From Newcomers to Game Changers: Immigrant Skill Utilization in the Healthcare Sector
Canada’s healthcare system is facing acute labour shortages, but the sector is failing to leverage many internationally trained healthcare workers already in the country. In 2021, only 67 per cent of immigrant physicians worked in the healthcare sector, compared to 95 per cent of their Canadian-born counterparts. Even fewer immigrant healthcare professionals—58 per cent—held any health-related occupations.
Drawing on Labour Force Survey data from 2022 to 2024, we examined how well immigrants’ skills are utilized in the healthcare sector. We also spoke with 20 employment and settlement service providers and six healthcare employers to better understand the skill utilization gap and learn how we can solve it.
Key insights
Immigrant healthcare professionals are more than twice as likely to be overeducated for their jobs than their Canadian-born counterparts. This gap is widest for those with university education above the bachelor’s level.
The immigration system prioritizes high-skilled immigrants based on education and language proficiency, but it does not ensure their credentials will be recognized in Canada.
Canada’s fragmented licensing system across provinces and territories creates delays and costs that disproportionately affect internationally trained healthcare professionals, contributing to their skill underutilization. This fragmentation also limits the mobility of immigrant healthcare practitioners who wish to move outside of their province of licensure.
More from FSC
Amped Up: Upskilling Canada’s Heavy Duty Vehicle Mechanics to Support the Transition to Electric School Buses
Retention in Healthcare: Migration Costs and Systems Perspectives
Evaluating Opportunities and Challenges with Digital Twin Technology Adoption
Have questions about our work? Do you need access to a report in English or French? Please contact communications@fsc-ccf.ca.