Reforms Needed to Canada's Business Immigration System
- 1. The Centre for Digital Entrepreneurship and Economic Performance Potential Reforms to Canada’s Business Immigration System Dan Herman, PhD Executive Director & Co-Founder July 2016
- 2. The Centre for Digital Entrepreneurship and Economic Performance Federal Immigration Policy Reform in Support of Scaling Up Context: • Recent research highlights primacy of senior talent gap as primary barrier to scaling amongst technology and manufacturing firms (Source: Lazaridis Institute; DEEP Centre); • Engagement with industry stakeholders indicates significant challenges wrt visa processing of incoming foreign staff; • Inability to engage and land foreign staff and impediment to domestic job growth; • Aggressive/streamlined process necessary given competitive dynamic facing Canadian tech firms.
- 3. The Centre for Digital Entrepreneurship and Economic Performance Federal Immigration Policy Reform in Support of Scaling Up Context (cont’d): • Areas of need are not solely technical nor is the need defined by want of entrepreneurs and/or investors (Startup Visa) • Major gaps reported by high-growth firms in executive and management level sales and marketing, organizational design, IPO related activity, and internationalization. • Addressing this talent gap requires both endogenous (domestic) talent pipeline and development of more effective pathway for international talent to relocate.
- 4. The Centre for Digital Entrepreneurship and Economic Performance International Models United Kingdom • Fast-track visa application and processing; exempt from labour market test for qualified firms/applicants; • Focus on enabling scaleups; regional development; attracting exceptional talent; • Administered through third-party industry associations (e.g. TechCityUK).
- 5. The Centre for Digital Entrepreneurship and Economic Performance Capturing Exceptional / Executive Talent UK Model (Tech Nation Visa Scheme) • Open to both expert technical and validated executive / management talent • Significant focus on “scaling” related management/executive talent • Technical focus on emerging fields (big data, AI, cybersecurity)
- 6. The Centre for Digital Entrepreneurship and Economic Performance Tech Nation Visa Scheme Process
- 7. The Centre for Digital Entrepreneurship and Economic Performance Other Examples New Zealand Global Impact Visa (April 2016) • Developed to facilitate the attraction, selection and integration of a targeted group of global entrepreneurs; • Premised on belief that existing policy (investor and entrepreneur) ineffective at attracting the “more innovative (experienced) , global entrepreneurs needed to support the growth of the New Zealand innovation system”; • Four year pilot project with maximum 400 visas allocated; • Attraction and selection of migrants administered by third party selected through open procurement process; • Desired outcome to match domestic firm needs with international applicant pool as well as to develop more flexible intake of international entrepreneurs.
- 8. The Centre for Digital Entrepreneurship and Economic Performance Focus on entrepreneurs/startups (akin to Canadian StartUp Visa): • France: French Tech Ticket • Chile: Startup Chile • Australia: Entrepreneurs Visa • Ireland: Trusted Partner Initiative • Singapore: EntrePass • Italy: StartUp Visa • Netherlands: StartupVisa Related Examples Do we have a startup problem or a scaleup problem?
- 9. The Centre for Digital Entrepreneurship and Economic Performance Dan Herman Executive Director [email protected]