
good afternoon everyone and welcome to this session on immigrant workforce integration including upskilling and reskilling for employment and entrepreneurship i'm Caitlyn Spreco director of research special projects here at the diversity institute at Toronto Metropolitan University and I'll be the chair for this presentation today I have with me Dr wendy Sukir professor of entrepreneurship and innovation at the Ted Rogers School of Management at Toronto Metropolitan University and founder and academic director of the Diversity Institute i also have with me Dr dr tony Fang professor in Jeruslowski chair at Memorial University and Daniel Servin Gill who is associate director of employer initiatives at World Education Services this workshop examines how Canada can better leverage immigrant talent through workforce integration upskilling and pathways to entrepreneurship drawing on national research it identifies systemic barriers that limit newcomer participation and highlight policy and program solutions that support equitable employment outcomes there will be three presentations by our speakers today and a designated time for Q&A at the end which will be accepted through the chat function at this point I'd like to welcome our first speaker Dr wendy Sukir in addition to Wendy's role at the diversity institute and as professors uh of entrepreneurship and innovation at the Ted Rogers School of Management at TMU Wendy is also academic director for the future skill center where she oversees a comprehensive research agenda focused on creating pathways to newcomers to education employment and leadership as well as innovative pilot projects at this point I'd like to hand it over to you Wendy thanks so much Caitlyn and thanks very much Tony and Daniel for joining us and thanks to the organizers of course for uh giving us this opportunity i'm going to talk um fairly quickly because I want to make sure we have lots of time for discussion but what I really wanted to do is provide a bit of a overview of some of the research we're doing through the future skills center and as part of the bridging divides um Canada excellence research chair project that we're involved in the um first a little about the diversity institute then a little bit about the context I know that there are lots of experts in the audience so I don't have to say much talk a bit about some of the innovative programs supporting newcomers but I really want to drill down into some of the issues around immigrant entrepreneurs and what we think the implications are the most important thing about the diversity institute is that we are in the business school so our focus is very much on how equity diversity and inclusion help uh drive organizational performance the other important point is we have 10 sites across the country and in fact today I'm joining you from beautiful Winnipeg where our partner is the University of Manitoba so lots of research that has been done on immigrant experiences with employment and we know we know this story it hasn't changed um in a long time one of the things that a lot surprises a lot of people given all the focus on for example English language training is the research shows that skills are not always a predictor for employment so even uh competency in English is associated with long-term earnings but not short-term employment we know there's a lack of credential recognition daniel will talk more about this we know that there's bias baked into the design of programs and processes and Tony will talk about some of his research which is fascinating his previous study showed that employers who hire immigrants tend to hire more immigrants because of the association between attitudes and action we also know that uh a lot of the supports are misaligned to labor markets a lot of the organizations that are focused on helping immigrants get employment are not as connected to employers as they should be and that there are issues around fragmentation and duplication we know that there are issues around competency frameworks and outcome measurements and there have been some pretty damning um studies for example that look at the impact of some of our English language training programs we also know that in the current context um and we had a session earlier this morning there's huge uncertainty in terms of what's happening with employment lots of disruption because of uh global geopolitical trends technology and so on and we know that immigrants are not monolithic that we have to have an intersectional lens that racialized immigrants have different experiences than white immigrants that um immigrants who speak English as a second language have different experiences women have different experiences and so on and one of the things that is really important to note is that the some of the barriers and issues around employment for immigrants um are not getting a lot better we know that uh Canada does not fare particularly well and many of you have heard me cite the research that shows for example that in Australia um after 5 years in in major professions like medicine nursing engineering and so on immigrants earn n% of immigrants earn the same as people who were born um in in uh in Australia in Canada it's only 50% so we have things to talk about we also have issues to uh to deal with in terms of experiences in the workplace uh with respect to discrimination this is a very large study we did with uh environics eight waves 40,000 respondents what's interesting is um recent immigrants experience and report more discrimination than others racialized immigrants more than others and recently South Asian immigrants in particular have been um experiencing discrimination at record levels and a lot of this is a result of the uh the discourse around international students and the backlash we've seen attitudes to immigrants have shifted dramatically and I would argue it's a topic for another discussion this has been the result of deliberate misinformation misrepresentation of data and the spillover effects of frankly um rhetoric in the United States which uh legitimizes hate against and xenophobia and we can talk more about that but this creates a very different context for immigrants seeking employment than even we saw a few years ago when you drill down into and this is another study we did within ryonics even though some Canadians majority now believe there's too much immigration a lot of this has been shaped by misinformation and some of you um know about the research that I did with Morley Gunderson that showed for example despite all this stuff about immigration driving housing prices immigration levels only account for 10% of the change in housing prices yet the the media really has a lot to be accountable for in terms of reinforcing misinformation when you dig in a little bit more we see that Canadians views on immigration are a bit more complex that there are certainly um there's certainly support for economic migrants but there are lots of questions that are being raised about um refugees and asylum seekers and as I said we've got lots of research that shows very deliberate efforts to sew dissent um with misinformation contrast that to the attitudes of Canadians overall uh to equity diversity and inclusion and again we can dig into this in more detail but some would think um based on the the rhetoric that there's huge backlash against EDI and yet we see only 16% of respondents 5,000 um it's a big survey only 16% say EDI at work is a bad thing 54% say it's a good thing and so somehow um the the commitments around EDI I would argue because they cross different ethnic and demographic categories um has stayed solid whereas attitudes to immigration and immigrants has really um really deteriorated we also know that um many immigrants feel that um jobs are are hard to get particularly those who are here recently and many um many are very concerned about what's going to happen as a result of automation and you can see it's particularly acute with recent immigrants at almost 60% are worried about their jobs and I would argue potentially with good reason what's also interesting though as we look at the impact for example of artificial intelligence um recent immigrants are more likely to be using AI in the workplace recent immigrants are more likely to be self-taught recent immigrants are more likely to think their workplaces are slow in terms of um uh in terms of AI adoption and recent immigrants are also concerned about keeping up with uh changes in technology there are lots of programs that have been developed and I won't go through these in in detail um that have been developed and evaluated for their impact specifically on helping immigrants get jobs and I think in the current environment we have to be laser focused laser focused on outcomes regardless of what sector we're in whether we're a postsecondary institution whether we're um a community organization or or a government agency we have to be laser focused on outcomes and value for money um the ADAPT program which Caitlyn could talk more about uh is is one example of a program that was tailored to the needs of uh newcomers and has produced u strong um outcomes and uh we compare the outcomes for newcomers non-newcomers and so on and look at the um the results across different skills and we see for example um there there aren't huge differences among newcomers and others except in certain areas like uh communication skills which is not surprising one of the things that we would argue is critically important is to have employers at the center and that is something that um to me seems obvious but having done a fairly comprehensive review of immigrants serving programs across the country we see there is uneven evaluation and certainly um inconsistent uh relationships with with actual employers we've also looked in some detail at career pathing processes and where we have to invest time and effort in helping newcomers build social capital confidence ensuring that they have um you know their transportation costs and child care costs covered so they can actually attend the training programs and so on and it's really important from our perspective to recognize that the job search process the training process are basically social processes and it's not just about sticking content into people's brains it's about helping them develop and navigate the systems the other thing that I really wanted to to talk about before I wrap up is the importance especially in this environment especially in this environment on really centering entrepreneurial skills not just for immigrants who who want to be in business and there are lots of those but also as a set of skills that help people become resilient adaptive and able to um navigate the current environment which is characterized by change we know that immigrant-owned businesses are critical to the Canadian economy we know that immigrantowned businesses are more likely to export we know that immigrants are our competitive advantage when it comes to entering new markets and you know as our prime minister is running around trying to make friends with other countries we know that immigrants who have relationships with those countries are really um are really key to being successful and we've done lots of research on on these issues we know that immigrant entrepreneurs often face barriers different barriers than those seeking employment but we have to work really hard to make sure that they have access to the supports that they need in order to navigate regulations in order to overcome the bias they face in financial institutions because they don't have Canadian credit ratings or history um and we have to make sure that we're evaluating programs for outcomes and impact not just bums and seats and whether people like them or not and we've done a number of programs trying to figure out what works for whom uh we need to really challenge the narrative we need to focus on stories of success we need to recognize that immigrants built Canada you know starting with the railroads including the houses um and and in terms of businesses and we need to think about the problems within the ecosystem not just as a matter of fixing the job seekers but also addressing issues in employers making sure that they know where to find talent that they remove barriers making sure that service providers are laser focused on outcomes and we're developing all sorts of competency frameworks to try to rationalize uh the navigation through the system you know we believe that AI skills are now foundational skills part of the SI skills for success framework and that all Canadians need um AI literacy we're looking at entrepreneurship uh competency models and making sure we take into account stages of development sectors but also identities um tools to help organizations be more inclusive and thinking about how immigrants are an asset and bring assets to the table as opposed to being disadvantaged so we're big on data disagregated data in particular we're big on focusing on competencies and outcomes we think that there's lots and lots that can be done to advance entrepreneurship and show that immigrants help build the economy and we think that increasingly digital skills are part of the solution so thank you very much for your attention and I will pass it back to you Caitlyn thank you Wendy for sharing the work and insights on immigrants employment and entrepreneurship underscoring competencies and outcomes and now I'd like to take this time to bring in our next speaker Dr tony Fang who holds the Steven Derlowski chair in economic and cultural transformation at Memorial University and the J robert Baser faculty fellowship at Rutgers University is published widely in top journals including Strategic Management Journal Industrial Relations Review Journal of World Business and Canadian Journal of Economics at this point I'd like to hand it over to you Tony thank you Gatling uh for sharing uh for chairing the session also uh thank you uh P2P and DI diversity institute for organizing uh the session providing opportunity to us uh speak on very important issue and also good in company with Wendy and Danielle uh and uh fruitful discussion i'm really looking forward to the uh panel uh uh uh discussion a little bit later on so uh so this is I I think you know it's a very interesting time also challenging time right as you know we have seen the federal budget this is probably uh first time in a long time that uh includes uh actually immigration level plans which showcase that the government really consider uh immigration as a very important part of the economic development strategy and uh we also welcome that uh you know this very important investment uh so kind of uh intergenerational uh investment in mega project but also in you know high quality uh uh global talents and $1.7 billion I believe and this is actually very critical time for us as well at the memorial uh because we celebrate 100 years anniversary and the same time also celebrate New Year's of uh uh birthday for our major funer miss Jeroski himself actually uh was a refugee from Germany in the 1940s and um eventually started his own business and very successful and uh become a billionaire actually in Canada and is very passionate about the Canadian confederation and also immigration system so he actually donated uh today more than 50 research chairs uh to major Canadian university i was very proud and honored to be uh one of the shareholders in the first few cohorts and um so I think his uh experience is a testimony how you know the immigration immigrants in Canada can uh make you know significant uh economic social and cultural contribution uh to this uh great country very generous country so I also want to take opportunity to thank my research team who have prepared all the materials and data and also analysis for this plantation so I would like to echo what um you know uh Wendy just suggested you know where Canada is a really good position to attract integrate and retain highly skilled immigrants and um and also uh leveraging the Edwan technologies um such as artificial intelligence and and so on to help develop more inclusive hiring practices uh and also diversity management i think you know to this friend I mean uh diversity institute is not only a major research hub but also is a pioneer to develop right more actionable uh diversity management practices and tools you know for uh Canadian organization especially so really I want to applaud uh all these efforts and uh initiatives and uh uh um you know uh made by the diversity institute so again uh to this end also would like to thank of course uh DI and future skills center and also the uh uh Akova for the general support uh for to our national survey on skill development employment practices okay and um and also Wendy also mentioned that you know highlights some of the important research finding which shows that majority of the um Canadianmemes um actually reported positively hiring attitude towards um immigrants international students uh 80 90% this is before covid and also after co and um across the nation but also in particular Atlantic Canada because we have experienced you know particular uh demographic challenges and of skill labor shortages okay so in this survey we not only asked about this um hiring uh employee hiring practices attitudes but also um adoption of AI and other advantage technology and especially how they can leverage AI to uh uh uh provide you know valuable training to employees newcomers but also um uh develop more inclusive hiring practices and integration programs so this survey actually is national representative survey and we uh conduct survey based on the what is called stratified random sampling methods uh according to three domains which is the um which are the industry uh region and also the firm size okay so you have you should have uh fair confidence on our results and that are actually national representative ofmemes so first of all um the 30% of the uh Canadian SMMES actually uh uh adopted uh the AI artificial intelligence uh but but it's a regional variation uh you can see that the adoption rate is particularly high in western Canada 34.6% uh but lower in Quebec i'm not sure this attributed to some kind of culture issues language issues but um only 19% and we also notice this kind of sty facts and it is the uh large organization okay and uh and also younger organization are more likely to adopt AI okay and AI are more likely to be used uh for um organization performance such such as productivity tools marketing advertising uh sales forecasting product design and and so on so forth not surprising and uh a little bit to our surprise only uh you know 4% reported using AI for human resource management and uh so maybe this is a area that um we need to highlight maybe this issue of wellness maybe let's say you know lack of capacity for HIM meaning don't even have HR department development lack of this critical skills and lack of the uh uh financial resources uh whatever the reason is I think you know this is some the area shouldn't certainly marries a lot of tension and uh so uh next um question we ask is that how AI affect organization performance and he said the results are pretty actually robust okay and um we can see that you know the different area talking about um uh that was highlighted productivity and marketing and sales product design and so on and uh in HR areas uh we talk about you know again uh AI mostly used for kind of traditional uh HR practice such as advertising resume screening and so on but not in terms of very uh uh you know kind of advanced uh sophisticated HR policy and practice like um uh applicant tracking system on boarding and uh workforce forecasting so on again this probably also attributable to those kind of limitations we talked capacity limitations we mentioned a little bit earlier again there a lot of potentials as SM develop those kind of competences uh by leveraging uh artificial intelligence and uh so next we're looking at um ask a reason why uhmemes those who you know have not adopt AI and surprisingly actually uh 68.9% of them say you know they don't adopt because there's no need again this point to critical well issues you know capacity issue information lack information and lack of evidence on the AI impact on organization performance and and so on so forth and other Reason behind unusual unsure how to integrate difficult to use right don't trust the data quality and concerned about privacy regulatory legal risk and so on so not so surprising okay and um but do uh uh deserve a lot of attention as well so in terms of how AI affect perception of business performance this is actually result stand out and uh and it's not surprising as well so you know the AI adoption and certainly can improve uh those metrics like operational efficiency not surprising saving a lot of times and especially for those processing you know large amount of data sets and uh and models and so on and actually our job is at risk as economist right because we are dealing with a lot of data quenching and organizing productivity 47.6% 6% reported you know uh increase along with personal marketing sales improved products and services and so on so yeah this the evidence is pretty convincing but only among those who have adopted right I mean this majority of the as I mean don't adopt you know uh they're not aware of right uh this positive outcome so this is maybe uh the job we need to do as researchers not just writing paper in dark room but also uh circulate mobilize knowledge so that you knowmemes will be aware of and we'll actually utilize all that kind of you know uh tools you know the the uh initiatives that DI have developed right and uh and and and make a difference on the bottom line business and relate to the adoption AI the critical question is that you know would be the future skills mostly in demand right for today's economy maybe future economy and one skill is particularly um you know on the spotlight I would say is digital skills this something is non-negotiable right for large organization for small medium size enterprises digital skills uh is a number one okay uh 21.1% of theme reported this is something that they definitely desire for their employees in the next three years and the other the second third are much distant okay uh from the first which are kind of interesting soft skills right communication at the ability problem solving and and creativity innovation so this is actually consistent with the recent evidence suggests that you know uh there is great demand so-called hybrid skills right you do need those kind of you know hot skills like digital skills but also you know same time you need a complimentary soft skills right to make a great effects on employee performance and organizational performance okay and I can in terms of actual training of those kind of skill different kind of skills Well you know for national data what it show is that you know they steermemes so prioritize on the based right compliant based uh skill training like industry certification will place health safety and and not very much into the kind of right skills new technology we we talking about and which is a little bit surprising so I would add on a little bit of you know on the uh the immigration the important role of the immigrant entrepreneurship uh what we have found we'll show you in a minute is that immigrant owned organization are much more agile much more risk taken much more on the front line AI adoption and have more superior organization performance as a result of AI adoption right this is something that consistent with the message windy just mentioned that in her study that a lot of immigrant newcomers fail you know organizations very slow adopting new technologies not adaptable a lot of agile not flexible and actually evidence suggests that the employees are ahead of game in terms of AI adoption and employers right it's kind of interesting finding also has very important policy and practice implications and uh in terms AI as a tool support uh immigrant integration outcomes and again this is the interesting that uh among those who answer this question many don't answer you know this question at all uh and uh majority of them say that they don't know AI would have any impact on immigrant uh integration this is something that again we need to do more work on right there lack of wellness and uh and lack of maybe capacity and forward okay and so among those um who actually uh use AI for immigrant integration and not surprisingly many of them use for language training 13.3 number one job special training and crossc country communication again I highlight immigrant owned enterprise I'm more like to provide those kind of support to immigrant uh integration and also in all the dimensions we talking language training job specific training and and so on cross cultural uh training as well so this is a separation I think it's a highlight of the research findings here if you look at uh AI adoptions among immigrant owned firms right much high on uh for Atlantic Canada 34.2% rest of Canada 35% look at that for non-immigrant owned firm 23.5% and 29% much lower okay and then we're looking at uh you know different functional areas where firms using AI okay again look at that immigrant owned firm have much higher percentage of using for those purposes productivity tools marketing so on and look at this right for non immigrant own companies much lower percentage right using those critical business function areas and look at uh the the AI use impact on business performance again looking at that immigrant on firms much superior performance because AI adoption operational efficiency personal marketing improved product and services look at this much lower okay 73% was 59.7% uh of law immigrant or firms okay and uh so there's always question million billion dollar question maybe say why immigrants are more like adopt AI more like to use those key function more likely exit you know superior perform because you AI adopt because maybe I think immigrants are more risk taken right immigrants are more likely to be uh self motivated they are more entrepreneur and they're more agile they are more adaptable right so those kind of you know uh evidence is well doumented literature and they also apply to the AI uh uh research we have done here okay and uh look at desirable employee skills right we talk about you know national average about 21% of immigrant owned companies 31.6% 6% much higher uh than the other um non-immigrant owned company communication 9.5 and again uh across the board much higher right so immigrants are more proactive in providing those kind of cutting edge skills and knowledge to their uh future employees they believe it's more desirable okay and then non-immigrant uh owned companies and uh type of skills again look at uh you know the uh immigrant owned they focus on scale uh um you know uh uh communication new technology but much higher than uh the um nonuno they focus more on the plan based compliment based in the certification we have safety this is kind of different patterns okay the the kind of uh you know focus on the training that most mostly useful right to improve organizing performance rather than the uh compliances okay and then looking at AI been used as a tool for immigrant integration retention and uh for immigrant owned firms much less okay% say they said no way no use and they're more like to put in to language training job training cross communication training compared with non-immigrant owned firms okay so I I think you know that's I'm sorry for all this uh data I probably I'm running out of time I'm not sure catalony can you give me a little bit a sign say you know how much time I have maybe I have zero time now but uh I'm looking forward again uh to the uh panel discussion and the Q&A a little later on you Tony that's perfect um so thank you for sharing your insights on the determinance of AI adoption and its effects on immigrant skill requirements and organizational performance at this point I just want to give a little reminder to everyone that questions for the Q&A will be accepted through the chat function in the feed loop platform and will be addressed during the designated Q&A at the end of the session now I'd like to welcome Daniel Servin Gil who is the associate director of employer initiatives at WS in his role Daniel leads Wes's work with employers employer facing organizations municipal and regional actors to create and socialize solutions strategies and new tools related to the recruitment retention and reskilling of immigrants at this point I'd like to hand it over to you Daniel thank you Caitlyn thank you for having me and it's a pleasure to also share a panel with Tony uh and Wendy uh for my presentation today I'd like to focus on uh three three sections on the first um few slides I'll provide you with some context on where we are today and what got us to this moment um I'll then like to speak to some of the ongoing barriers and some of the emerging solutions that that we're seeing uh and also I'll close with some high level calls to action to ensure we're setting newcomers and the Canadian economy up for success uh next slide please uh first of all uh I wanted to provide a very brief introduction review of Wes's work um uh as many of you may know uh World Education Services uh is a nonfor-profit social enterprise that's dedicated to the success of immigrants refugees and international students we work at the intersection of education workforce development philanthropy policy advocacy and research uh this is our 50th anniversary uh in Canada this year uh and um in in our work even though many of you may know us through our educational credential evaluation we mix uh we use a mix of levers uh to help build inclusive economies uh so we do this uh with uh an array of incredible partners from across the country many of whom are probably in the virtual room today uh next slide um just very quickly our vision is uh um that everyone is able to put their education experience and skills to work anywhere in the world and our mission is to help people learn work and thrive in new places helping societies recognize the value of people's education and experience uh now uh in this slide you see here um wanted to set the stage with a reminder of some of the key demographic data um Canada's population is about 41.7 million as per statistics Canada's realtime population clock um immigrants make up approximately 23% of Canada's population this is based on 2021's Canada census um an important uh piece of information that we like to repeat and uh to set the stage is that immigration accounts for almost 100% of labor force growth um this is uh uh int uh is forecasted to be uh net 100% by 2030 um also immigration is projected to drive uh 100% of population growth by 2032 uh while our society continues to to age uh I think this is important as we talk specifically around some of the the why uh we're looking into integration removing barriers to integration and and and as ways to foster um economic productivity um on the on the next slide please uh we'll uh look also more generally at labor market dynamics excuse me demographics um more broadly and immigration in particular are major factors that are shaping Canada's labor market um but not only um the market is also being shaped by other factors some of it have been already addressed by my colleagues technology and automation in particular the AI revolution uh we see many opportunities for workers as Tony uh has very eloquently and and in detail uh shared with us uh but there are also some some risks and threats particularly acute for newcomers i'll go into those in in a minute um but for example the erosion of entry- level learning opportunities due due to AI is creating uh a crisis of work expo exposure um you have seen how unemployment rates for youth are uh disproportionately higher uh than the average for the country some of it may actually have to do with this lack of entry- level uh positions being created new hires also are expected to perform from day one but not all have access to the same pathways to gain that experience and that's particularly true to many newcomers in the country we are also facing uh economic stability i don't have to go in details about the tariffs the layoffs the inflation uh and how all of this also affects disproportionately immigrants and refugees uh we see for example that youth unemployment uh is nearing uh among immigrants uh 24% uh we also are familiar with the saying that last infers out so as we go into potentially layoffs and and shrinking of the economy uh this is something to watch out for as well um now amidst a shifting labor market um we also have an economy and a country that is in transition we see many Canadians are also struggling uh these economic pressures uh affect everybody across the board but especially uh in in in some regions we we're seeing that the unemployment rate is spiking uh across the country the average is 7% which is a 4% high uh this is up from 6.5 in September 2024 um we've also seen that immigrant unemployment rate um is higher even at 12.6% 6% um all of these comes influenced by US Canada trade tensions but also uh loss of consumer confidence shrinking GDP causing economic uncertainty and and the and the uh risk of a recession uh another important trend I think that is worth mentioning is the temporary residence uh level now coming out of the pandemic in 2020 and 2021 Canada began inviting more permanent residents to help with severe labor shortages you may all remember when the restaurants were not able to open like full-time because they were not enough servers um this included temporary foreign workers but also students who helped fill some of the labor gaps and boosted university funding in 2019 Canada's temporary resident population was about 1.25 25 to 1.5% of the population now by 2023 that number was 6.2% of the population over 2 million temporary residents living in Canada uh the government has announced its intention to reduce that number down to 5% by the end of 2027 so all of these combined uh Wendy went into this the economic pressures coupled with ballooning immigration levels have contributed to a significant decline in public support uh for high immigration levels uh in fall 2024 public opinion polls revealed that for the first time in a quarter of a century a clear majority of Canadians believe that there is too much immigration uh and that sentiment uh has been growing we saw uh at the conference yesterday that it seems to be stabilizing but still there is a huge gap uh compared to where we were a couple of years ago now polls held this fall uh still show that about 56% of Canadians believe that the country has sex too many immigrants um this takes us to the next slide when we just very briefly and then I will go onto a little bit of the analysis talking about Canada's immigration targets um many of you are I'm sure are watching for these numbers the government uh has been seeking to respond to these pressures and shifting sentiment regarding immigration earlier this month uh they released the 2026 2028 levels plan ircc is aiming for sustainable levels of immigration by stabilizing permanent resident admissions for the next three years and decreasing the temporary resident population to 5% as I mentioned earlier of the total population by the end of 2027 uh the plan also includes a one-time two-year initiative to accelerate the transition of up to 33,000 additional work permit holders to permanent residency and finally the plan also indicates that both temporary resident and permanent resident targets will prioritize those who fill specific labor market needs next slide please um so there's been a lot of discussion about the levels plan what are the implications in the settlement sector this is something that is watched really closely because it also affects the funding levels uh for many of your organizations and these are all very important conversations but I would argue that focusing on levels and mix alone misses the point while we debate the numbers we fail to leverage the skills and talents of millions of newcomers who are already here in Canada um as we know uh there are some persistent barriers out place the first one that I will mention is recognition um 60% of newcomers hold a bachelor's degree and yet 40% of internationally trained immigrants are unemployed in jobs that do not require their skills and education the biggest gap is recognition not of education alone but of lift experience comp competencies and transferable skills many tools uh still fail to capture that um and as we move into the HR uh the a use of AI by HR professionals and and companies we risk that running an algorithm on our resume may not be telling us the depth and breadth of experience and expertise um I won't go into detail this but I'll be happy to also and during the Q&A elaborate a little bit more about some of the the approaches that some employers are using to to try to build this gap uh the second thing that I would mention is that uh many tools are being developed to assess skills um this is something that also Wes is looking into um we've managed to crack and I think solve the issue not only west but through the the credential evaluation alliance uh in Canada of educational credential evaluations to a large degree for educational purposes um uh west uh report or any equivalent report um uh is accepted by universities across the country also largely accepted for lensure and uh employment purposes however skills are still uh not being recognized and the experience that um uh internationally trained individuals are bringing to the country are not being recognized um to the degree that employers are using um explicitly or implicitly um Canadian experience as a proxy for skills and so we need to really look into uh developing skills frameworks that um can be uh nationwide used uh across the country and that can support uh employers in decision-m processes uh exclusion from mainstream startup ecosystems this is another issue uh when detached on it so I won't go into detail i'll just say that uh studies reveal that immigrant owned firms contribute 25% of net job creation despite representing only 17% of all firms uh and yet immigrants face exclusion from the mainstream startup ecosystem so this is another uh issue around access to capital mentorship and social networks now uh in the next slide I would like to uh share some good news uh and and is that uh solutions uh exist and we're starting to to to see best practices promising practices every day i'll just share um a couple of them uh the first one is uh micro internships uh we've seen great success with short-term paid micro internships and project-based placements that are embedded in community- based programs because these offer lowrisk highrust entry points for employers uh this can also help overcome the shrinking uh entry- level learning opportunities that I mentioned earlier uh some of the uh also uh initiatives that we're seeing uh uh is using technology particularly uh sim the creation of simulated scenarios uh in the ski skills trade um sector for example there are programs uh in the healthcare sector as well that are experimenting by using virtual reality to assess and upskill trades persons in by placing them in simulated uh scenarios so very promising pilots that are showing also uh a way forward there uh in the next slide uh I also wanted to maybe highlight the power of partnership i think it comes to no no surprise to to anybody that that oneplus 1 often is more than two and so uh when we talk about these systems level issues it is really important that we don't do this alone uh one of the key things that uh at west we have embedded in all of our programs is co-design uh we truly believe that programs m must reflect local realities and that that often means working together from the beginning not just as handoffs or uh um or coming into a process so an example is an initiative that we call hashtag immigrants work uh this is a community uh mobilization and employer mobilization uh initiative that uh brings together employers business associations workforce development stakeholders to co-design tools that lead to the uh better outcomes in terms of tapping and retaining uh immigrant talent uh particularly in smaller communities we we just uh coming we're coming from wrapping up the phase two of the of the initiative some of the uh communities involved include the Lanak and Remfruit uh county and the Graham Bruce counties in Ontario but also communities in in Saskatoon uh BC um in um and also in um in the Atlantic provinces and so what we are seeing is that when you involve municipalities nonprofits employers together in this code design there is better uptake uh and so uh I'll mention in a minute uh one initiative that has emerged as a solution uh it's called the employer navigator uh which is helping employers in these communities navigate the often uh complicated uh policy environment uh learning about subsidies and opportunities that can help them tap into the immigrant talent pool um almost uh wrapping up but uh I also wanted to to say a word about policy and and collaborative solutions um because in advancing economic inclusion for newcomers government of course is a key partner uh particularly uh in this moment of economic crisis or economic uncertainty here in Canada uh we do believe there is a real opportunity this has been mentioned a few times throughout the P2P conference uh it it seems that there is increased political will to streamline credentiing processes we need to ensure that talent within Canada it is not wasted and that labor mobility across Canada is easier um this has to be done in partnership not only with the federal government with but with provincial governments and regulatory bodies from across the country we do feel there is momentum building uh we do know that it's an economic imperative and also um a human one enabling not only Canadians but also newcomers to uh easily move and work uh wherever they choose to do so uh that data sharing is also critical uh one of the issues that we we are encountering and and as researchers I'm sure that Tony and Wendy appreciate this this point as well is that we do need to have better data sharing across sectors we need to track progress on mobility on retention on advancement not just hiring numbers uh we we place an emphasis with the employers that we uh partner with on understanding not only the mechanisms they use to understand how many newcomers they're hiring but how are they advancing within their organizations uh very important as well is to center equity around innovation this was also mentioned in the panel this morning if you if you were able to tune in we need to ensure that legislation policies and tools particularly around AI regulation uh are centering inclusion and equity at the core of what is being developed um and finally uh something that uh I know Wendy mentioned as well uh we need to we need to focus on on outcomes we need to working at the systems level work working in a shrinking funding environment we need to emphasize that our programs and interventions need to be outcomes based and so we need to place a strong emphasis on evaluation and assessing the impact that our work is having uh finally I'll I'll just uh share um that um uh as we think about next steps uh closing with some key high level insights from some national roundts that Wes hosted earlier this year uh with key stakeholders from from government uh business community uh civil society um to help us understand how should we be uh wrestling with our most pressing immigration issues um out of these there is a full report you can find it on the west website uh there was not agreement on everything but uh we found remarkable remarkable alignments on three principles that uh can guide the way forward uh the first one that came out very loud and clear is that immigration is a nation building strategy is not separate from housing healthcare education or labor policy it is deeply connected to all of them and must be part of how we plan for Canada's future um the second thing is that we must refocus on permanent residency having stable predictable pathways that allow people to put down roots strengthen communities and rebuild public trust uh and the third one is that we we must unlock immigrant talent uh in this day and age is is not acceptable that one in three immigrants in Canada are working in jobs that don't take any of their skills training or expertise into consideration we need faster and feder credential recognition and also better bridging programs and inclusive hiring practices by by employers so that newcomers can contribute at their full capacity uh so I'll leave it there uh but happy to also uh now enter the conversation and answer any questions thank you great thank you so much Daniel for speaking to Canada's untapped uh talent and how to address barriers to advance newcomer inclusion at this point I'd like to welcome all of our speakers to turn on their cameras so that we can uh turn over to the the Q&A portion um I have some pointed questions that I'll ask while uh some of the Q&A comes in through the chat while also noting that there is 15 minutes left in the session um perhaps I'll point the first question over to you Wendy building off what uh Daniel just mentioned around you know tapping into the skills uh side of things so my first question to you is the data suggests risks and opportunities tied to AI for immigrant workers or there is um how can policy and training programs ensure that AI adoption reduces rather than widens inequities for newcomers good question i you know I think um one of the first issues is obviously um understanding the guidelines for responsible AI use whether it's in HR hiring practices this is something we've we've looked at carefully whether it's in frankly government uh processes uh because there is a real risk that historic bias will be reinforced um in the new systems that are developed and we know that existing systems are fraught in terms of bias against people who are racialized bias against people from certain countries bias against people um for whom English is a second language and and and and so we have to I I'm a big proponent of the potential of artificial intelligence but I think right up front we need to understand what the limitations are and how um we have to ensure that we have inclusive design for AI systems the second thing is I think we have to get real about uh the extent of the disruption that AI is going to produce i was on a a panel recently with people in career development and they were talking about how the government should give them more money and the government should reduce their workload and and and and well we know that the better educated the immigrants the less likely they are to use services which is part of the reason why Tony's research they don't know about how the services are working or not working and there are massive opportunities to improve improve the quality of services delivered to newcomers um and post-secondary institutions I'm the first to admit are the worst in terms of embracing innovation we like to talk about it but we don't do it so I think that's kind of job two is making sure that we're practicing what we preach that we're using AI to do more with less the goal of the sector is not to create jobs for people who work in the sector the goal of the sector has to be to provide the best possible service and outcomes for newcomers and then the third thing from my perspective is recognizing that the skills profiles are are changing very very rapidly and we can't plan when we can't predict so you know I'm a big believer in the skills for success framework um but I think we have to recognize that AI literacy is now foundational we need deep AI skills but we also need a middle layer of people who know how to use AI to advance organizational goals and objectives a lot of newcomers are advanced in terms of their use of AI but maybe not um their understanding of how to apply it in certain organizational contexts within the the um the new environments they're working in and we we've done research on for example the potential of AI to improve language training the potential of AI to improve job counseling the potential like they have avatars now for training doctors do we not think do we not think that we can have AI agents that can serve way more people way more quickly than individuals who lack um breadth and experience so I think we have to get real around the threat of disruption the opportunities but also um uh we can't sit around and wait for the future to to happen we've got to get ready now great thank you Wendy and maybe building on that in the theme of AI I'll turn this next question over to you Tony where beyond helping immigrants adapt to the current market how can we strategically position newcomer talent to be a key advantage for Canada in the global AI and digital economy yeah that's that's great i I mentioned I agree with both Wendy and Der you know we are u immigration country right um is immigration is a nation building exercises right you know uh for their social economic culture contribution so on and uh we are actually quite at one in terms of AI research and development we have little bit prize winner at uh U of Professor Hinton and uh but we are a little bit behind in terms of the adoption as I showed the data and also commercialization of AI uh to actually fuel this innovation productivity gap we've been talking for decades right and so I think we need to definitely capitalize our immigration system I that's really applaud the federal government uh you know pretty significant investment in attracting uh international quality qualified researchers um I would say you know we do need a lot of philosophers and historians you know no doubt about that but you know uh in terms of the label uh uh the innovation and uh productivity gap we probably need to prioritize a little bit on AI and other advant digital technology maybe STEM fields and so on uh and so this is the first one we probably need to develop even in a special category on global AI talent visa okay right just so that we can actually uh uh you know fill the gap and uh and in the the high skilled uh categories and also we need to streamline uh streamline streamline this you know visa process right you know as you know well well you know we have quite significant cut back in terms of public ser including ICC uh which might actually slow down hopefully the AI will pick up a little bit improving efficiency but you know I I think the primary test said you know this is not actually kind of pun to solve all the problems uh so we we definitely need to kind again privatize those kind of highly skilled category which is I think the government knows put it on economic class and also the um high skill uh class and uh you know to reduce the processing time and make sure they can uh hit the ground running and also the pre-arrival you know uh settlement integration I think is also crucial and it's uh is it's based on uh concrete evidence and we also need I agree with uh uh you know Wendy and as Danny as well we need to share information we need a share infrastructure we need a sheer network professional networks right in developing AI innovation and uh and and you know the adopting as well because especially for smaller province smaller region and rural remote community they don't have the resources right to jump start but a lot of information a lot of resources a lot of infrastructure technology can be shared right especially I'm speaking from Atlantic Canada newore in many rural remote we even don't have internet access right and speaking of AI right which is very challenging and so no I think you know we really need to kind of um bring im immigrants into part of solution not a part of problem I know in tough economic time a lot of immigrants often was uh you know treated as scapegoats right we have those kind of infrastructure you know uh uh crisis we have this housing crisis we have this um healthcare crisis we have to crisis for many many decades not because the immigrants we recently uh uh you know uh attract to right you know this 300 400,000 won't actually have that dramatic effects and I think when you have paper with my Gunderson uh about the uh the impact immigration on on the housing market right and certainly there's no evidence whatsoever to show that's the case and actually many immigrants are highly skilled right they can actually address those challenges we talking about in the healthcare in housing in education sector and so on in high-tech and um so yeah so essentially what what we need to do said you know to put in the concertive efforts right from the set of agencies from all level governments from the employer employee associations so recognize right important value of high skill immigration and and you show the data uh early on you know immigration contra contribute to 100% uh workforce growth right and especially highly skilled workforce and especially in AI and other advantage technology areas and this is our strengths and we need to capitalize by using those important initiatives and Wendy talk about and da talked about right and to uh fasttrack credential recognition I think the federal budget also put in some money into that that's that's great and uh and improving the provincial professional networks uh for uh skilled immigrants and uh and also remove the barriers talking about right uh the labor market discrimination we're talking about the efficient job matching systems lack of support for immigrant entrepreneur and and so on so forth so I think you know uh I'm still optimistic right and Canada is uh still I think according to OECD you know the the most has the most effective system for immigrant uh uh uh settlement immigration um and and and also many many uh uh potential immigrants want to come I think this is the recent data shows that eight uh 80 million people right worldwide still want to migrate to Canada we have a large labor pool to draw on the best and brightest in the uh STEM fields in the AI and other digital technology fields um so from that I'm still hopeful thank you thank you Tony and I know um uh we have a couple of questions for Daniel before he must pop off so I just want to uh thank you for taking the time here daniel I just want to ask you one question before you uh need to leave so what are the most pressing challenges employers face in hiring and retaining immigrant talent and how do these challenges intersect with issues like credential recognition and workplace integration uh feel like we will need a whole session for for that one um I'll just maybe highlight two or three things uh the first thing that comes to mind um and it's also connected to some of the conversations around AI and use of AI in HR processes um I was presenting at another panel earlier i'm lucky to be in person here in Halifax and and an employer approached um uh us to have a conversation about some of the challenges they're facing in in actually getting through to uh the right type of immigrants that could be filling the uh the pressing labor gaps that they have in their facilities and in in their organization and and so they they suspect that they apply but they don't make it through and so they were looking at um so to me that's like the big we know that there is a disconnect between talent and supply and demand but the fact that this is being exacerbated at this pace by the adoption of AI and the algorithms are filtering out people that do not have Canadian experience and that do not possess the type of resume that AI will actually uh make like short list so that the hiring managers can review is really troublesome and and so there has to be um oversight in some states in the US they're looking at a third party uh verification and and assessment of uh algorithms used by HR firms or by companies to ensure that they're compliant and and the their center on equity and inclusion uh there has to be something that by at the government level to support that that process the other thing I would say uh I talked about skills assessments and how do we need uh to uh um to streamline credentiing uh this is something that employers also again uh this particular employer they happen to operate in three provinces and for each province they have to undertake a different process to hire and they cannot have mobility within their own workforce which is like bankers so we do need to come together as a nation and fix this issue of labor mobility uh and the third thing that I would say um we alluded throughout uh the presentation as well is that as you know Canada's uh uh employers are largely uhmemes uh like in the range of like 90% uh and country is also a country of regions and so when you design immigration uh policy uh and and you set up targets and who's coming and not coming into the country you need to take into account that uh the reality is very in communities like Regina where the unemployment rate is like almost uh at full employment versus Toronto where you have a like a 7% and employers are saying also small and medium employers are continue to have and to struggle to find the right talent in some of the our rural and most remote more remote communities and so um providing solutions that are tailored to the needs of specific communities from a policy perspective is also critical great well thank you so much uh we have one more minute i think we can sneak in one more question um before we log off in terms of answering um some of the questions that came in so Tony you mentioned newcomers and uh being highly skilled daniel you mentioned credential recognition so um Wendy your data shows employers attitudes strongly shape their willingness to hire immigrants um so what are the most effective approaches for shifting employer behavior and reducing bias in hiring oh you're say good question i think in some communities there you know as Daniel said it's very regional so in some communities they're desperate for skills they would hire anybody from anywhere as long as they have the skills requirements and you know there was a question in chat about credentials versus competencies and as much as I think credential recognition is important in certain regulated professions I would argue that increasingly competencies are what's important and we hear that from you know the trade unions where they say "I don't care what the paper says." And increasingly you know the reliability of the paper is is a question i'm going to give him a hammer and a saw and some nails and a piece of lumber and see what he can do or she so I think increasingly there is a focus on competencies as opposed to credentials and I think that's um that's the way to go when you're looking at employers as you know Caitlyn we do a lot of work with employers around creating more inclusive workplaces but as Tony said employers attitudes are shaped by the bigger societal arguments and I think we have to link arms and fight the anti-immigrant discourse that is corrosive and frankly wrong yeah I agree with Wendy the assessment that we certainly need to do more those kind anti-discriminate anti-racism campaign at the federal provincial municipal level but on on uh you know in the same time we also need to uh do more crosscultural communication training and uh we know from our survey right you know majority of the firms that reported positive hiring uh experiences and attitudes and uh only if they have tried right so That's the issue is exposure question right you know small rural areas and you know many employee haven't seen as a foreigner in lifetime you know they always you know uh consider immigrants you know as a little bit kind of uh sense of uncertainty even feel and and so on so I think you know those kind of support especially tomemes have them tried maybe you know some kind of government supported internship you know apprenticeship program we know those are proven uh strategies for highpaying job down the road and this is crucial for immigrants because they are kind of caught in this kind of dilemma right they need Canadian experience Canadian education to get a job right but without being hired they don't have the experience to begin Right so this is always we need to get a foot in the door i think is so crucial and uh so from that perspective I think you know you know the the the initiative you know da talked about right you know how to fast track the credential recognition how to actually sometime it's legal uh uh you know mandate for example you mentally pass legislation you you know you you prohibit requiring Canadian experience is illegal right so this kind of policy practices is really I think you know uh is is important and on the top of this kind of you know you need to rise higher from the employee perspective right not just meeting the minimum you know equity uh requirement but also you want to have the high-end diversity management policy and practice that Wendy and DI has been promoting yeah I'll just add I mean I cannot agree with more with everything that was said I would say just two things at the macro level indeed we need to continue to anchor the conversation on nation building immigration as nation building uh when it comes to employers and this is something that all of us here in this in this conference uh as we interact with employers is to anchor the conversation in on talent uh it's it's this is not only or if about the EI which is very important but it's really about meeting talent talent needs and uh when I mention the demographic number uh I always like to start with that figure because the question is not if employers will have to hire immigrants it's And so the the sooner they get ready to do so and to be able to tap into that talent pool the better for them great well thank you so much for coming and presenting as part of today's session on immigrant workforce integration including upskilling and reskilling for employment and entrepreneurship thank you to Wendy Tony and Daniel for being part of this session and thank you to PR Pathways to Prosperity for hosting the conference with that I'd like to say thank you and goodbye thank you thank you hope to see you in person
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