The Case for Loosening Closed-Visa Programs
Insights from FOS Affiliate Kory Kroft and co-authors in the Chicago Booth Review, illuminating how permanent residency can unlock economic mobility for temporary foreign workers in Canada.
Creating an easier pathway to permanent residency could help workers and businesses.
To fill jobs in sectors experiencing local labor shortages, some countries—including Canada, New Zealand, South Korea, and the United States—offer closed-visa programs that tie foreign workers to a single employer for a fixed term.
These programs provide opportunities, but they also limit foreign workers’ prospects by restricting their mobility, lessening their bargaining power, and repressing their wages, argues research from University of Toronto’s Kory Kroft, University of Chicago PhD student Isaac Norwich, Chicago Booth’s Matthew J. Notowidigdo, and Toronto Metropolitan University’s Stephen Tino. Providing these workers with an easier pathway to permanent residency would improve their career opportunities and increase their earnings, the study suggests.