Aligning immigration and child care workforce strategies for an equitable, sustainable, and high-quality early learning and child care system

Downloadable Version

Growing the early learning and child care (ELCC) workforce in Canada is a pressing public policy challenge. Canada’s federal government is promoting immigration as part of the solution, with immigrants and non-permanent residents entering the sector through federal, provincial, and territorial immigration pathways. Yet these approaches are not aligned with existing evidence on the drivers of the ELCC workforce crisis. They are also being implemented in the context of limited information about immigrant participation in ELCC and without a comprehensive Canada-wide ELCC workforce strategy.

This policy brief synthesizes emerging research evidence on the role of immigration in Canada’s ELCC sector and policy discussions from Child Care Now’s National ELCC Workforce Policy Table, which convened the Educators Matter Symposium in October 2025. It finds that while immigration is alleviating ELCC workforce shortages, key barriers and risks exist surrounding the treatment of ELCC workers, training and credentials, immigration processes and policies, and data gaps. It then proposes policy solutions for how immigration should be integrated into Canada’s long-term vision for a fair and equitable ELCC workforce and high-quality Canada-wide ELCC system. 

Immigration and the ELCC workforce 

Immigrants and non-permanent residents are playing a significant role in Canada’s ELCC workforce. In 2021, immigrants and non-permanent residents accounted for one third of workers employed in child care services (NAICS 6244), with substantial regional variation as shown in Figure 1.¹ Immigrant refers to persons born outside of Canada who have the legal right to remain in Canada (permanent residency) or are naturalized citizens. Non-permanent residents, including work or study permit holders and their spouses, do not have these rights, although they may wish to remain in Canada permanently. Internationally-educated early childhood educators (ECEs) may be recruited from abroad and granted permanent residency on arrival. Immigrants in Canada are often selected from the population of non-permanent residents who are already in Canada, for example from among international students who have moved from study permits to temporary post-graduation work permits. 

As Table 1 shows, in recent years, Canada has recruited more immigrant ECEs and early childhood educator assistants (ECEAs) through permanent immigration programs, particularly British Columbia and Ontario, who have introduced or adapted immigration streams to prioritize them through their Provincial Nominee Programs.² Since 2025, the federal government has used targeted Express Entry draws for Education, including early childhood educators.³ Elsewhere, employer- and community- driven programs such as the Atlantic Immigration Program and Rural and Francophone Community Immigration Pilots also allow selected child care centres to sponsor immigrant educators.⁴ 

Data: Statistics Canada⁵

Table 1. Admissions of permanent residents intending to work as Early Childhood Educators and Assistants (NOC 4214) by Province and Territory, 2018-2025

Data: IRCC.⁶  

Note: IRCC shows values between 0 and 5 as “–” and rounds other values to the closest multiple of 5.

Immigrant educators contribute valuable skills and perspectives to ELCC settings. Statistics Canada data, for example, underscore the linguistic diversity of workers in centre-based child care.⁷ Research conducted by the Early Childhood Collaborative Research Centre highlights that immigrant ECEs bring a heightened understanding of the needs of diverse children and families, supporting the delivery of inclusive and high quality ELCC programs.⁸ 

Key Barriers and Areas of Concern

Working conditions and treatment of ELCC workers

International recruitment can help address short-term workforce needs in ELCC. However, without strong investments in compensation, training, and working conditions, recruitment will not produce a sustainable workforce because new entrants will not stay in the field. 

Low pay and poor working conditions remain the major drivers of staff turnover in child care centres.⁹ In 2022, nearly six in ten child care centres reported having lost at least one trained or credentialed ECE in the previous year, according to the Canadian Survey on the Provision of Child Care Services.¹⁰ Data from Statistics Canada show that immigrant ECEs and ECEs with temporary status leave the sector at similar or higher rates than Canadian-born ECEs.¹¹ This pattern indicates that recruiting additional workers, whether domestically or internationally, cannot stabilize the workforce unless the underlying drivers of turnover are addressed. 

Newcomer ECEs often face multiple, overlapping challenges that can make professional burnout more likely and cause them to leave the field. These challenges include language barriers, racism and discrimination, workplace bullying, exploitation, and a lack of support.¹² Evidence from Nova Scotia shows that “newcomer status” is associated with lower self-reported professional wellbeing among ECEs.¹³ Post-migration challenges combined with the Otherness experienced in the workplace can heighten feelings of dissatisfaction among ECEs who are new to Canada. ELCC work can also be associated with a deep sense of frustration and loss of identity when ELCC jobs act as “survival jobs” for immigrants rather than their part of their chosen career pathway.¹⁴

ECEs with non-permanent immigration status are particularly vulnerable to workplace exploitation because of power imbalances with their employer, such as when employers control access to permanent residency. While employer-tied Temporary Foreign Worker permits are not common in the ELCC sector, other situations may put non-permanent residents at risk of mistreatment. For example, ECEs who are nominated through Provincial Nominee Program pathways that require employer support have a pre-permanent residency period. During this period, workers may fear that speaking out about unfair working conditions or abuses such as wage theft will jeopardize their immigration status. A related, but different challenge, occurs with the Post-Graduation Work Permit program which allows international students to work temporarily after graduation. Although the Post-Graduation Work Permit is an open permit, meaning that workers are free to change jobs as they wish, in practice, changing jobs can create gaps in employment that limit their competitiveness in permanent immigration programs. These power dynamics can force ECEs to stay with employers who exploit them.

Moreover, research from Newfoundland and Labrador shows that while programs such as the Atlantic Immigration Program are designed to support settlement, requirements such as employer-led settlement plans can reinforce unequal power relationships. For example, ECEs may feel pressure to remain with an employer who has paid for required training or provided housing, even after they gain permanent residency status. What’s more, being new to Canada also means navigating unfamiliar systems. ECEs who are new to Canada may lack knowledge about their rights in the workplace, where to go for help, or about the wide variation in compensation and working conditions across the ELCC sector.¹⁵ Thus, while many immigrant ECEs ultimately leave the ELCC sector, precarious immigration status can also constrain their ability to leave jobs where they face discrimination, bullying, or exploitation in the short-term.

Post-secondary education, training, and credential recognition

High quality ELCC programs require a well-trained and qualified workforce, but many barriers and challenges exist.¹⁶ One challenge is that qualification requirements vary widely across provinces and territories, creating confusion for internationally educated ECEs who wish to work in Canada. 

There is also a need to support the development of strong language skills in French and English among ECEs, which could require raising the language levels required for entry into ELCC training programs and providing more language support. Targeted bridging programs for internationally educated ECEs are promising. For example, Nova Scotia’s Internationally Educated Early Childhood Educators Bridging the Gap program combines sector-specific language training with paid work placements.¹⁷ However, such programs are not available in all provinces and territories. 

In recent years, international students have become an increasingly important part of Canada’s ELCC training pipeline, filling gaps in domestic enrolment. However, international students’ ongoing role in this pipeline is unpredictable. Between 2020/21 and 2023/24, the share of international students in ELCC post-secondary programs rose significantly, particularly in Ontario where it increased from 21% to 37%.¹⁸ By 2024, international students made up one-quarter of all students enrolled in Canadian ELCC programs. Since 2024, however, federal caps and restrictions on international student visas have produced significant declines in enrolment, destabilizing ELCC training programs, which had become financially reliant on international student tuition.¹⁹ 

While it may make sense for Canada to align its international education strategy more closely with labour market needs (such as in ELCC), more analysis of the post-graduation trajectories of international student ECEs is needed. Even during the period of rapid growth of international student enrolment in Canadian ELCC programs, the connection between training and workforce participation remained unclear. In 2024, changes to Post-Graduatione Work Permit eligibility created confusion when early childhood education was initially excluded from the list of eligible fields, suggesting that federal immigration policy makers are making decisions too quickly or without the information that they need.²⁰ It is not known, for example, how many international students who graduate from Canadian programs ultimately enter and remain in the ELCC workforce. They are likely to encounter the same structural barriers that dissuade many Canadian graduates from staying in the field, with the added challenge of precarious immigration status. 

Another problem is that some newcomers enter the ELCC field after encountering systemic barriers in Canada that prevent them from finding work in the fields in which they were trained or in positions commensurate with their level of education and experience. Research from Alberta shows, for example, that some international students pursued ELCC credentials because they could not meet the admission requirements or the cost of admission of post-secondary programs in other fields.²¹  For some, pursuing ELCC credentials or work serves as a pathway to re-enter their originally chosen profession in Canada. 

Table 2. Percent of students enrolled in Canadian Early Childhood Education programs that were international students, by province/territory, 2017/18 – 2023/24

Data: Statistics Canada, Postsecondary Student Information System (PSIS).²²

Note: selected field of study (6 digit) includes CIP 19.0709 (child care provider/assistant), CIP 13.1015 (early childhood special education), and CIP 13.1210 (early childhood education and teaching); data not available for the Northwest Territories in 2017/18 and 2018/19

Immigration policies

It is clear that immigration policies can increase the risk of exploitation for newcomer ECEs, particularly when employers control access to permanent residency. The Migrant Rights Network, Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, and the Canadian Labour Congress are among the Canadian organizations calling for increased access to permanent residency for migrant workers.²³

Recent federal immigration policy changes since 2025 appear to have further constrained the ELCC sector’s ability to recruit and retain permanent resident ECEs. Although the federal government introduced targeted Express Entry draws for the Education sector in February of 2025 which explicitly include ECEs, these draws rely on the Comprehensive Ranking System, which disadvantages those who hold only two-year diplomas. In practice, many qualified international students who graduate from recognized Canadian ECE programs and have Canadian work experience are unable to compete unless they also hold a four-year degree. Another problem is that prioritizing bachelor’s degree holders without increasing compensation may only lead to more attrition. Within the ELCC sector, bachelor’s degrees are generally not meaningfully rewarded by wage differentials, as only a few provinces have salary scales that compensate for higher levels of education. A study by the University of Toronto shows that among ECEs in Canada, those with four-year degrees are more likely to leave child care for other fields where their credentials secure them higher salaries.²⁴ 

As Canada reduces its immigration levels, fewer visas are being granted, including visas that the federal government allocates to provinces and territories through the Provincial and Territorial Nominee Programs. In 2025, reductions in visa allocations to these programs limited their ability to use these pathways to recruit and retain ECEs, creating challenges for child care programs in several regions including Prince Edward Island and British Columbia.²⁵ 

Data gaps and workforce planning

At the same time, responding to the challenges discussed above is complicated by significant gaps in the data available to policy makers. One key issue is how ELCC workers are classified by Statistics Canada’s National Occupational Classification (NOC) system. The NOC code for home child care workers includes providers in licensed and unlicensed private homes while the NOC code for ECEs and ECEAs includes workers with different levels of training. This conceals important differences about credentials, experiences, and qualities across different child care settings for both immigrant and non-immigrant ELCC workers. 

Beyond this issue, major policy-relevant questions remain unanswered, including:

• How many people leave the ELCC sector after gaining permanent residency and how does this vary by immigration programs?
• What is the transition rate of ECE post-secondary students to permanent resident status?
• Do immigrant women desire to work in ELCC or are they ‘streamed into the sector,’ for example when their other credentials are not recognized?
• How do these patterns vary by province and territory?

Where we sit now

At the time of writing, both the Canadian ELCC and immigration sectors are changing rapidly. The shortage of qualified ECEs threatens the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care program’s space expansion commitments, while a national ELCC workforce strategy has yet to materialize. ECE attrition remains a major challenge, driven by poor compensation. ECEs who are new to Canada continue to face intersecting barriers that contribute to burnout, and non-permanent resident ECEs are vulnerable to workplace exploitation and immigration policy changes. Although recruiting ECEs continues to be a national immigration priority, it is not clear how effective programs such as Express Entry are, or how reductions to immigration levels and international student arrivals are constraining the ELCC talent pipeline. A lack of up-to-date data related to immigrants and non-permanent residents in the ELCC workforce, including credential recognition rates and transitions of international student graduates, further limit evidence-based workforce planning. 

Footnotes

1.  Statistics Canada, “Class of worker including job permanency by industry groups, immigrant status and period of immigration, admission category and applicant type, age and gender: Canada, provinces and territories,” (Table 98-10-0600-01, Nov. 15, 2023).
2.  BC announced April 23 2026 that ECEAs were no longer eligible for prioritization in the Provincial Nominee program; ECEs remain on the list.
3. Government of Canada, “Canada announces 2025 Express Entry category-based draws, plans for more in-Canada draws to reduce labour shortages,” (Feb. 27, 2025).
4. Government of British Columbia, “Health-care workers, ECEs focus of changes to BC’s immigration program,” (Mar. 10, 2022); Government of Ontario, “Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) invitations to apply,” (Jan. 7, 2026)
5. Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0600-01 (Nov. 15, 2023).
6. IRCC, “Permanent Residents – Monthly IRCC Updates – Canada – Permanent Residents by Province/Territory and Intended Occupation,” (Jan. 31, 2026).
7. Statistics Canada (2025). Table 42-10-0097-01  Languages regularly spoken with children and parents by child care employees, April 2022, Canada DOI: https://doi.org/10.25318/4210009701-eng
8. Nahal Fakhari, N., Milena Pimentel, and Jessie-Lee D. McIsaac, “Early learning and child care for immigrant families and children: a pan-Canadian jurisdictional scan of settlement agencies,” International Journal of Child, Youth and Family Studies 16, no. 4 (2025): 76-98.
9. Toronto Children’s Services, “Early years and child care workforce project: workforce perspectives, deepening challenges, and pressing opportunities,” (March, 2023); Brad Seward, Elizabeth Dhuey, and Annie Pan, “The big short: expansion of early childhood education in post-pandemic Canada,” Canadian Public Policy (Sept. 2023).
10. Thomas C. Charters and Leanne C. Findlay, “Child care centre workers serving children aged 0 to 5 years in Canada, 2021 to 2022,” (Statistics Canada, Dec. 19, 2024).
11. Youjin Choi and Kristyn Frank, “Diversity, Economic Characteristics, and Retention of Early Learning and Child Care Workers in Canada,” Journal of Research in Childhood Education, no. 2 (2024): 208-226.
12. Pragya Varma, “Burnout in immigrant early childhood educators,” Thesis, University of Lethbridge (2024).
13. Elizabeth Jean Larson and Larson, Jessie-Lee McIsaac, “Early childhood professional well-being in Nova Scotia: A mixed methods study,” Journal of Early Childhood Research 23, 2, (2025): 179-196.
14. Catherine Bryan, María José Yax-Fraser, Zainab Almukhtar, Mitherayee Augustine, and Jodi VanderHeide, “Cooking, cleaning, and caring: COVID-19, essential labour and the experiences of immigrant and migrant women in Nova Scotia,” Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (March 6, 2024).
15. Yolande Pottie-Sherman, “Why a mobility justice approach is needed in Canada’s early learning and child care workforce,” Under review.
16. Child Care Now, “A summary of early learning and child care workforce policies as of December 2023 under the Canada-wide child care system,” (Mar. 2024)
17. Immigrant Services Association of Nova Scotia, “Internationally Educated Early Childhood Educators (IEECE) Bridging the Gap,” (2026).
18. Statistics Canada, “Postsecondary enrolments by province of study, selected field of study (6 digits), Country of Citizenship – Countries and areas of interest, Immigration Status of Student, and Gender, 2023/2024,” Postsecondary Student Information System, Statistics Canada (2025).
19. IRCC, “Understanding student and temporary worker numbers in Canada,” (Jan. 20, 2026); Froese, I. & L. Scott, “Manitoba Institute of Trades and Technology closing after international student enrolment drops, “CBC News (Jan. 28, 2026)
20. Allison Jones, “Work permit changes a concern for child-care shortages: Ontario,” CBC News (Oct. 29, 2024).
21. The Muttart Foundation, “The Educational Experiences and Anticipated Work Plans of Post-Secondary Early Learning and Care Students in Alberta,” Edmonton, Alberta (Nov. 2021).
22. Statistics Canada Postsecondary Student Information System (2025); Selected fields of study include CIP 19.0709 (child care provider/assistant), CIP 13.1015 (early childhood special education), and CIP 13.1210 (early childhood education and teaching); estimates were <5% for NL, NWT, and NU.
23. Canadian Labour Congress, “Migrant workers in Canada deserve access to permanent residency and citizenship,” (Dec. 18, 2024).
24. Seward et al., The Big Short.
25. Brittany Spencer, “Immigration rules, demand for spaces means ‘stressful’ times for P.E.I. child-care centres,” CBC News (Oct. 4, 2025); Isaac Phan Nay, “How immigration cuts added to the Sunshine Coast’s child care problem,” The Tyee (Sept. 16, 2025).