Key Takeaways
- Canada markets itself as a nation that needs skilled immigrants, yet many newcomers face underemployment because their foreign credentials and experience are not recognized.
- The widespread demand for “Canadian experience” creates a catch‑2‑two: immigrants cannot get Canadian experience without a job, but they cannot get a job without it.
- Data show a growing gap: in September 2025, 34.7 % of recent immigrants reported being over‑qualified versus 18.5 % of Canadian‑born workers, indicating that skills are being wasted.
- Both international students and internationally trained doctors illustrate how immigration streams promise opportunity but then impose barriers that sideline foreign expertise.
- To reap the economic benefits of immigration, Canada must reform credential assessment, broaden recognition of foreign experience, and stop using “Canadian experience” as a gatekeeping tool.
Canada’s Immigration Narrative vs. Labour‑Market Reality
Canada presents itself as a country eager to attract skilled immigrants to fill labour shortages, support an aging populace, and stimulate economic growth. Official immigration targets and promotional campaigns stress the value of global talent. However, once immigrants arrive, they frequently encounter a labour market that treats their qualifications with skepticism. The gap between the welcoming narrative and the everyday reality of underemployment reveals a systemic failure to translate selected skills into productive employment.
The “Canadian Experience” Requirement as a Screening Tool
A central obstacle is the insistence that job applicants possess prior work experience in the Canadian labour market. Employers rationalize this demand by claiming it ensures familiarity with local workplace culture, norms, and regulatory expectations. In practice, the requirement functions more as a convenient filter than a genuine assessment of ability. It screens out candidates whose experience was gained elsewhere, regardless of its relevance or quality, thereby reinforcing a bias toward the familiar.
Why the Requirement Is a Social and Economic Mistake
Reliance on Canadian experience contradicts Canada’s own immigration policy, which assumes that newcomers are vital to future prosperity. By dismissing foreign experience, the country squanders the very skills it recruited to address shortages. As a researcher of immigration and international student retention, I argue that the system is not failing at selecting talent; it is failing at recognizing and utilizing that talent after arrival. Immigrants themselves are not the problem—the barrier lies in how their backgrounds are evaluated.
Evidence of Skill Waste: Over‑Qualification Trends
Recent data underscore the extent of skill misalignment. A September 2025 survey found that 34.7 % of recent immigrants reported being over‑qualified for their jobs, compared with only 18.5 % of Canadian‑born workers. This disparity suggests that many immigrants possess education and experience exceeding what their current positions require. Notably, a majority of immigrants with post‑secondary credentials are more over‑qualified than their native‑born peers, indicating that the problem is not a lack of qualifications but a failure to match those qualifications to appropriate roles.
The Catch‑2‑Two Facing Newcomers
The most frustrating aspect of the Canadian experience demand is the paradox it creates: newcomers cannot acquire Canadian experience without first being hired, yet they cannot be hired without possessing it. This loop traps skilled immigrants in survival jobs—often in retail, food service, warehousing, delivery, or care work—that provide little relevance to their professional training. Consequently, even when immigrants gain Canadian work experience, employers frequently deem it irrelevant to the specific industry experience they seek, perpetuating the cycle of underemployment.
International Students: Education Promised, Experience Denied
International students arrive with the promise of quality education and a pathway to employment that could lead to permanent residency. In reality, many confront high housing costs, tight finances, and restrictive work‑permit conditions that push them into low‑skill, low‑wage jobs. While these roles technically count as Canadian experience, they do not align with students’ fields of study. After graduation, employers continue to demand “professional Canadian experience” in the student’s discipline—experience that students were unable to obtain during their studies—rendering their hard‑earned credentials effectively invisible to hiring managers.
Internationally Trained Doctors: Clinical Skill Blocked by Licensing Mazes
The health‑care sector exemplifies how foreign expertise is stalled despite acute shortages. Canada faces physician shortages, overcrowded emergency rooms, and underserved communities, yet only 41.1 % of foreign‑educated doctors were working in medicine‑related occupations in 2021, compared with roughly 90 % of Canadian‑educated graduates. Internationally trained physicians bring substantial clinical knowledge, but they must navigate lengthy verification processes, repeated examinations, and narrow licensing pathways. Although these safeguards aim to protect patient safety, they also create unnecessary barriers that prevent capable doctors from contributing to the system.
Systemic Undervaluation of Foreign Expertise
Canada’s immigration strategy seeks global talent, yet its institutional practices often treat that talent as a liability rather than an asset. Persistent labour shortages in healthcare, skilled trades, and other high‑need sectors persist despite high‑skilled immigration streams, suggesting a mismatch between immigration intake and labour‑market absorption. The undervaluation of foreign experience is not merely an individual inconvenience; it represents a macro‑economic inefficiency that wastefully discards human capital and undermines the very growth objectives immigration is meant to support.
Pathways to Better Recognition and Utilization
To turn immigration into a genuine economic advantage, Canada must overhaul how it assesses and integrates foreign qualifications. Key reforms include:
- Standardizing credential recognition across provinces and professions to reduce duplicative assessments.
- Creating bridging programs that provide targeted Canadian‑specific training while recognizing existing expertise.
- Replacing blanket “Canadian experience” demands with competency‑based evaluations that focus on skills, knowledge, and ability to adapt.
- Expanding mentorship and internship opportunities that allow immigrants to gain relevant Canadian experience in their fields without sacrificing seniority or pay.
- Strengthening data collection on immigrant employment outcomes to inform policy adjustments in real time.
By implementing such measures, Canada can break the catch‑2‑two of experience requirements, fully harness the skills of its newcomers, and fulfil its promise of being a welcoming, economically vibrant nation.
George Kofi Danso holds a PhD in human geography from Queen’s University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.