Canada’s Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot (EMPP), intended to settle skilled refugees to fill urgent Canadian labour shortages, risks commodifying refugees and humanitarianism. A shift towards using an asylum claimant’s economic potential to judge their claim risks blurring the lines between humanitarian- and economically-driven migration to Canada.
Canada has garnered international praise for the way it has welcomed refugees. The country has a long history of granting protection to individuals fleeing persecution, war and violence. Since 1980, Canada has welcomed over one million refugees, and takes pride in their contributions to the Canadian economy and its multicultural milieu.
