New Canada-Italy Youth Mobility Agreement
On November 14, 2022, the Government of Canada announced a new Canada-Italy Youth Mobility Agreement to give young people the opportunity to experience other cultures and form lasting relationships. The new agreement allows Canadian and Italian youth -aged 18 to 35 years old- to work and travel for up to 12 months through the International Experience Canada Program (IEC). Moreover, the new agreement allows them to participate twice in the program, for a total of 24 months.
The IEC gives youth the opportunity to travel and work in Canada for up to 2 years.
According to IRCC’s news release, the program helps youth explore new cultures, languages and societies while developing life skills and improving their job prospects for the future.
I’m very pleased to celebrate this agreement with Italy, which will provide Canadian and Italian youth with more opportunities to live, travel and work abroad for longer than ever before. This will give young people even more opportunity to benefit from the diversity and economic strengths of Italy and Canada, deepening the ties between our 2 countries.”
The Honourable Sean Fraser, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship
Relationship between Canada and Italy
There are more than 1.5 million Canadians of Italian descent. This is one of the largest Italian communities outside of Italy in the world, said IRCC. Also, Canada and Italy are long-standing youth mobility partners. These countries support international work and travel experiences.
The agreement with Italy builds on the countries’ people-to-people ties while improving labour market access for Canadian and Italian youth.
“The cultural ties between our 2 countries are strong, and this Youth Mobility Agreement represents a further strengthening in the relationship between Canada and Italy. With millions of Italian-Canadians in Canada, this will be valuable to the youth in our country and will afford young individuals from both countries to mutually benefit on the exchange.”
Francesco Sorbara, Member of Parliament for Vaughan–Woodbridge
About International Experience Canada Program
Canada supports youth mobility through International Experience Canada (IEC) program. This program allows Canadians to travel and work in partner countries and territories and allow international youth to do the same in Canada.
Since 2008, more than 200,000 Canadians have participated in the IEC Program.
International Experience Canada (IEC) has 3 different categories available: working holiday; international co-op; and young professionals. To explore this categories, please visit the following article:
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