Canada positions itself as a nation in need of skilled immigrants to address labour shortages, support an aging population and drive economic growth. But the reality of Canada’s labour market tells a different story.
Upon arrival, the credentials of the talent attracted from abroad often face skepticism. The issue isn’t just about integration, it’s about the bigger problem of how Canada recognizes and values educational backgrounds, skills and professional experience.
At the centre of that failure is the idea of “Canadian experience.” This refers to the requirement that job applicants have prior work experience in the Canadian labour market to gain further employment.
Employers often defend this requirement as practical. They argue it ensures that workers understand local norms, workplace culture and regulatory expectations. In practice, this requirement acts as a screening tool.
This is both a social and an economic mistake. Canada’s immigration policy is based on the idea that newcomers are crucial to its future success. Yet it continues to squander the skills of the professionals it accepted to take in.
As a researcher specializing in immigration and international student retention in Canada, I believe the system isn’t failing at selecting talent, it’s failing at recognizing it.
Immigrants aren’t the problem, recognition is
A report from RBC found that immigrants often struggle to secure suitable employment in Canada because their training or field of study does not align with labour market needs. This explanation is incomplete, as data shows that a majority of immigrants with a post-secondary education are often more over-qualified than Canadian-born workers.
In September 2025, 34.7 per cent of recent immigrants reported being over-qualified compared with 18.5 per cent of Canadian-born workers. This suggests that many immigrants are failing because their skills are not being fully acknowledged or used.
Immigrants didn’t arrive without skills. They were carefully selected for the strong education, experience and qualifications that met Canada’s immigration standards. The problem starts after they arrive, when their qualifications face even deeper scrutiny.
Most employers ask for Canadian experience as a prerequisite, creating an impossible cycle: newcomers cannot gain Canadian experience without being hired, yet cannot get hired without Canadian experience.
At the core of the problem is a tendency to view unfamiliar foreign experience as a liability rather than as evidence of skill. Employers usually trust what they know. Regulatory bodies focus on credentials they easily understand. So foreign training is often seen as uncertain until it’s translated into Canadian terms.
The problem repeats across immigration streams
Two groups highlight this issue clearly: international students and internationally trained doctors. Although they differ in many ways, both show how Canada delays or denies recognition of people it has invited.
International students often come to Canada for the promise of education and work that can lead to a better future. However, they soon face a tough reality: costly housing, tight finances and immigration rules that limit their options.
To make ends meet, many take jobs in retail, food service, warehouses, delivery or care work. These roles are essential and demanding, yet they don’t provide the professional experience or career advancement that students expect.
International students are encouraged to work, contribute and build a life in Canada. Yet the jobs available to them, while technically providing Canadian work experience, are not in their fields of study. After graduation, employers often dismiss this experience as irrelevant and continue to demand professional Canadian experience in their specific industry, which students had no opportunity to gain.
Health experts often warn about a shortage of physicians. Family medicine faces pressure, emergency rooms are crowded and many communities lack access to care. However, many qualified foreign-trained doctors encounter a maze of licensing hurdles, repeated exams and limited chances to practice.
In 2021, Canada had roughly 39,000 internationally educated people with medical training, yet only 41.1 per cent of foreign-educated doctors were working in related occupations, compared with about nine in ten Canadian-educated medical graduates.
Many of these doctors come with strong clinical knowledge and experience from other health systems. Yet in Canada, their qualifications must go through extensive verification processes, credential checks and limited licensing pathways.
While these requirements are set up to ensure the Canadian health-care system can meet the highest standards of care, they also create barriers for foreign-qualified professionals.
What Canada keeps getting wrong
Canada seeks global talent but builds systems that undervalue it. This contradiction could explain why labour shortages in healthcare and certain skilled trades persist despite high-skilled immigration streams.
To gain real benefits from immigration, Canada must improve how it recognizes and integrates foreign expertise. And it should stop using “Canadian experience” as a method of exclusion.
Underusing skilled immigrants is both unfair to them and harms the economy. Canada can’t claim it needs talent from abroad while discounting it once it arrives.
