Provincial Immigration Policies: The Case of Ontario’s Pilot PNP

This paper explores the involvement of provincial governments in the selection, recruitment and settlement of immigrants to Canada, focusing on Provincial Nominee Programs (PNPs). Taking as a case study the pilot PNP that the province of Ontario launched in 2007, it asks the question: what are these expanding and increasingly popular programs accomplishing for Canada's immigration project that the federal immigration program isn't? The study argues that PNPs have been able to overcome some of the shortcomings of federal policy of immigrant selection through matching immigrants with jobs, involving receiving communities and institutions in the integration process, bringing immigrants in a relatively short timeframe, and leading to more balanced geographic distribution of immigrants while attracting immigration to provinces and areas unpopular with the general immigrant stream.