Transition to permanent residency by lower- and higher-skilled temporary foreign workers / by Garnett Picot, Feng Hou, Eden Crossman and Yuqian Lu.: CS36-28-0001/2022-1-2E-PDF

"Attention surrounding differences in the pathways to permanent residency for lower- and higher-skilled temporary foreign workers has increased, particularly as the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the contribution of lower-skilled temporary foreign workers in essential industrial sectors. This article examines the skill distribution of temporary foreign workers and their transition to permanent residency by skill level. Determining the skill level of temporary foreign workers can be challenging. While for the majority of temporary foreign workers (ranging from 56% to 73% depending on the arrival cohort) the skill level is reported on the work permit, for many it is unavailable. When the skill designation is missing, annual earnings are used as a proxy for skill level. The analysis shows that higher-skilled temporary foreign workers outnumbered their lower-skilled counterparts over the 2000-to-2014 period, though their share of the temporary foreign worker population decreased from the 2000-to-2004 cohort to the 2010-to-2014 cohort. Lower-skilled temporary foreign workers were more likely than higher-skilled temporary foreign workers to make the transition to permanent residency, although this difference narrowed across the 2000-to-2004, 2005-to-2009 and 2010-to-2014 cohorts. The five-year transition rate remained around 30% among lower-skilled workers in all three cohorts, but increased from 11% to 27% among higher-skilled workers across the cohorts. In terms of the composition of temporary foreign workers who became permanent residents, the shares of higher- and lower-skilled workers were similar in the 2010-to-2014 cohort, at 47% and 45%, respectively, while workers with undetermined skill levels accounted for the remaining 8%. The pathways to permanent residency varied significantly for lower- and higher-skilled temporary foreign workers. In the 2010-to-2014 cohort, the higher-skilled workers transitioned to permanent residency primarily through provincial nominee programs (PNPs) and the Canadian Experience Class. Meanwhile, the lower-skilled workers made the transition primarily through PNPs, the Live-in Caregiver Program and the family class"--Abstract, page 1.

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