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= Canvas ceiling =

The term "canvas ceiling" was coined in 2020 by Lee and colleagues in Unveiling the Canvas Ceiling: A Multidisciplinary Literature Review of Refugee Employment and Workforce Integration, where they address the barriers faced by many refugees, asylum seekers, and forced migrants, in the professional arena, such as institutional frameworks and discriminatory practices.

Since the publication of the journal article, a variety of sectors (including nonprofits, universities, and the government) have discussed the impact of the ceiling as it relates to people of refugee backgrounds and the challenges they face.

The term is a derivative of the glass ceiling, which refers to the more general metaphor used to describe invisible barriers through which women face to climb up the ladder. Similar metaphor includes bamboo ceiling posed on people of Asian descents and their career journeys.

Canvas ceiling is a metaphor used to capture a multitude of barriers affecting refugee workforce integration (cf. glass ceiling and bamboo ceiling). The notion of the ceiling is used to illuminate the limits that a particular social group encounters in their career journey. Canvas ceiling encompasses institutional-, organizational- and individual-level challenges that refugees encounter in accessing and advancing quality employment within the receiving society. Refugee workforce integration is especially difficult to facilitate due to the interplay of various factors across multiple levels (i.e. institutional, organizational and individual-level factors). That is, refugees experience interrelated effects of compound challenges that they must overcome in order to achieve adequately remunerated and commensurate employment with prospects for professional advancement.

These challenges span around: immigration regulations, qualifications accreditation and education, socio-political climate, employers, self-employment related issues, operations and management of support organizations (such as NGOs, social enterprises and community organizations), individual demographics, language, social networks, psychological responses, and motivation of individual refugees.

Refugee workforce integration
See also refugee employment

Refugee workforce integration is understood to be a process in which refugees engage in economic activities (employment or self‐employment) which are commensurate with individuals’ professional goals and previous qualifications and experience, and provide adequate economic security and prospects for career advancement.