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This paper seeks to identify the main factors why skilled workers migrate to France and to Switzerland and whether their relative role changed when the countries moved from a limiting immigration policy to free mobility. Not surprisingly, the introduction of free mobility with only some source countries created a shift in the distribution of origins of skilled immigrants toward nationals from countries with an agreement. This is especially the case for countries with a common border with France and Switzerland and also for Portugal. Yet the shift varies across skill degrees and appears related to how France and Switzerland were able to compete for such immigrants. In particular, a rising proportion of highly skilled foreign immigrants to Switzerland come from high income countries while those going to France come from developing countries with no free mobility agreement. As expected free mobility enhances the role of push and pull factors. However, within the skilled worker categories, groups with different skill intensities reacted differently. Generally, free mobility changed permanently the dynamics of the inflow of highly skilled workers (growth effect) while it induces only a temporary effect for semi-skilled workers (level effect). Yet not all factors changed and highly-skilled workers became particularly sensitive to relative income with free mobility. This may be the reason why France seems to have more difficulties attracting highly skilled workers than Switzerland. Moreover, the highly skilled are not sensitive to the presence of a cultural network whether they can move freely or not unlike their less skilled counterparts whose reliance on the presence of a culturally alike community is further enhanced with free mobility.

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The goal of a temporary foreign worker (TFW) program is to accommodate shortages of labour that otherwise would cause wages to rise substantially or possibly stop production because of the difficulty of finding resident workers. Over the past decade, the Canadian government relaxed several of the conditions to obtain a Labour Market Opinion (LMO), an application to hire TFWs proving that there exist labour shortages that domestic workers cannot fill. In 2013, following a couple of cases that might have involved losses of job opportunities for Canadian residents, the government reversed some of these changes. This paper examines two questions raised by these modifications. Firstly, did easier access to TFWs adversely affect resident workers' employment? Secondly, if so, are the recent changes adequate or could other policy changes make Canada's TFW program more efficient?

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In the past decade, Canadian immigration policy experienced a shift towards the expansion of the temporary foreign worker (TFW) program because of a perceived necessity to prevent economic slow down in times of labour shortages. Conditions about hiring TFWs were imposed on employers to avoid abuses that developed in the past with such programs. However, it appears that a majority of construction workers in Metro Vancouver do not trust these conditions work. Skilled workers believe TFWs lower their wage and unskilled workers believe, in addition, that they make it harder to get a job. Also a majority of workers do not believe the program is necessary to fill vacancies. Hence, there appears to be a deep mistrust in the functioning of the program. Active monitoring of the conditions imposed on employers who hire TFWs would greatly improve the perception resident workers have about the program and its acceptability.

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