Hire through the Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot: How the pilot works
The Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot (EMPP) is a unique opportunity for employers in Canada to connect with, and hire, skilled refugees and other qualified displaced people overseas.
We created the EMPP to support the Canadian labour market by helping Canadian employers access a new pool of potential employees.
We’ve made some changes to the EMPP to help Canadian employers. Find out more about the new application streams.
We’re working with:
- non-government organizations
- communities, provinces and territories across Canada
- the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR)
Our partners can help you throughout the process of:
- finding and hiring qualified candidates
- the immigration process
- welcoming newcomers to their new communities and workplaces
Learn more about our EMPP partners.
Referral partner process
If a candidate doesn’t have an eligible status document, they can work with one of our EMPP non-government partners to assess if they are eligible as a refugee or displaced person before they apply.
Why hire through the EMPP
- You get access to a new pool of international talent to fill job openings.
- For a fee, you can use refugee-serving partner organizations to help you navigate the world of hiring refugees and displaced persons overseas, including:
- finding and hiring candidates
- providing employment-related resources and immigration-related services to the candidates you hire
- We’ll process most candidates’ permanent residence applications within 6 months, which is faster than our normal processing times.
The EMPP will also help the candidates you want to hire by:
- making it easier for them to apply for economic programs
- making it easier to prove their work experience
- waiving some fees (like application and biometrics fees)
- letting them use loans to
- meet settlement requirements, depending on how they apply
- pay for travel costs
- cover some start-up costs and fees that can’t be waived
We recently created new application streams that:
- open up a new pool of talented, skilled workers who happen to be displaced
- will let you use the EMPP to fill a wide range of in-demand jobs
- Through the job offer stream, you can hire refugees and other displaced people for any job they are qualified to fill (training, education, experience and responsibilities 0–5 categories of the National Occupational Classification 2021).
- These candidates do not need in-Canada experience to apply.
- create a streamlined application process so candidates can move to and start working in Canada quickly, including
- standardized eligibility criteria
- only needing to submit 1 application
- in most cases, processing complete applications within 6 months
Read the full list of what the EMPP will do for the candidates you hire.
Non-government partners
Several non-government organizations (NGOs) support the EMPP by:
- identifying skilled refugees and other qualified displaced people abroad, and helping them access in-demand jobs
- working with participating provinces, territories and communities to connect skilled refugees and other qualified displaced people with Canadian employers interested in hiring them
- helping candidates and employers through immigration and after arrival
These are the NGOs we partner with for this: