Policies Research Internship Insights Series

Canada’s permanent residency (PR) system increasingly operates through “two-step” migration: many future permanent residents first arrive as temporary workers or students and only later transition to permanent status. In 2024, Canada admitted 483,640 permanent residents, while the non-permanent resident population reached 2,959,825 on April 1, 2025. At the same time, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has continued to adjust pathway design through changing admissions targets, category-based selection in Express Entry, and the after-effects of pandemic-era temporary measures. For applicants, the route to long-term status can therefore be difficult to interpret and difficult to plan around.

Despite rising international enrolment in Alberta, graduates face lower incomes, lower employment rates, and weaker job matching than Canadian graduates. Additionally, holding a Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP) does not guarantee relevant employment.

Informal housing in Calgary stems from structural market failures rather than mere regulatory non-compliance. High costs and systemic barriers force newcomers into unstable, overcrowded living conditions, which directly undermines their broader integration by hindering access to employment, healthcare, education, and community support.

Canada increasingly relies on international students and immigrants to address labour shortages and support economic growth. However, many newcomers face significant barriers when transitioning from temporary status to permanent residency (PR). Challenges such as inconsistent credential recognition, the “Canadian experience” requirement, overqualification, and fragmented support systems limit equitable access to employment and long-term settlement opportunities.

How Canada’s Most Influential Psychiatric Medication Trials Record Race, Ethnicity, Sex, Gender, and Indigenous Identity, and What Policy Can Do to Close the Gap.

Three factors shape Canada's mental-health treatment evidence base: who enrolls in clinical trials, how researchers record participant backgrounds, and who governs the resulting data. In Canada, 26.5% of the population identifies as a visible minority, and the Constitution recognizes Indigenous self-determination (1). When Canadian trials report equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility (EDIA) inconsistently, the evidence may not fully reflect the populations these treatments are intended to serve.

Temporary Foreign Workers (TFWs) play a critical role in sustaining Canada’s economy, particularly in sectors experiencing persistentlabourshortages such as agriculture, food processing, construction, and healthcare. Since the establishment of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) in 1973, Canada has increasingly relied on migrantlabourto support essential industries across the country (House of Commons, 2016). In recent years, TFWs have contributedsubstantially tothe Canadian economy, including significant participation in rural industries wherelabourshortagesremainacute.

Alberta’s Rural Renewal Stream was developed to support rural immigration by helping communities recruit skilled newcomers to addresslabourshortages and stimulate local economic growth. While the program has improved recruitment opportunities, it gives limited attention to the social conditions that influence whether immigrantsremainin rural communities over the long term. Racism, social exclusion, inadequate settlement infrastructure, and limited access to ethnocultural and religious supports continue to weaken newcomers’ sense of belonging and contribute tooutmigration towardurbancentres.