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Topic

Skilled Immigrant Work Integration in Canada: Governance, Policy, and Institutional Misalignment

School of Public Administration

Date & location

• Thursday, July 16, 2026

• 9:00 A.M.

• Human Social Development Building

• Room A302 & Virtual Defence

Reviewers

Supervisory Committee

• Dr. Jill Chouinard, School of Public Administration, ������Ƶ (Supervisor)

• Dr. Sarah Marie Wiebe, School of Public Administration, ������Ƶ (Member)

• Dr. Jason Hicks, Department of Economics, ������Ƶ (Outside Member)

• Dr. Lois Harder, Department of Political Science, ������Ƶ (Outside Member) 

External Examiner

• Dr. Yasmeen Abu-Laban, Department of Political Science, University of Alberta 

Chair of Oral Examination

• Dr. Georgia Sitara, Department of History, ������Ƶ

   

Abstract

Canada’s skilled immigration system is designed to support economic growth by selecting individuals with high levels of education, professional experience, and human capital. Despite these policy objectives, many skilled immigrants experience persistent challenges in securing employment commensurate with their qualifications, resulting in patterns of underemployment, occupational mismatch, and wage disparities. This study examines the nature of the alignment between the aspirations of Canada’s federal immigration program and the employment realities experienced by skilled immigrants after arrival. It explores how institutional arrangements and governance dynamics shape labour-market outcomes, with particular attention to the distribution of authority across federal and provincial governments, professional regulatory bodies, employers, educational institutions, and service provider organizations. Through a qualitative dominant mixed-methods design — including interpretive and critically informed policy analysis of federal immigration and credential recognition frameworks, interviews with service provider organizations and federal-level actors, a survey of regulatory bodies, and focus groups and interviews with International Medical Graduates (IMGs) — this study develops a multi-level governance account of how institutional fragmentation shapes skilled immigrant work integration across multiple domains. The findings suggest that work integration is shaped by a fragmented governance landscape characterized by distributed authority, limited coordination mechanisms, and gaps in accountability. The findings also suggest that while immigration selection processes emphasize labour-market alignment, downstream processes such as credential recognition, licensing, and hiring operate within separate institutional domains that are not systematically aligned with federal policy objectives. These structural conditions contribute to persistent disparities in employment outcomes across immigrant groups. By conceptualizing skilled immigrant work integration as a governance issue, this study contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of how institutional dynamics shape labour-market outcomes and highlights the importance of coordination, transparency, and policy coherence within Canada’s skilled immigration system.