E.g., 04/23/2024
E.g., 04/23/2024
Canada

Canada

Canada_map

More than one in five residents in Canada was born in another country, making it one of the world's top destinations for international migrants. From its migration policymaking aimed at identifying and recruiting workers needed by the Canadian economy, to its immigrant integration policies, and efforts to recruit skilled migrants and international students, the research collected here focuses on the diverse policies, practices, and trends that Canada is experiencing.

Recent Activity

SeasonalWorkerCommentary ClausBunks Flickr
Commentaries
March 2020
By  Kate Hooper and Camille Le Coz
Digital fingerprint
CoronavirusCommentary Art
Commentaries
March 2020
By  Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan, Meghan Benton and Susan Fratzke
Refugee Sponsorship Programs: A Global State of Play and Opportunities for Investment
Policy Briefs
December 2019
By  Susan Fratzke, Lena Kainz, Hanne Beirens, Emma Dorst and Jessica Bolter
Cover of the report Volunteers and Sponsors: A Catalyst for Refugee Integration?
Reports
November 2019
By  Susan Fratzke and Emma Dorst

Pages

Pages

Circular migration means a continuing, long-term pattern of international mobility. The European Union set up two pilot programs in 2008 that seek to facilitate this type of movement.

All the nuanced meanings of "belonging" describe integration trends in industrialized countries in 2007, including the United States, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Germany.

In response to an agricultural worker shortage over 40 years ago, Canada initiated a temporary migration program to brings workers from the Caribbean and later Mexico. But this "model" program also has its drawbacks, as Tanya Basok of the University of Windsor explains.

The U.S. Congress is considering a bill that includes a points system for permanent immigration. MPI's Demetrios G. Papademetriou outlines how points systems work, which countries have used them, their political benefits, and trends in points-system use.

Although most Central American refugees sought protection in the United States, Canada admitted thousands of Central American refugees in the 1980s. María Cristina García of Cornell University takes a detailed look at Central Americans in Canada

Pages

Recent Activity

Policy Briefs
October 2023

In community sponsorship and other programs that directly involve communities and individuals in supporting refugees’ arrival and integration, where and with whom refugees are matched matters a great deal. This policy brief explores the ongoing evolution of approaches taken to matching refugees with sponsors or receiving communities, highlighting innovations and opportunities for further improvements.

Commentaries
July 2023

Canada’s Tech Talent Strategy is highly unusual for its explicit targeting of visa holders in another country. Opening a dedicated stream specifically for high-skilled immigrants in the United States who hold an H-1B visa is the latest salvo in a growing global competition for talent—one in which some countries are racing ahead of the United States in terms of policy dynamism, as this commentary explores.

Reports
June 2023

Many actors have a hand in refugee resettlement, including national and local governments, international organizations, and civil society. Strong coordination between these stakeholders is needed if resettlement programs are to operate smoothly, provide appropriate support to refugees, and potentially grow. This report explores common challenges to developing this type of coordination as well as strategies to address them.

Reports
June 2023

One promising—but often underutilized—element of addressing the world’s urgent humanitarian protection needs is meaningfully engaging refugees in policymaking processes. As this report highlights, consultations, advisory roles, and leadership and staff positions can help ensure refugees’ knowledge and expertise are reflected in policy responses to displacement. The study also examines common limitations and ways to make engagement more impactful.  

Articles

Canada's ambitions to dramatically increase immigration have met resistance in Quebec, the country's only majority-French province, where many worry their identity is under threat. Provincial officials have sought to fortify the role of the French language in society through academic, immigration, and linguistic policies, but the language nonetheless faces demographic threats, as this article explains.

Commentaries
May 2023

Amid a potentially dramatic rethink in the U.S. approach to management of migration from the Western Hemisphere, the creation of Regional Processing Centers (now known as Safe Mobility Offices, or SMOs) across Latin America will be central to the post-Title 42 strategy, as this commentary explains.

Articles

The revised U.S.-Canada Safe Third Country Agreement closes what critics call a loophole that incentivizes unauthorized border crossings of asylum seekers. While responding to Canadian concerns of increasing irregular arrivals from the United States, the change—taken in tandem with U.S. moves at the U.S.-Mexico border—suggests that the Biden administration increasingly wants to rely on neighboring countries to respond to rising asylum claims.

Video, Audio, Webinars
April 11, 2023

Marking the launch of MPI’s Global Skills and Talent Initiative, this webcast features senior policymakers and other experts discussing the extent to which labor market needs should shape future immigration policy decisions, and how countries are adjusting—and could adjust—their immigration systems to meet human capital and competitiveness needs.

Pages