Recalibrating Canada’s Immigration Architecture: Insights from Research on Economic Inclusion and Institutional Mediation

Date: Thursday, Feb. 5
Time: 4 pm
Location: University Club, 101 Administration Place, University of Saskatchewan

Free and open to the public | Reception to follow the lecture

About this event

A talk by Dr. Rupa Banerjee (PhD), Toronto Metropolitan University

Over the past half-century, Canada’s immigration system has been lauded as a global model for skill-based selection and successful integration. Yet beneath this reputation lies a deepening paradox: immigrants are increasingly well-educated but persistently underemployed, while temporary and employer-driven migration streams now eclipse traditional pathways of permanent migration. This lecture traces the structural evolution of Canada’s “two-step” immigration system, linking the rise of the Temporary Foreign Worker and International Mobility Programs to broader transformations in state governance, employer power, and the commodification of skill.

Integrating findings from multiple projects, Benerjee highlights how immigrant selection policy, the education system, credentialing regimes, and labour market structures mediate immigrants’ trajectories in Canada. Banerjee further considers how racial and gendered intersectional inequities are perpetuated through these systems.

By mapping these dynamics, the lecture argues for a recalibration of Canada’s migration architecture that re-centres equity, inclusion, and long-term social cohesion over short-term labour market expediency. Ultimately, the presentation underscores how Canada’s migration success story must be reimagined: from managing flows of talent to cultivating conditions for genuine belonging and shared prosperity.

Dr. Rupa Banerjee (PhD) is a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Economic Inclusion, Employment, and Entrepreneurship of Canada’s Immigrants and Professor at Toronto Metropolitan University. Her research examines how Canada’s evolving two-step immigration architecture shapes newcomers’ labour-market trajectories, with recent studies on the International Mobility Program, the international student regime, and the underutilization of highly educated immigrants. She investigates gendered and racialized inequalities and extends this lens to second-generation outcomes. In addition to an extensive peer-reviewed publication record, Dr. Banerjee contributes to policy and practice through service on national advisory bodies and governance roles in the non-profit sector.

About the Sorokin Lecture Series

Hosted by the Department of Sociology, the Sorokin Lecture Series was established at the University of Saskatchewan in 1968 in honour of world-renowned sociologist Dr. Pitirim A. Sorokin (PhD).

Info: sociology.office@usask.ca

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