The Economic Mobility Pilot Program will welcome at least 2000 skilled refugees to Canada. Sean Fraser recently made this announcement at Ottawa’s partner meeting. This initiative will enable Canada to meet the labor shortages in high-demand sectors. IRCC will officially provide funding to various partner organizations through this program. The partner organizations include Jumpstart Refugee Talent, TalentLift, and Talent Beyond Boundaries. Furthermore, these organizations will have the potential to refer and help candidates. Additionally, these organizations will also be able to acquire training and quality reviews.
The EMPP will enable employers to recruit skilled refugees in times of urgent vacancies. The Jumpstart’s Refugee Talent’s Director and Co-Founder stated that the Canadian economy was at a struggling stage, experiencing acute labor shortages across several sectors.
On the other hand, several refugees are available who seek solutions to transform their lives for the better. He claimed that by collaborating with IRCC, Jumpstart is assisting Canada in recruiting and relocating individuals coming from dislocated populations.
The government invested around $6.2 million to assist EMPP partner organizations. Moreover, six distinct projects will receive the funding. This money will eventually support the organizations in hiring eligible candidates from overseas. It will also help the applicants and employers in the hiring and immigration process.
Canadian labor shortage
This announcement took place amidst the excessive Canadian labor shortage and the rising number of job vacancies in the country. The labor shortage is also due to reduced birth rates and an aging population. Also, there is a lack of naturalized Canadians to fill in the urgent job vacant positions. Recently, Canada even released the Immigration Levels Plan for 2023 to 2025, with the number of permanent residents outlined for the next three years. According to this plan, around 500,000 new immigrants are likely to arrive in Canada by 2025 annually.
Out of these immigrants, at least 300,000 individuals will more likely receive permanent residence. They will achieve PR using the economic immigration programs. Precisely, at least 15,000 individuals will arrive under an economic pilot program.
Economic Mobility Pilot Program- its initiatives
Canada managed to welcome at least 100 skilled refugees and their family members under the Economic Mobility Pilot Program. This data stands true as of October 2022. For instance, if skilled refugee settles permanently in Canada under EMPP, they will less likely to face any issues in applying for Permanent Residence in the future.
EMPP initiatives include the following:
- Waiving of the fee;
- Convenience in demonstrating their work experience;
- Helping them with accessing loans to fund travel expenditures, settlement costs, start-up expenses, and mandatory fees.
EEMP- its eligibility
Notably, IRCC tries its best to process applications within a period of six months.
However, Refugees immigrating through the EMPP must demonstrate their identity as Refugees and their eligibility under a current economic pilot program. These programs include the Atlantic Immigration Program, Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot, and Provincial Nominee Program.
Aspiring applicants under the Atlantic Immigration Program and Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot will not be required to fulfill the common eligibility requirements. For instance, demonstrating the number of hours per the timeframe. However, they will have to display the same working hours in general. Refugees will need to present a referral letter from at least one partner organization.
Economic Mobility Pilot Program- a brief
The EEMP emerged in 2018 as a research project and comprised two main phases. According to the first phase, certain skilled workers, through targeted help, could easily meet the eligibility requirements of the available economic immigration programs. Overall, this phase brought to the limelight the unexplored potential of candidates who could significantly contribute to the Canadian workforce.
Next, we have the current phase, which consists of IRCC targeting to bring forth 500 refugees and their family members to settle in Canada.
Moreover, these settlement targets will eventually help IRCC in perceiving the ways of bringing out the best in these refugees and extending the EMPP.
