Building on what works: Leveraging and scaling successful strategies for employment integration
Project Lead(s)
Team Members
Ana Oliveira, Alka Kumar, Hala Sukhon
Sub-theme
Interrogating immigrant un(der)employment: Causes, consequences and solutions
Understanding what works is a crucial first step in designing equitable, impactful and cost-effective programs to enable newcomers to reach their full potential.
Objective
This project aims to examine the factors that contribute to successful immigrant employment integration in Canada, including both formal programs and policies as well as the strategies and behaviours adopted by immigrants themselves. While considerable policy attention has focused on refining immigrant selection processes, there has been less emphasis on evaluating the effectiveness of integration supports and understanding the broader conditions and factors that enable success. By identifying what works—and for whom—this project seeks to inform the development of more equitable and impactful approaches to support newcomers in realizing their full potential in the Canadian labour market.
Research question(s)
- What key factors—individual, institutional and structural—contribute to successful employment integration for immigrants in Canada?
- How do immigrant characteristics, behaviours and strategies interact with broader labour market and policy environments to shape employment outcomes?
- In what ways can effective integration supports, practices and conditions be adapted or scaled to meet the needs of diverse immigrant populations across different regions and sectors?
- Where are the gaps in current systems—policy, practice or institutional coordination—that limit equitable employment integration, and what types of investment or reform could address them?
Methodology
The research will employ a mixed-methods approach, integrating qualitative and quantitative methods to develop a comprehensive understanding of the diverse factors that shape immigrant employment integration in Canada, and to explore how effective practices and conditions may be adapted or scaled to support broader success.
Status
This project builds on Rupa Banerjee’s research on how policies, institutions, and individual strategies influence immigrant employment in Canada. Expanding beyond settlement services, it examines supports from employers, post-secondary institutions, and communities, as well as immigrants’ own strategies, to provide a fuller picture of what drives successful labour market integration
Expected completion date: September 2026
Key words
EDI; Employment integration; immigrants; equity, diversity, and inclusion; migrant employment
