How technological transformation is reshaping human mobility

Experts recently gathered at the Migration Disrupted conference, which was organized by the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Migration and Integration (CERC Migration) and Bridging Divides at Toronto Metropolitan University. The two-day conference hosted experts from across Canada to discuss how  technological transformation is reshaping human mobility.

On the final day, Wendy Cukier, founder and academic director of the Diversity Institute and academic research director of the Future Skills Centre, and a researcher in Bridging Divides, participated in the closing panel. The discussion focused on the ethical considerations of technology on migration. Rupa Banerjee, associate professor of human resources management and organizational behaviour at Toronto Metropolitan University, moderated the panel. She opened the conversation by sharing census data on the context of Canadian migration. “Census data indicates that newcomers in Canada are twice as likely as Canadians to be overqualified for their job, [and] 20% of new immigrants in Canada with degrees are working in jobs that only require a high school diploma,” she said. Banerjee added that the discussion will create space to think more deeply about how technology fits into the larger picture.

Joel Martin, chief digital research officer and media officer at the National Research Council Canada, discussed the employer expectations side of the conversation. There are basic digital skills that most employers expect, but moving forward, the further integration of artificial intelligence (AI) will require workers to learn new skills, he said. Skills like prompting and knowing what to ask for a software like ChatGPT to get a useful answer will be a skill employers look for, Martin said. 

Cukier highlighted that while employers say they need digital skills, they often are not referring to deep technology skills like programming and systems design, but instead to the skills to use technology and basic computer applications. Cukier pointed to DI research on how employers understand and assess skills. Highly educated newcomers with skills do come to Canada, she said, so employers must be clear about what is really meant by skills. “We have to confront that reality,” she said. "It isn’t a question of fixing the newcomers.” She added that data shows once employers hire immigrants they keep hiring them. 

As an alternative to traditional jobs, which often have barriers to entry for newcomers, Suzanne Huot, from the University of British Columbia, spoke about the platform or gig economy. In her research, she found that people engaged in the gig economy, many of whom were newcomers, liked it for its flexibility and ease of entry. “But with anything novel, we see that oftentimes policy is not as quick to catch up to technological advancement,” she said, leaving immigrants in the gig economy often overworked and under-protected. 

Shifting the focus to the immigration process, Shamira Madhany, managing director of World Education Services (WES), outlined the three different types of credential assessment that help newcomers access the jobs for which they’re qualified. Madhany said that organizations like WES have come a long way in academic credential recognition but pointed out that the two other areas of credential assessment—assessing licensing for regulated occupations and employers’ skill assessment—need improvement. She highlighted that employers often rely on a résumé to assess skills, but can fail if they’re unable to understand how the skills will translate in a Canadian context. 

Pointing out a gap in the system, Jean-Christophe Dumont, head of the international migration division for the employment, labour and social affairs group at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), said employers are looking for skills, and not necessarily degrees, when recruiting talent. He outlined how in the point-based immigration system, a degree is more valuable than skills. “There is a need to make the labour migration system or the economic migration systems evolve to better match the functioning of a labour market, which down the line also facilitates access to jobs,” Dumont said. 

“There has to be a mechanism to come up with a technological tool to assess skills and experiences while people are still overseas,” Madhany said, adding, “If employers are not able to do that, they will consistently lose out on valuable skills that immigrants bring to the table.”

That said, for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are the majority of private sector businesses in Canada, Cukier noted that a lack of resources to develop assessment tools is a challenge. “Often the person doing the hiring is the person who's washing the windows, taking out the garbage and fixing the computer, so typically there isn’t a lot of capacity,” she said. Cukier highlighted work-integrated learning as one of the best mechanisms for getting the newcomers the experience and training they need, while also building confidence with employers. Warning organizations not to replicate programs that don’t work, Cukier said while a lot of practical solutions exist, it’s essential to understand the problem. “There are a lot of predatory training programs that go nowhere because they focus on testing and credentials, when in fact the barrier to practice is the internship, the placement or the experience.” 

Cukier added there are two areas of upskilling and reskilling where there are big opportunities for impact. The first is for newcomers to do hyper-focused six-week training courses for programs like Salesforce, for example. The second opportunity is rapid training for people with a background in humanities and social sciences so they’re able to be placed in digital or technology roles. 

To close, Cukier said that entrepreneurship is a viable pathway for newcomers and pointed to the Newcomer Entrepreneurship Hub, an entrepreneurship training program. She highlighted DI research that shows immigrants have a higher propensity for entrepreneurship, and while some choose it out of necessity, due to being excluded from traditional labour markets, others prefer to work for themselves. “I think entrepreneurship training is also a really interesting opportunity to look at it from an experiential learning perspective, because it doesn't matter what kind of job you're going into now,” Cukier said. “Having some entrepreneurial skills is going to be an advantage.”