THE CANADIAN EXPRESS ENTRY SYSTEM FOR SELEctING ECONOMIC IMMIGRANTS: PROGRESS AND PERSISTENT CHALLENGES By Daniel Hiebert TRANSATLANTIC COUNCIL ON MIGRATION THE CANADIAN EXPRESS ENTRY SYSTEM FOR SELECTING ECONOMIC IMMIGRANTS Progress and Persistent Challenges By Daniel Hiebert April 2019 Acknowledgments This research was commissioned for the nineteenth plenary meeting of the Transatlantic Council on Migration, an initiative of the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), held in Brussels, Belgium, in September 2018. The meeting’s theme was “Building Migration Systems for a New Age of Economic Competitiveness,” and this report was one of several that informed the Council’s discussions. The Council is a unique deliberative body that examines vital policy issues and informs migration policymaking processes in North America and Europe. The Council’s work is generously supported by the following foundations and governments: the Open Society Foundations, Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Luso-American Development Foundation, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, and the governments of Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden. For more on the Transatlantic Council on Migration, please visit: www.migrationpolicy.org/ transatlantic. © 2019 Migration Policy Institute. All Rights Reserved. Cover Design: April Siruno, MPI Layout: Sara Staedicke, MPI No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Migration Policy Institute. A full-text PDF of this document is available for free download from www.migrationpolicy.org. Information for reproducing excerpts from this publication can be found at www.migrationpolicy.org/about/copyright-policy. Inquiries can also be directed to [email protected]. Suggested citation: Hiebert, Daniel. 2019. The Canadian Express Entry System for Selecting Economic Immigrants: Progress and Persistent Challenges. Washington, DC: Migration Policy Institute. Table of Contents Executive Summary ................................................................................... 1 I. Introduction ......................................................................................... 2 II. Canadian Immigration: A Victim of Its Own Success? ..................... 2 III. Express Entry as a Comprehensive Solution .................................... 4 A. What Is Express Entry? ................................................................................................................5 B. The Experimental Phase: What Has Express Entry Achieved So Far? ................................6 C. Assessing the Impact of Express Entry .....................................................................................8 IV. Limitations of Express Entry .............................................................. 9 A. Real vs. Theoretical Skills ..............................................................................................................9 B. Differences in the Outcomes of Principal Applicants and Their Dependents ...............10 C. Entrepreneurship .........................................................................................................................11 D. Low-Skilled Workers ..................................................................................................................11 V. The Politics of Express Entry ........................................................... 12 VI. Conclusion .......................................................................................... 14 Works Cited ............................................................................................. 15 About the Author ..................................................................................... 18 MIGRATION POLICY INSTITUTE Executive Summary In January 2015, Canada implemented the Express Entry system—a points-based, two-stage scheme to vet prospective economic immigrants seeking permanent residency. This was a revolutionary departure from coping with the high volume of applications that followed substantial increases in permanent immigration the first come, first served points-based system instituted in the 1960s, which had proven incapable of targets that began in the late 1980s. Thewhose earlier skills first matched come, the first needs served of systemthe Canadian faced severaleconomy. limitations. Moreover, First, the immigrant it was inflexible, selection and system by the had2000s, massivevacillated backlogs for decades and years-longbetween a strategyprocessing that times emphasized stymied employmentemployers’ desires by prioritizing to bring applicantsin qualified who workers already held job offers, and one that gave priority to human capital. A widespread view that the skills of newly arrived economic immigrants were discounted by Canadian employers suggested that the selection system was failing to strike an optimum balance between these competing approaches. Express Entry seeks to address several of these deficiencies while also harnessing the power of newer technologies.variety of factors, The chosensystem inemploys an attempt a digital to evaluate platform candidates’ to assess whether human capital,profiles the submitted transferability by prospective of their immigrantsskills, and their meet ability minimum to integrate eligibility successfully. requirements. The relative Eligible weights profiles ofare these then factors, awarded along points with based minimum on a at any time to ensure immigration targets are being met and that those invited to apply for residency have points thresholds, are set by the Comprehensive Ranking System—a dynamic rubric that officials can adjust targets set by Parliament were not going to be met under a ranking structure that favored those with a job skillsoffer insuited Canada, to the the economy’s weight of thedemands. selection For criteria instance, and when minimum it became points clear thresholds that the economicwere adjusted immigration to widen the pool of prospective immigrants. While Express Entry is clearly a step forward for the Canadian immigration system, several limitations remain. However,process opaque. the benefits Whereas of an these easily types modified of adjustments selection systemwere previously come with scrutinized significant by political the media implications. and subject Thatto public immigration debate, the officials complexities are able of to the quickly system and and administratively a lack of media alter attention selection have criteria meant canthat make the public the has largely disengaged with the topic of economic immigration. This detachment is problematic given that Express Entry now plays a crucial role in deciding the course of Canada’s economic future. Policymakers mustWhile therefore Express Entry find new is clearly ways toa step educate forward and forengage the Canadianwith the public immigration on these system, issues. several limitations remain. As with all economic immigration systems, Express Entry struggles to assess applicants’ real versus theoretical skills, and to properly account for entrepreneurial talent and “soft” skills (such as leadership potential and interpersonal communication). The system also lacks creativity in considering the labor- market potential of applicants’ family members, and it has not been adapted for low-skilled workers. Although Express Entry has proven nimble enough to balance employment and human capital selection criteriathe system’s based capacity on input for from course the correction,private sector, economic sufficient immigration data are not shortfalls yet available are still to likely,determine indicating whether that thefurther new creative system hasthinking significantly may be improvednecessary. the integration outcomes of new immigrants. Altogether, despite The Canadian Express Entry System for Selecting Economic Immigrants: Progress and Persistent Challenges 1 MIGRATION POLICY INSTITUTE I. Introduction Canada’s 2015 introduction of the Express Entry system for processing applicants for permanent immigrationprimarily designed is, arguably, to resolve the most several significant pressing change administrative in the country’s concerns, approach including to growingeconomic application immigration sincebacklogs the andintroduction evidence ofthat a points-based the points-based system system for selecting alone was immigrants not admitting in 1967. immigrants Express whose Entry wasskills matched employers’ demand. But while the motivations were primarily administrative, Express Entry has also—whether by design or inadvertently—changed the way that immigration intersects with the Canadian political system. This report explores how and why Express Entry was designed and looks at its implications for the Canadian immigration system. The report begins by providing a brief summary of the managerial how they have been ameliorated and speculates on the impact of Express Entry, before turning to the challengespolitical consequences that plagued of Canadian the new policyselection officials system. before The thereport adoption argues of that Express while Entry. Express It then Entry considers provides increased attention to the way it communicates with the Canadian public. policy officials a powerful and flexible tool, several political consequences require the government to pay II. Canadian Immigration: A Victim of Its Own Success? a rigorous assessment