Citizenship and Immigration committee  In terms of the benefits and the protections, that's my primary concern when it comes to the new types of jobs that are emerging. We're seeing a lot of growth in temporary work and in contract or freelance work. The reality is that the way in which many of our employee systems work means that these benefits are provided through your employer, but if someone is working for multiple employers, they may not be covered for things like disability insurance or health insurance.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think that it goes to show the importance of investing in English as a second language training, both within schools and also for adults. I think that one example that we can draw on from the U.S. is the way in which cities and states are able to share some of their expertise, especially when you're dealing with immigrant groups that may have a smaller number of people in Canada.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  In terms of softer skills, we understand that beyond the educational credentials that we usually think about when we're assessing immigrants, there are a number of different skill sets that are becoming more and more important for employers. These are things like creative skills, cognitive skills, abstract thinking, problem-solving, evaluating data and that kind of thing, as well as the social or interpersonal skills.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. Chairman and members of the standing committee, my name's Kate Hooper and I'm an associate policy analyst with the Migration Policy Institute. We are an independent, non-partisan think tank with offices in Washington, D.C., and Brussels. MPI analyzes international migration policies and trends around the world.