Showing posts with label Minister of Citizenship and Immigration (Canada). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Minister of Citizenship and Immigration (Canada). Show all posts

KENNEY: SKILLED CANADIAN IMMIGRANTS WITH JOBS OFFERS JUMP TO FRONT OF QUEUE


Source: MuchmorCanada.
As more than a million people wait in the immigration queue, Canada’s Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has said that applicants with experience in key occupations and those with job offers from Canadian employers will go to the front of the line.
Currently, about 30% of Canadian immigrants are economic migrants selected on the basis of their necessary skills or an arranged employment offer. Kenney recently confirmed that while immigration levels won’t jump drastically, immigration had a role to play in off-setting the country’s ageing population and skills shortages. Today, about 70% of Canada’s 34.1 million population is of working age – a figure expected drop to 60% within 25 years.

Kenney said federal government would continue to recognise the importance of the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) to help provinces and territories obtain the skilled migrants they need to fill labour shortages. Under the scheme, provinces can choose to sponsor migrants whose skills, education and work experience will have an immediate economic impact.
The top three provincial nominees are the booming oil and gas provinces of Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan. Last year, Canada accepted 38,428 provincial/territory nominees, including more than 8,600 temporary foreign workers who later became permanent residents.
Canada will accept a record of 40,000 provincial nominee immigrants in 2011 – five times more than Canada’s PNP intake for 2005. The Citizenship and Immigration Department is currently conducting a series of nation-wide consulations about immigration levels and the type of migrants it should accept into the country.

CIC: COME TO CANADA WIZARD WORKING ITS MAGIC

Prospective immigrants and visitors to Canada now have a new interactive web tool at their fingertips to help them determine if they are eligible to come to Canada. Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney announced today the launch of the Come to Canada Wizard.
“We understand that our application processes can be complex, but this new tool is a major service improvement,” said Minister Kenney. “The Wizard will make it easier for potential immigrants and visitors to navigate the application process.”
“The Wizard should also reduce applicants’ reliance on immigration consultants and hopefully will make the Department more efficient by decreasing calls to our Call Centre,” Minister Kenney added.
The Wizard simplifies the application process by matching applicants with the federal immigration option that best suits their specific circumstances. The Wizard does this by asking applicants a series of questions and, based on the answers, it provides the best options for them.
The Wizard leads applicants to a results page that breaks down the application steps and provides instructions and forms.
To view the Wizard, go to www.cic.gc.ca/cometocanada.

Immigrants need cash in hand and have to be prepared for tradeoffs, sacrifices

MONTREAL - Newcomers to Canada, get ready: being mentally prepared to make sacrifices or tradeoffs when you arrive on these shores is very important, immigrants who have already made the jump told a recent Royal Bank poll.
The survey found that 58 per cent of Chinese and South Asian immigrants who responded named emotional preparedness as the key for newcomers adjusting to life in Canada.
A big part of that mental preparation is also the key for meeting financial challenges that can await immigrants, according to one recent arrival.
"When anybody comes here, I think the requirement is that they must have $15,000 for immediate expenses," said Ash Ghose, who came from India in 2004 and works in insurance at RBC (TSX:RY) in Toronto.
"The first two or three months are fine, but if you do not have any source of income coming in after four or five months then the panic sets in."
Ghose, who trained as a mechanical engineer but notes that "all my life I have been a salesperson," said he sold off everything he owned in India and came over with two suitcases and some paintings.
"I built everything from scratch here, but that is something one has to be mentally prepared for."
The RBC poll also found that 47 per cent of immigrants surveyed conducted online research to understand more about life in Canada.
Judy Sillito of the Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers said any research that can be done before arriving is helpful, but added that immigrants need an "openness to the unknown." She also said immigrants aren't always prepared for the sticker shock of living in Canada.
"They get here and find out it's not so easy to make a lot of money and have enough to live on, much less send a lot home," said Sillito.
"There's absolutely no way to explain that to someone who hasn't been in Canada."
She said another surprise for immigrants is finding out how much time new Canadians can spend at work.
"When you come to a new country and you have to work and day job and a night job and do weekend work, it really takes a toll on the family," said Sillito, whose organization serves 10,000 immigrants a year.
Mikal Skuterud of the University of Waterloo said immigrants tend to be older and much more educated than Canadian-born workers, but they often have to take jobs that pay less than their education would imply they should earn.
"Their unemployment rates are not that different from Canadian-born workers," said Skuterud, assistant professor in the university's department of economics.
"They do get jobs and they get jobs quite quickly but they're not very good jobs. They're what immigrants refer to as 'survival jobs.' They appear to get stuck in these jobs. They have a very low propensity to move out of these jobs and get into the track or career they were trained for."
Statistics Canada's 2006 census found that a recent male immigrant with a university degree earned $30,332 yearly, versus $44,545 for a Canadian-born man with a degree.
Nick Noorani, a motivational speaker and consultant who helps immigrants integrate, said it's essential to have the proper language skills, especially on the job. If you're an immigrant and a sales manager, you need to have the same language skills as a Canadian-born sales manager, he said.
Immigrants need to consider what other skills they have to find work, he said, adding his background was in advertising but he turned to publishing when he came to Canada.
"You need to have a Plan B," said Noorani, chief executive of Destination Canada Information Inc.
"When we come here as immigrants we are so focused on, 'This is what I used to do and I want to continue doing only that.' That leads to a problem."

Will Canadian Retirees Be Supported By Future Immigrants?

The flags of Canada and the United States of A...Image via Wikipedia
In a report released by Schroder Investment Management North America Inc on Thursday, July 21, two authors revealed that Canada will be facing a “baby bust” as its aging population goes into retirement.
In the report, co-authored by Virginie Maisonneuve and Katherine Davidson, the two authors describe how the future GDP of Canada will not be able to support the aging population unless significant changes take place in the labor market.
Specifically, the authors point out that the only way Canada will be able to survive the lower GDP growth and surge in retiring baby boomers will be “to increase immigration or raise participation rates, especially of older workers.”
The authors point out that an increase in immigration will not solve all of the Country’s financial problems caused by the effects of an aging population.
In addition to immigration changes, the country will still need to increase productivity in order to support the high costs of having an aging population. The situation threatens Canada’s reputation for “superior health status”.

Canada and the Aging Population

The report also points out that:
–> From 2020 onward, the country’s population growth is going to exclusively come from immigration. The report states that there will be entire segments of the Canadian economy that will be completely dependent upon foreign workers.
–> With such an older population, the financial and healthcare sectors of the economy will encompass a larger share of the country’s GDP. The report predicts that education, manufacturing, construction and retail will all decrease.
Why would an investment firm care about Canada’s aging population? Well, the report was released as a way to gauge what the future will look like in the Canadian marketplace, and where investment opportunities will exist.
Virginie Maisonneuve explains:

Demographic analysis is part of a coherent macroeconomic and thematic road map that serves as a framework to our stock analysis and selection. Many of our current holdings listed in Canada are resource companies. They will need to adapt to the demographic challenges that we have highlighted in this report in order to ensure success and shareholder value.”
The authors also seem to take pleasure in pointing out a comparison between Canada’s elderly pension system vs. that of the United States.  The report points out that Canada is fiscally responsible enough to have already started strategically positioning resources and making the necessary changes to meet this future financial challenge.
It also points out that Canada’s pension plan is expected to be solvent by 2050…in direct contrast to the United States Social Security system, which many experts believe will start experiencing financial shortfalls in 2016, and complete insolvency by 2039.
Of the report out of Schroder Investment is at all accurate, then elderly Canadian citizens are likely going to be dependent upon foreign workers to serve their needs. And, if the U.S. social security crisis does really come to fruition, then many of those immigrant workers will probably consist of elderly Americans, trying to survive the collapse of the U.S. Social Security system.

Immigration backlog a major challenge

Jason KenneyImage by mostlyconservative via Flickr
1
MONTREAL - Canada could soon stop accepting applications for immigration in an attempt to clear the backlog of more than a million people currently awaiting processing around the world, Federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Friday.
In Montreal to hold consultations on how many immigrants should be accepted into Canada per year - and just as importantly what kind of immigrants - Kenney told an audience at the Armenian Community Centre that clearing the huge backlog is one of the main challenges faced by his department as it plans for the years ahead.
"There's an unlimited number of people who want to come to Canada," Kenney said, adding that about 254,000 would be accepted this year, down from 281,000 in 2010.
"We used to have hundreds of thousands of applications more than we could process, and it's stupid and unfair to make people wait seven, eight, nine years for their application to be even looked at. That's the rationale for limiting the number of new applications."
Two years ago, Parliament modified immigration laws to give the minister the authority to place a cap on applications, and this year Kenney has so far chosen to limit the number accepted in the Federal Skilled Worker program, for example, to 10,000. He emphasized, however, that Canada would still be accepting 65,000 skilled workers into the country, most of them chosen out of the backlog of applications.
It remains to be seen which other categories may be capped, and at what level.
Stakeholder consultations across the country on the right "mix" or "balance" of immigrants for Canada began two weeks ago, with employers' associations, immigration lawyers, refugee advocates and other interested parties. Friday's session
in Montreal was postponed until October, however. Public consultations will be held online starting in August.
Apart from dealing with the backlog, Kenney said he is looking for solutions on how to deal with an impending labour shortage as the population ages, without overburdening Canada's housing, health care and education systems with too many newcomers.
Janet Dench of the Canadian Council for Refugees worries the minister will place too much emphasis on economic immigrants at the expense of refugees.
More than 35,000 refugees - government-assisted and privately sponsored - are already on the waiting list to come to Canada, and the numbers, especially in Africa, are growing day by day.
Kenney said he has recently added resources to deal with the huge backlog at the Nairobi mission, which serves 18 countries in East Africa, most of them in conflict, and now also struck by famine.
But he also put a cap on the number of privately sponsored refugee applications out of the Nairobi office, Dench said.


Read more:http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Immigration+backlog+major+challenge/5148208/story.html#ixzz1Sy3A8u3q

Provincial Nominee Program a success, admission to increase five folds, says Kenney

Source: Canadianimmigrant.ca


Minister Jason Kenney speaks to meida on the success of provincial nominee program after public consultations in Toronto, July 20.
Provinces and territories are on track this year to welcome a record number of immigrants selected under their own nominee programs, says Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney.
“Our government recognizes the importance of nominee programs in spreading out the benefits of immigration around the country,” he said addressing the Vancouver Board of Trade, recently. “That is why we plan to admit about 40,000 immigrants in the provincial nominee category in 2011, five times more than the 8,000 welcomed in 2005. The previous high was 36,428 provincial nominees in 2010.”
Provincial nominee programs are being discussed as part of this month’s cross-Canada consultations on immigration levels and mix.
In addition, a comprehensive evaluation of the provincial nominee programs is underway, the ministry says. “With the knowledge gained through each of these processes, CIC will be able to work with provincial and territorial partners on a longer-term approach to levels planning.”
Traditionally, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver have attracted a disproportionate share of skilled immigrants coming to Canada, a press release said, however noting that the top three provinces for provincial nominees are Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan. Thanks in large part to the provincial or territorial nominee programs, 26 per cent of economic immigrants accepted as permanent residents of Canada are now destined for provinces or territories other than Ontario, British Columbia or Quebec, compared to just 11 per cent in 1997.
“We understand the desire of provinces and territories to identify their own economic immigrants and that is why we have continued to increase our projected admissions for nominees each year,” noted Minister Kenney. “At the same time, we are committed to working with our provincial and territorial counterparts to continue to improve the program design, integrity, selection standards and management of the nominee programs.”
Through PNP, applications are processed within 12 months on average.

VISA IMPROVEMENTS MAKE IT EASIER TO VISIT

Source: MuchmorCanada
Improvements to make it easier to visit Canada are coming soon, announced the Honourable Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism. A new ten-year multiple-entry visa will make applying more efficient for applicants and better use government resources.
“More applications and higher expectations mean that Citizenship and Immigration Canada needs a more responsive and flexible processing system,” said Minister Kenney.  “To achieve that, the Department is providing applicants and staff with the right tools to deliver on those expectations.”
Citizens of certain countries require a visa to come to Canada temporarily. Currently, the maximum validity period of a multiple-entry visa is five years. However, increasingly, countries are issuing passports which are valid for ten years. In light of this, CIC is changing its policy for visa issuance. Where applicants apply for multiple-entry visas, they may now be issued to the maximum validity according to the length of the passport validity (up to ten years, minus one month).
This practice, already recommended for parents and grandparents with sponsorships in process, may now be extended to other clientele, such as business visitors.
As Canada is becoming a preferred destination for visitors and business travellers alike, CIC continues to balance the need to facilitate this travel while responsibly managing our borders. We will increasingly focus attention on applications with the greatest potential for threat and vulnerability, while streamlining low risk cases. Further limitations on validity may apply on a case-by-case basis.
The ten-year visa will be an option available to more low-risk travellers who are citizens of visa-required countries. As of Monday, the technical changes needed to issue it were in place.

Asylum backlog will stay despite reform

Photo of Tabaret Hall with the Desmarais Build...Image via Wikipedia
Published On Tue Jul 19 2011
Nicholas Keung Immigration Reporter
Ottawa’s plan to fast-track the refugee system could be a “gift” for bogus asylum seekers in the backlog because they will be on the backburner — and not fall under new regulations — when new refugee reform takes effect in December.
The federal government is expected to roll out the new refugee regulations December 1, which aim to assess asylum claims, hear appeals and boot out failed claimants within a year.
However, claims filed under the new law are the priorities and must be processed within legislated time frames; the 41,500 backlogged cases are not.
“The Immigration and Refugee Board will have a significant number of ‘legacy’ cases in the inventory when the Balanced Refugee Reform Act comes into force,” said the board’s recently published 2011/12 planning report. “The IRB will not have the resources to resolve these cases.”
Critics said it is irresponsible for the government to implement a new system without a transition plan such as the “semi-amnesty” program implemented to remove a backlog before the launch of the refugee board in 1989.
“When you start a new ferry, you are not going to put 40,000 people on it. It would sink the boat,” warned Peter Showler, former chair of the refugee board, now director of the University of Ottawa’s Refugee Forum.
Not only do genuine claimants suffer, the long wait time can benefit bogus refugees, said Toronto refugee lawyer Max Berger.
“It will be a gift for claimants with fabricated stories because now they can wait to stay in Canada for as long as possible,” Berger said.
Currently, asylum seekers arriving at the border wait 22 months for an initial decision by the refugee board. If rejected, they can appeal to the federal court and apply for pre-removal risk assessments, processes that take months, if not years.
As of April, there are 47,300 claims in backlog, down from 62,000 in 2009, when the Conservative government delayed appointing new asylum adjudicators.
Ottawa has since filled the refugee board and hired 12 additional adjudicators to deal with the backlog. It is not known when the backlog will be cleared.
“We want to see what’d actually happen under the new system rather than making assumptions and projections, which are a guessing game,” Immigration Minister Jason Kenney told the Star Monday.
“We are focused on the new system that would hopefully deter bogus claimants from clogging up the system and provide protection to bona fide refugees. It’s our hope that by deterring false claimants in the future that we will be able to continue reducing the backlog.”
In 1988, just before the refugee board was launched, the then Conservative government implemented a special one-hearing process to fast track a refugee backlog of 95,000 by lowering the bar of the examination. The backlog took four years to clear despite a $179 million price tag.
Kenney has already ruled out a similar humanitarian program.
“A complete amnesty is inappropriate, but it is reasonable to do some form of humanitarian program for those who are well established and have been here for a long time because of the failure and inefficiency of the current system,” said University of Ottawa’s Showler.
Under the reform, claims will be heard initially by civil servants, who must render decisions within 60 days for claimants from so-called “safe” countries and 90 days for others.

Canada's immigration levels won't jump drastically, Kenney says

Canada's Immigration Minister Jason Kenney listens to a question while speaking to journalists in the foyer of the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa March 7, 2011. Canada needs more immigrants to sustain its economic growth but the Conservative government won't significantly increase immigration levels because Canadians don't want too many newcomers and the federal government can't afford to integrate them either, Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says.

Canada's Immigration Minister Jason Kenney listens to a question while speaking to journalists in the foyer of the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa March 7, 2011. Canada needs more immigrants to sustain its economic growth but the Conservative government won't significantly increase immigration levels because Canadians don't want too many newcomers and the federal government can't afford to integrate them either, Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says.

Photograph by: Chris Wattie, Reuters

Canada needs more immigrants to sustain its economic growth but the Conservative government won't significantly increase immigration levels because Canadians don't want too many newcomers and the federal government can't afford to integrate them either, Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says.
Canada faces a labour shortage and needs immigrants to offset the balance of an aging population, Kenney is expected to tell the Vancouver Board of Trade Tuesday.
"Several studies have concluded that we would have to quadruple immigration levels from 250,000 to more than one million annually in order to maintain the (working) age ratio in the Canadian population. But that's not going to happen," he is to say, according to his speaking notes.
"We do not have the resources or ability to integrate a million new immigrants every year. We can't teach them English or French. We can't flood our taxpayer-funded services like health care and public education. We don't put such high pressure on housing and real estate markets," Kenney explains.
"We must also be very careful not to jeopardize the generally very positive and welcoming attitude toward immigration and immigrants that Canada enjoys," he later adds.
Only 30 per cent of Canadian immigrants are economic migrants, people selected on the basis of their necessary skills or arranged employment offer, Kenney notes. Another 30 per cent are the spouses or dependents of these individuals and 26 per cent are immigrants from family class while 14 per cent are refugees.
"People want to come to Canada because we are a model for the world. We can't, however, take all who want to come. There is a limit," Kenney says.
The Citizenship and Immigration Department is currently consulting with Canadians about amount and the types of people it should accept into the country.
Faced with a backlog of more than a million people in the immigration queue, Kenney says he has issued ministerial instructions to put applicants with experience in key occupations and those with job offers from Canadian employers in front of the line.
"We have enough parents and grandparent applicants for seven years, and this problem is getting worse," the minister says.
Kenney is also expected to announce that the federal government will increase the number of provincial nominees — immigrants that provinces themselves select based on their own economic needs — from approximately 36,000 to 40,000.
araj@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/althiaraj


Read more:http://www.canada.com/Canada+immigration+levels+jump+drastically+Kenney+says/5126862/story.html#ixzz1Sbent8vA



Canada to Welcome Record Number of Immigrants Under Provincial Nominee Program


VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - July 19, 2011) - Provinces and territories are on track this year to welcome a record number of immigrants selected under their own nominee programs.
In a speech to the Vancouver Board of Trade, Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, discussed the rapid growth in provincial nominee programs in recent years.
"Our government recognizes the importance of nominee programs in spreading out the benefits of immigration around the country," said Minister Kenney. "That is why we plan to admit about 40,000 immigrants in the provincial nominee category in 2011, five times more than the 8,000 welcomed in 2005. The previous high was 36,428 provincial nominees in 2010."
Traditionally, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver have attracted a disproportionate share of skilled immigrants coming to Canada. However, the top three provinces for provincial nominees are Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan. Thanks in large part to the provincial/territorial nominee programs, 26% of economic immigrants accepted as permanent residents of Canada are now destined for provinces or territories other than Ontario, British Columbia or Quebec, compared to just 11% in 1997.
"We understand the desire of provinces and territories to identify their own economic immigrants and that is why we have continued to increase our projected admissions for nominees each year," noted Minister Kenney. "At the same time, we are committed to working with our provincial and territorial counterparts to continue to improve the program design, integrity, selection standards and management of the nominee programs."
The provincial nominee program is also a good way to get workers in quickly. Applications are processed within 12 months on average, as are federal skilled worker applications under recent ministerial instructions.
Provincial nominee programs are being discussed as part of this month's cross-Canada consultations on immigration levels and mix. In addition, a comprehensive evaluation of the provincial nominee programs is underway. With the knowledge gained through each of these processes, CIC will be able to work with provincial and territorial partners on a longer-term approach to levels planning.
Follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/CitImmCanada

Ottawa urged to boost immigration, ease labour crunch

With another boom just around the corner, it's time to shift away from reliance on temporary foreign workers and concentrate on immigration, says Thomas Lukaszuk, Alberta's minister of immigration and employment.

With another boom just around the corner, it's time to shift away from reliance on temporary foreign workers and concentrate on immigration, says Thomas Lukaszuk, Alberta's minister of immigration and employment.

Photograph by: Ted Jacob, Calgary Herald, Calgary Herald

With another boom just around the corner, it's time to shift away from reliance on temporary foreign workers and concentrate on immigration, says Thomas Lukaszuk, Alberta's minister of immigration and employment.
Lukaszuk is ready to push the federal government to allow more immigrants from among the 30,000 temporary workers now in the province, offering them a chance to settle with their families.
Employers facing labour shortages would also be happy because they could keep workers they spent the past few years training, he said.
Lukaszuk's first priority is to make sure Canadians in under-employed groups, such as First Nations and the disabled, are "fully engaged" in the workforce.
"But at the end of the day, even if we naively think we will get 100 per cent employment in those groups, we will still be short of workers," he said.
Last year, Lukaszuk ordered a review of the temporary working program by parliamentary assistant Teresa Woo Paw. Her report, assessing the effectiveness of the program, will be released in a month.
Lukaszuk hopes to garner support on the issue from his provincial counterparts in preparation for a ministers' meeting this fall.
"The federal government took in 280,000 new immigrants this year, the highest number ever, and that's great. But that record intake didn't make a dent in the 360,000 temporary workers in the country."
Since that number has been steady in recent years, it's clear the demand for workers isn't just short-term, he said.
At the height of the boom in 2006, Alberta had more than 60,000 temporary foreign workers - the highest per capita of any province. Many worked on oilsands projects but a lot of them left when the economic downturn hit in December 2008.
Recent federal government legislation has made the temporary foreign worker program less attractive Lukaszuk said.
Under the new rules, temporary foreign workers can spend a maximum of four years in Canada, and then must leave for four years before re-applying for another four-year term. Previously, a permit issued for two years was renewable several times if the employer could prove the worker was needed.
The new four-year rule means well-trained workers will leave Alberta to go to other industrialized countries, not back home to the Philippines or Ukraine, Lukaszuk said.


Read more:http://www.vancouversun.com/Ottawa+urged+boost+immigration+ease+labour+crunch/5120551/story.html#ixzz1SVdqsGu1

Feds asking tough questions about the future of immigration

MP Jason Kenney of the Conservative Party fiel...Image via WikipediaFederal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is asking some pretty tough questions about the future of Canada’s immigration program.

On July 12, he launched a national consultation in Calgary on the levels and mix of immigrants that Canada should be accepting in the coming years. He will travel to meet stakeholders in Vancouver on July 18, in Toronto on July 20, and in Montreal on July 22.

The bbackgrounder issued online by Citizenship and Immigration Canada reveals a department anxious to address big questions but seemingly constrained by the need to obtain public approval.

The department wants input on three major questions:


  • How many people should we let in each year as permanent residents?
  • What should the mix be?
  • How do we ensure a fair and efficient system?

The department acknowledges that Canada has an “aging population,” that we are experiencing “fertility rates below replacement values,” and that Canada’s labour force is experiencing “slowing” growth. Aging baby boomers are creating a bulge in Canada’s retirement rates, which raises the question of who will be there to pay the taxes to cover the costs of their care.

CIC describes the dilemma this way: “Although increasing levels would be one way to mitigate some of these pressures, it would require broad buy-in from the public and additional funding. Is that likely?”

It is clear from this statement that the department assumes increased levels of immigration will mean the need for extra tax dollars. In 2011-12, more than $250 million will be spent on settling immigrants destined to Quebec and another $600 million plus will be spent on those destined elsewhere in the country. It is clear that if we are to increase levels under a Tory majority government, we must either pick “better” immigrants -- those who need less financial support to get on their feet -- or we..we must simply decide to be more tight-fisted with our tax dollars.

The department admits that its flagship Federal Skilled Worker program faltered in the 1990s and early 2000s when the professionals it selected found “very low incomes” upon arrival in Canada. Even with a significant overhaul of the program, a recent study shows that after a full three years after arrival, 11 per cent of such immigrants remained unemployed.

The current mix of immigrants includes 60 per cent in the Economic Class, 26 per cent in the Family Class, and 14 per cent in the Refugee and Humanitarian Classes. The department is asking if this is the right mix. At present, it is keeping federal entrepreneurs at bay with a temporary moratorium imposed on June 24. It has also imposed a cap of 700 applications in the Federal Investor Program and, to boot, has doubled its investment and net worth requirements. As well, it is discouraging parents and grandparents from applying by making them wait in lines that are five to eight years long

Finally, what to do about the huge backlog of applications waiting to be processed? It continues to climb with a whopping 1,003,012 now in the queue.

I am glad the minister and his officials are asking these questions. It’s good to ask big questions, but you have to give people sufficient time and opportunity to answer them and be brave enough to take the advice, whatever it might be, if it’s in the national interest to do so.
Guidy Mamann, J.D. practices law in Toronto at Mamann Sandaluk LLP and is certified by the Law Society of Upper Canada as an immigration specialist. For more information, visit www.migrationlaw.com or email metro@migrationlaw.com

Immigration to Canada drops by 25 per cent

View of Ryerson main buildingImage via Wikipedia
Nicholas Keung Immigration Reporter
Canada let 25 per cent fewer immigrants into the country in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period in 2010, raising concerns the Conservative government is embarking on a bold plan to restrict the country’s immigration levels.
The number of permanent resident visas issued by Citizenship and Immigration Canada between January and March fell from 84,083 in 2010 to 63,224 this year, according to figures obtained by the Star.
The latest department numbers show a decline across the board, with visas for skilled workers down 28 per cent, family-sponsored relatives down 14 per cent, and refugees dropping by 25 per cent.
The significant drop in visas comes on the eve of public consultations Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is holding on the country’s immigration levels and classes of people that should be allowed in. The first meeting was held in Calgary last week, and another is scheduled in Toronto Wednesday.
“It’s a very sharp decline,” said Myer Siemiatycki, professor of politics and public administration at Ryerson University, referring to the visas granted. “It begs the question: What is going on here?
“Has the government decided on the outset that they want fewer admissions? Is the tap being closed tighter?”
In the months leading up to the May 2 federal election, the Conservatives touted 2010 as a banner year in immigration, welcoming 280,000 permanent residents, the highest in 50 years. In 2009, approximately 265,000 immigrants were granted permanent status.
Commenting on this year’s quarterly figures, immigration officials say it is unfair to use the 2010 numbers as a benchmark since it was a record year in granting permanent visas.
“The department is confident that irrespective of lower visas/authorizations issuance and admissions in the first quarter, it will meet its annual target of visas,” immigration spokesperson Nancy Caron wrote in an email to the Star.
Over the last 15 years, Canada’s annual immigration levels have remained around 250,000, about 0.8 per cent of the population.
The Conservative government has announced it intends slashing $4 billion in annual spending from the federal budget, raising fears of further cuts to the immigration system. More than $50 million was slashed this year in settlement services.
“The success (of immigration) is determined by the resources. This government has been cutting resources and a number of provinces have,” said New Democrat immigration critic Don Davies.
“In turn, it is going to put pressure on the number of immigrants we can appropriately absorb.”
Immigration lawyers say fewer permanent visas could mean bigger backlogs, especially for family sponsorships where there is no cap on applications like there is for skilled workers and investors.
“The real problem with backlogs are the parents . . . The math says people will die before seeing a visa,” said immigration lawyer and analyst Richard Kurland. “That is the major challenge to Canada’s immigration system today.”
Immigration lawyer Mario Bellissimo said he would not be surprised if the minister brings in a new law to cap family sponsorship applications. Since 2006, the number of visas for sponsored relatives and refugees has declined, while visas for workers have steadily increased.
“The (immigration) minister has the authority to decide who can come to Canada,” he said. “If we get more applications than we can process, we’re going to return them.”
Since 2008, the federal government has made numerous changes to its immigration program in an effort to eliminate backlogs and process applications in a more timely fashion. It counts on capping the number of immigration applications it accepts for processing.
A department backgrounder for the upcoming consultations, which are by invitation only, suggests while increasing immigration may be one way to solve the growing demand, “there are clearly a number of pressures that make trade-offs inevitable.”
With an aging population, “immigration levels will need to be raised to 350,000 annually to support Canada’s economic growth,” said Anne Golden, president and CEO of the Conference Board of Canada.
Ernst & Young business immigration lawyer Batia Stein said the biggest percentage drop in early 2011 comes in the federal skilled worker and Canada experience programs, which are designed to usher in immigrants most likely to succeed in the job market.
“If our goal is to attract global talent and combat our aging population, there’s some room there to do that,” she said.
Ryerson’s Siemiatycki said Canada has a capacity to take in as many as 450,000 immigrants a year by including the 200,000 temporary foreign workers that it lets in to fill labour market needs on a perennial basis.
According to the government’s consultation backgrounder, Canada would have to increase immigration to nearly 4 per cent of the population to stabilize its “old-age dependency ratio.”

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