Dr. Mohammad Ferdosi
A Study of Low-Income Labour Market Participation in Ontario
Dr. Mohammad Ferdosi has been awarded the inaugural Tamura Sugiman Postdoctoral Fellowship in Critical Policy Studies (formerly known as the Ritsuko Sugiman Postdoctoral Fellowship). He completed his PhD in Political Science Comparative Public Policy at McMaster University in 2022, building upon a foundation in Sociology and Economics—the three main disciplines underpinning the study of political economy.
Dr. Ferdosi primarily researches public policies, including labour legislation and welfare programs, using mixed methods approaches. He has contributed to over 40 research publications and has received 10 research grants. In collaboration with UNESCO's Inclusive Policy Lab and the International Labour Organization, he has served as a policy specialist, sharing his expertise and contributing to publications and discussions on an international scale.
Currently, his postdoctoral research focuses on welfare policies such as Ontario's evolving social assistance system and the Ontario Basic Income Pilot. He employs firsthand accounts from recipients of these programs to gather lived-experience-centric data about how these policies assist low-income job-seeking individuals in achieving their employment, educational, or training goals. This work is driven by a commitment to fostering positive change grounded in empirical evidence. Dr. Ferdosi's postdoctoral research is supervised by Bryan Evans from the Department of Politics and Public Administration.
About the projects
Primary project: Investigating the effectiveness of Ontario's new 'Integrated Employment Services' for low-income job-seeking recipients
Dr. Mohammad Ferdosi oversees two interrelated research projects on low-income labour market participation in Ontario. The primary project examines the impacts of Ontario’s changing social assistance system on access to government services, employment opportunities, and living conditions for low-income Ontarians. The project centers on the Ontario government's transformation of the province's social assistance and employment services to "make them more efficient, more streamlined, and outcomes focused." As described by the government (external link) , "As part of Integrated Employment Services (formerly Employment Services Transformation), a new service delivery model will integrate social assistance employment services, as well as other government employment services into Employment Ontario. This new service delivery model will be more responsive to the needs of job seekers, businesses and local communities."
Addressing a significant knowledge gap about this new policy, Dr. Ferdosi's primary project, which has been awarded a SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant, involves surveying and interviewing low-income job seekers who are utilizing the new Integrated Employment Services to gather first-hand accounts about how the new system is working for them. As the lead applicant of the grant and principal investigator, Dr. Ferdosi collaborates with co-applicants and co-investigators Dr. Bryan Evans from TMU's Department of Politics and Public Administration, and Dr. Peter Graefe (external link) from McMaster University’s Department of Political Science.
Together, they work closely with the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction (external link) , the community partner for this research, to generate empirical insights that will aid researchers, community organizations, government institutions, and policymakers in understanding Ontario’s evolving employment services landscape from the perspective of social assistance recipients. This partnership supports the Roundtable’s commitment to evidence-based advocacy and policy development, focusing on the lived experiences of marginalized groups with intersecting identities to inform positive changes in social assistance and labour markets.
Secondary project: Evaluating the employment and educational experiences of low-income recipients in Ontario’s Basic Income Pilot
Dr. Ferdosi’s separate yet interrelated project focuses on examining the experiences of low-income Ontarians who were participants in the Ontario Basic Income Pilot (external link) before its premature termination in 2019. Addressing another significant gap in knowledge, his research involves in-depth interviews with former basic income recipients from the pilot's three sites: Hamilton-Brantford, Thunder Bay, and Lindsay. These discussions aim to understand their employment and educational experiences and outcomes during and after the pilot, while also considering the effects of the pilot's premature cancellation.
Collaborating on this project are co-researchers Dr. Tom McDowell from TMU's Department of Politics and Public Administration and Dr. Peter Graefe (external link) from McMaster University's Department of Political Science. The Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction (external link) serves as their community partner in this research. This project has been supported by a SSHRC Council Explore Grant at McMaster University, a SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant at TMU, and the Algoma University Research Fund.
Dr. Ferdosi will bring together his two separate projects on distinct policy frameworks — Ontario's Basic Income Pilot and Ontario's Integrated Employment Services — in a future publication. This comparative analysis will examine the experiences of basic income recipients with respect to work and education, contrasting them with those engaged with the new social assistance system. The comparison will seek to illuminate the differential impacts that these policy environments have on the autonomy, decision-making, and outcomes of low-income job seekers. Insights gained will enhance our understanding of the varying effectiveness of social support structures, providing valuable data to inform future policy decisions.