Migratory transitions are periods of uncertainty with learning opportunities and demands. One challenge facing adult migrants is the recognition of prior training and work experience. However, even when recognition of prior learning succeeds, challenges to labour market access remain through exclusionary practices. Drawing on empirical research conducted in Canada, this paper explores the requirement to possess Canadian Experience (CE) as one such challenge: How do people deal with the oblique and circular challenge of possessing CE to find work in Canada? Newcomers are expected to possess CE to gain full labour market access. It represents a canon of tacit knowledge to be acquired (Sakamoto et al. 2010). Whereas the exclusionary effects of CE have been well-documented, less is known about how individuals learn to engage with CE. This paper thus aims to elucidate this aspect of learning during transitions into new work contexts and to draw conclusions for policy and practice. To study learning during life course transitions, I adopt a doing transitions framework which asserts “that transitions do not simply exist but are constantly constituted by practices” (Walther et al. 2020:5). Accordingly, I draw on a doing migration perspective which views migration as the result of social practices that “turn mobile (and often also immobile) individuals into ‘migrants’” (Amelina, 2020). Against this conceptual backdrop, I conducted biographical-narrative interviews with 20 adults who moved to Canada as ‘skilled migrants.’ Aimed to investigate how individuals learn during migration, the data have been analyzed within a grounded theory framework using the documentary method (Bohnsack, 2014). I identified three modes of engaging with CE: Replay and readjust is marked by repeated setbacks, frustrations, and – seemingly – resignation. Reset and move forward is marked by a lowering of aspirations and an alignment of future life course decisions with the need to acquire CE. Research and pro-act is characterized by excelling at knowing the rules and playing the game. The analysis of the engagement with challenges point to different approaches to learning and its social embeddedness. These findings have relevance for theorizing learning and build on considerations about subjective learning theories (Säljö, 2021).

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