Main area: Migration
Theme: Labour mobility
Assessment: Non ODA-eligible
Provider country: Canada
Recipient country: Mexico
Implementing agency: International Organization for Migration (IOM)
Budget (CAD million): 0.123
Year(s): 2020-22
Purpose code: 15190
Case number: Migration / 21
IOM British Columbia‑Mexico ethical recruitment project
In this project, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) provided funding to IOM to explore how to best work with Mexico to lay the foundations to establish an ethical recruitment corridor with a Canadian province, the Province of British Columbia (BC) ultimately being selected for this initiative. The proposed corridor would facilitate safe, regular and orderly migration, and the ethical recruitment of migrant workers from Mexico to British Columbia.
Objective: The objective of this project is for IOM to lay the foundations to establish an ethical recruitment corridor, under the IOM's International Recruitment Integrity Systems, linking certified labour recruiters in Mexico with employers in British Columbia, and focusing on promoting migrants' rights and ethical recruitment to reduce fraudulent recruitment practices.
Activities included government meetings and consultations between British Columbia and Mexico; government meetings and consultations in Mexico and in British Columbia regarding the ethical recruitment corridor to Mexico; consultations with employers in British Columbia regarding the ethical recruitment corridor to Mexico; consultations with private recruitment agencies in Mexico; consultations with civil society in Mexico and British Columbia; two-day technical workshop with provincial and federal regulators from Canada and Mexico.
The project activities also contributed with tangible practical inputs to development of the global guidance and practical tools to strengthen frameworks for ethical recruitment, planned under related global projects implemented by IOM.
Project results include:
Deepened awareness and capacity of BC and Mexican governments to effectively address cross-section of issues related to international ethical recruitment;
Raised civil society awareness in BC and Mexico on international recruitment and related risks to migrant workers;
Established contact with a group of employers in BC who are committed to ethical recruitment;
Built awareness and capacity of recruiters in Mexico on ethical international recruitment;
Developed relationships between recruiters in Mexico and employers in British Columbia;
Improved cooperation between BC, Mexico and stakeholders.
This programme is deemed non ODA-eligible. The project does not intend to increase the number of workers from Mexico recruited in Canada and it primarily supports Mexican citizens as they will benefit from an ethical recruitment system and will not be subject to unscrupulous employers or recruiters, or abuses. However, according to Criterion 7, to qualify as ODA, the focus should be on benefits brought to the developing countries themselves, not just their citizens, through e.g. skills transfers to Mexico. In addition, for eligible programmes of labour mobility to the provider country, the migrants’ stay in the provider country needs to be time-limited (up to a maximum term of 4 years) and, should it have a duration longer than twelve months, respond to the recipient country’s request and include a clear return cycle of migrants. For longer project duration, components carried out in the developing country could still be considered ODA-eligible. The British Columbia-Mexico labour mobility project does not meet these requirements. Instead, would the activity aim to foster labour mobility between ODA-eligible countries, it could be considered eligible (see ODA-eligible components of migration case 19).
This work was approved and declassified by the Development Assistance Committee’s Working Party on Development Finance Statistics.
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