Immigration and Human Capital Accumulation in North America: The Case of Canada

This chapter presents Canada’s distinctive approach to immigration that has formed one of the cores of the country’s human capital accumulation and development strategy. From a historical perspective, international immigration has always formed an important source of human capital acquisition in Canada. This aligns with the country’s official adoption of multiculturalism which is also embedded in the country’s Charter of Rights and Freedom. This chapter traces immigration in Canada over the years and presents an overview of some of the major policies and programs that have been used to encourage immigrants to come in and integrate into the Canadian society and economy. This chapter concludes with lessons from Canada’s approach to human capital development and accumulation using immigration.