Olivia Smith is an expert on labour migration and human trafficking. She has been working in the field for the last 10 years in various international organizations. She served as a consultant for the American Bar Association and the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, where she focused on migration and human trafficking in the Caribbean. Upon moving to Canada, she shifted her lens to the role of recruitment agencies in the exploitation of labour. Olivia has been the Max Bell School of Public Policy's McConnell Visiting Scholar for 2022-2024. Olivia has been conducting research in her fields and has published MAX Policy articles on labour trafficking in Canada and human traffickers and the digital divide. During the 2022-23 academic year, Olivia designed and taught a case study on human trafficking which explores the international and national legal frameworks governing human trafficking. She also was a Policy Lab coach for the Bank of Canada team exploring social policy implications for a "less-cash" society and its potential impacts on different population groups.
In this interview, the Max Bell School spoke with Olivia about her research in prior learning assessment as a way to fast track the inclusion of migrant workers into the labour market and how Canada can capitalize on the pre-existing labour force.
