Scoring the accessibility of economic immigration pathways for applicants in refugee circumstances

These scorecards measure the accessibility of Canada’s economic immigration pathways for applicants who are living in refugee circumstances. The score indicates if the pathway design is likely to include or exclude this community.

Many people living as refugees have the skills and experience sought by Canadian employers and governments. However, few economic immigration pathways are designed to include them by thoughtfully accommodating the unconventional circumstances that displacement creates.

Our scoring framework establishes twelve factors that are common barriers for displaced applicants. These barriers are not human capital factors. They relate to legal status, documents, conventional work experience, and finances. The program scorecards assess each pathway across these factors, with an overall program score determined by averaging the scores of the individual pathways within the program. Scores range from low to high accessibility, as well as full accessibility where there are specific features designed to facilitate access for displaced applicants.

Each scorecard includes recommendations to improve access for people with needed skills who are living as refugees. Greater accessibility would broaden the pool of eligible talent, but would not change the primary purpose or levels of an economic pathway. Greater accessibility would recognize, in the words of someone who relocated for work from displacement, the “talent, ambition and humanity” of people seeking safety.