Closing the gaps between skilled immigration and Canadian labor markets: Emerging policy issues and priorities

Although Canada’s immigration policy has long emphasized the selection of highly skilled immigrants—and since the 1990s, preferably those with high levels of post-secondary education—certain critical gaps have emerged between this skilled immigration emphasis and what actually happens in Canadian labor markets. Emphasis on education is usually described as necessary to meet the demand for skilled workers, projected to become more severe over time because of the requirements of an emerging knowledge economy. However, there are three major “gaps” between this skilled immigration and the actual role of immigrants in Canadian labor markets.