Canada has built one of the most ambitious immigration systems in the world. For decades, our system has selected newcomers based on education, language ability and professional experience, with the expectation that those skills will translate into economic opportunity.

But that translation is not automatic.

In this episode, host Marwa Abdou, migration scholar Dr. Anna Triandafyllidou and labour economist Dr. Christopher Worswick examine a central tension at the heart of Canada’s immigration model: The gap between how systems measure talent before arrival and how labour markets translate talent after arrival.

Drawing on research from Statistics Canada, the OECD and leading Canadian economists, we explore how credentials are evaluated, how employers interpret unfamiliar experience, and how institutions such as licensing bodies, hiring practices and social networks shape who gets access to opportunity.

This episode connects system design to labour market outcomes. From the role of signals and recognition to the long-term evolution of immigrant earnings, it considers how early job matches, selection policies and economic conditions interact over time.

As Canada continues to rely on immigration for labour force growth, the question is no longer simply who gets in but whether the economy can convert potential into productivity.

Links:

- Anna Triandafyllidou, TMU

- Migrant Integration in the Mid-21st Century: Bridging Divides

- Christopher Worswick, Carleton University

- Christopher Worswick, C.D. Howe Institute

- How We Subverted our Skills Based Immigration System – Green, Worswick et al.

- Immigrant Earnings Profiles in the Presence of Human Capital Investment: Measuring Cohort and Macro Effects – Green, Worswick et al.

- Entry Earnings of Immigrant Men in Canada: The Roles of Labour Market Entry Effects and Returns to Foreign Experience – Green, Worswick et al.

What if economic growth is real but only in certain places?

In this special two-part episode, we move beyond headline GDP to examine the territorial foundations of economic development. Guest Dr. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, Princesa de Asturias Chair in Economic Geography at the London School of Economics, and Director of the Cañada Blanch Centre, draws on decades of research to explain how regions fall into what he calls a development trap. These are not necessarily the poorest places. They are often middle-income regions that once thrived and are now quietly falling behind. Policy concentrates investment in major hubs and assumes spillovers will follow — the evidence suggests otherwise.

In part one, host Marwa Abdou and Dr. Rodríguez-Pose explore the limits of place-neutral policy, the risks of betting national growth on a handful of metropolitan centers, and why institutions, not just markets, determine long-run prosperity.

In part two, Dr. Ken Coates, Distinguished Fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and Professor of Indigenous Governance at Yukon University, brings the Canadian terrain into focus. From resource regions to Indigenous governance and northern economies, we examine how institutional capacity, local ownership and mobilizing latent potential shape opportunity across a vast federation.

Because when capability clusters by postal code, growth stops being a national statistic and becomes a question of power.

Links:
- Ken Coates - Distinguished Fellow in Aboriginal and Northern Canadian Issues, Macdonald-Laurier Institute
- “The Provincial North is the Centrepiece of Canadian Nation-Building" by Ken Coates for the Globe & Mail
- #IdleNoMore And the Remaking of Canada by Ken Coates
- Google Scholar - Ken S. Coates

What if economic growth is real but only in certain places?

In this special two-part episode, we move beyond headline GDP to examine the territorial foundations of economic development. Guest Dr. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, Princesa de Asturias Chair in Economic Geography at the London School of Economics, and Director of the Cañada Blanch Centre, draws on decades of research to explain how regions fall into what he calls a development trap. These are not necessarily the poorest places. They are often middle-income regions that once thrived and are now quietly falling behind. Policy concentrates investment in major hubs and assumes spillovers will follow — the evidence suggests otherwise.

In part one, host Marwa Abdou and Dr. Rodríguez-Pose explore the limits of place-neutral policy, the risks of betting national growth on a handful of metropolitan centers, and why institutions, not just markets, determine long-run prosperity.

In part two, Dr. Ken Coates, Distinguished Fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and Professor of Indigenous Governance at Yukon University, brings the Canadian terrain into focus. From resource regions to Indigenous governance and northern economies, we examine how institutional capacity, local ownership and mobilizing latent potential shape opportunity across a vast federation.

Because when capability clusters by postal code, growth stops being a national statistic and becomes a question of power.

Links:
- Andrés Rodríguez-Pose – London School of Economics
- Cañada-Blanch Centre at LSE
- The Revenge of the Places that Don’t Matter by Andrés Rodríguez-Pose
- The Case for Regional Development Intervention: Place-Based vs Place-Neutral Approaches by Fabrizio Barca, Philip McCann, and Andrés Rodríguez-Pose
- Do Institutions Matter for Regional Development? by Andrés Rodríguez-Pose
- What Kind of Local and Regional Development and for Whom? By Andy Pike, Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, & John Tomaney