Another Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) has come under scrutiny, this time the small Province of Prince Edward Island's effort to attract immigrants is under the gun. This follows on the heels of the suspension of the Nova Scotia entrepreneur PNP, which closed after a scandal. I have always opposed PNPs as useless for the economy,. costly to the immigrants, and attracting the wrong type of people, who do not make a decision based on sound economics but rather on the basis of just tyring to get a visa, while they have no intention to follow through on their commitment to invest in the designated province. It would be much better to fix the entire federal system, abolish the PNPs, and allow applicants to set p businesses wherever they feel it would make economic sense.
Island auditor gives legislature committee OK to probe immigration program
THE CANADIAN PRESS
CHARLOTTETOWN — The public accounts committee on P.E.I. has been given the green light by the province’s auditor general to conduct its own probe of a controversial immigration program.
The program, which ended Sept. 2, offered expedited Canadian visas for immigrants willing to invest money in Island companies.
Hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested in the province through the so-called nominee program.
Auditor general Colin Younker decided to launch an investigation after a number of discrepancies with the administration of the program came to light.
Several members of the public accounts committee had expressed concern about launching an examination while Younker was conducting his own probe.
But the committee received word this week from Younker that it is free to proceed
Friday, October 24, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
CANADA: SEASONAL FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL WORKERS TRY TO UNIONIZE
Migrants' bid to unionize contested
B.C. labour board certifies unions at two farms - but employers say labour code does not give them that right
JESSICA SMITH
October 23, 2008
VANCOUVER -- The union movement among migrant workers in British Columbia is growing, with the first two farms granted certification by the labour board.
Floralia Plant Growers Ltd. became the second farm to unionize on Oct. 10. Workers on 20 more farms are now interested in joining the United Food and Commercial Workers, according to the union. However, a recent move by employers might put the relationship between migrant workers and the union in jeopardy.
The British Columbia Agriculture Council, which represents the interests of the agriculture industry, questions the right of migrant workers to unionize under the B.C. Labour Relations Code.
The council argues that the code does not constitutionally apply to migrant workers, who come to Canada as part of a federal program that operates under the terms of agreements negotiated by Ottawa with the workers' home countries.
BCAC executive director Steve Tompson said that means the provincial labour board cannot legally grant the workers' requests to join a union. "We feel there is a very legitimate question related to the jurisdiction and applicability in this situation and with respect to this particular program," he said.
Such arguments are far removed from the B.C. farm fields, where workers like Rogelio Larios are employed. Mr. Larios worked on an Abbotsford blueberry farm this season. He's saving money to help finance a handmade jewellery business to support his two daughters in Mexico. The living and working conditions on the blueberry farm are good, but he would like his farm to unionize, he said.
"He wants to have a better future for his daughters," said Jamie Block, translating for Mr. Larios. "In Mexico, where he currently lives, there is no work."
Ms. Block works at a support centre in Abbotsford for migrant workers funded by the union, which has been in close contact with migrant workers in Canada since the 1990s. Stan Raper is UFCW national co-ordinator of the Agricultural Workers Alliance, which operates seven migrant-worker support centres across Canada, including two in B.C.
"A number of workers from throughout British Columbia either call or drop in to our centres, Kelowna or Abbottsford, in order to get translation services [for] income tax, parental benefits, workers compensation cases," he said.
Nearly all of B.C.'s migrant workers are from Mexico, and few speak English. When they come to a support centre to find someone to translate Canadian bureaucracy and file their paperwork for them, they are educated about their right to unionize.
The BCAC filed its application to the B.C. Labour Relations Board on Sept. 29, asking the board to reverse the union certifications already granted. The union rejects the BCAC's argument that the right to unionize does not apply to migrant workers.
Human Resources and Social Development Canada, which administers the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program, is responsible for bringing the foreign workers to Canada but has played no role in union disputes.
"The unionization of workers has no impact on the SAWP; it is a matter between the employer and the union," media-relations officer Jason Bouzanis said in an e-mail. "If the foreign workers are unionized, they must be offered the agreed union wage or the prevailing wage for the occupation in the region, whichever is higher."
The union and the BCAC disagree on whether the migrant workers would benefit from union representation. Lucy Luna, who runs the union's migrant workers centre in Abbotsford, said many of the farms provide poor housing conditions, and some have dangerous environments where workers are not properly trained or provided with safety equipment.
"But basically the complaint No. 1 is they want to be treated with respect, and that's why they came and they signed cards," she said.
Marcus Janzen owns Calais Farm in Abbotsford and said he doesn't think unionizing would change the basic principles the farm operates on today.
"I haven't thought about it much more than that. It's a free country, the workers can do what they want," he said.
B.C. labour board certifies unions at two farms - but employers say labour code does not give them that right
JESSICA SMITH
October 23, 2008
VANCOUVER -- The union movement among migrant workers in British Columbia is growing, with the first two farms granted certification by the labour board.
Floralia Plant Growers Ltd. became the second farm to unionize on Oct. 10. Workers on 20 more farms are now interested in joining the United Food and Commercial Workers, according to the union. However, a recent move by employers might put the relationship between migrant workers and the union in jeopardy.
The British Columbia Agriculture Council, which represents the interests of the agriculture industry, questions the right of migrant workers to unionize under the B.C. Labour Relations Code.
The council argues that the code does not constitutionally apply to migrant workers, who come to Canada as part of a federal program that operates under the terms of agreements negotiated by Ottawa with the workers' home countries.
BCAC executive director Steve Tompson said that means the provincial labour board cannot legally grant the workers' requests to join a union. "We feel there is a very legitimate question related to the jurisdiction and applicability in this situation and with respect to this particular program," he said.
Such arguments are far removed from the B.C. farm fields, where workers like Rogelio Larios are employed. Mr. Larios worked on an Abbotsford blueberry farm this season. He's saving money to help finance a handmade jewellery business to support his two daughters in Mexico. The living and working conditions on the blueberry farm are good, but he would like his farm to unionize, he said.
"He wants to have a better future for his daughters," said Jamie Block, translating for Mr. Larios. "In Mexico, where he currently lives, there is no work."
Ms. Block works at a support centre in Abbotsford for migrant workers funded by the union, which has been in close contact with migrant workers in Canada since the 1990s. Stan Raper is UFCW national co-ordinator of the Agricultural Workers Alliance, which operates seven migrant-worker support centres across Canada, including two in B.C.
"A number of workers from throughout British Columbia either call or drop in to our centres, Kelowna or Abbottsford, in order to get translation services [for] income tax, parental benefits, workers compensation cases," he said.
Nearly all of B.C.'s migrant workers are from Mexico, and few speak English. When they come to a support centre to find someone to translate Canadian bureaucracy and file their paperwork for them, they are educated about their right to unionize.
The BCAC filed its application to the B.C. Labour Relations Board on Sept. 29, asking the board to reverse the union certifications already granted. The union rejects the BCAC's argument that the right to unionize does not apply to migrant workers.
Human Resources and Social Development Canada, which administers the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program, is responsible for bringing the foreign workers to Canada but has played no role in union disputes.
"The unionization of workers has no impact on the SAWP; it is a matter between the employer and the union," media-relations officer Jason Bouzanis said in an e-mail. "If the foreign workers are unionized, they must be offered the agreed union wage or the prevailing wage for the occupation in the region, whichever is higher."
The union and the BCAC disagree on whether the migrant workers would benefit from union representation. Lucy Luna, who runs the union's migrant workers centre in Abbotsford, said many of the farms provide poor housing conditions, and some have dangerous environments where workers are not properly trained or provided with safety equipment.
"But basically the complaint No. 1 is they want to be treated with respect, and that's why they came and they signed cards," she said.
Marcus Janzen owns Calais Farm in Abbotsford and said he doesn't think unionizing would change the basic principles the farm operates on today.
"I haven't thought about it much more than that. It's a free country, the workers can do what they want," he said.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Australia Anounces eVisitor visa for 35 European countries from 27 October 2008
The Minister for Immigration & Citizenship, and the Minister for Tourism, have issued a joint media release announcing that an eVisitor Visa for tourists and business people from all E uropean Union countries and eight other European countries will be available from 27 October 2008.
Tourists and business people will be able to apply on the internet, free of charge.
The Eu countries are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK.
eVisitor will also be available to citizens from: Andorra, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway, San Marino, Switzerland and the Vatican City (Holy See).
eVisitor visa holders will able to visit for up to three months at time for tourist or business purposes as many times as they like over a 12-month period.
Posted by Michael Thornton, Thornton Immigration
Dandenong, Australia
Tourists and business people will be able to apply on the internet, free of charge.
The Eu countries are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK.
eVisitor will also be available to citizens from: Andorra, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway, San Marino, Switzerland and the Vatican City (Holy See).
eVisitor visa holders will able to visit for up to three months at time for tourist or business purposes as many times as they like over a 12-month period.
Posted by Michael Thornton, Thornton Immigration
Dandenong, Australia
Saturday, October 4, 2008
CANADA: IMMIGRATION AND ELECTIONS
Power of the immigrant vote
Vancouver Sun
Friday, October 03, 2008
As Canada moves closer to election day, our most topical issues are being debated with increasing intensity. The subject of immigration isn't among them. Given its relevance in modern Canadian society, this seems curious.
Perhaps some answers can be found in the Sept. 29 Issues & Ideas article by James Bissett, former executive director of the Canadian Immigration Service. In it, he wrote that "there is only one reason why our political parties push for high immigration intake, and that is they see every new immigrant as a potential vote for their party."
A rather bold statement, but perhaps he's on to something.
The fact is, our mainstream political parties have been buying immigrant votes for decades. The Liberals have been most successful in using immigration to their electoral advantage. A 2005 poll found that 44 per cent of minority community members identified most closely with the Liberals, compared to six per cent identifying with the Conservatives. In the 15 ridings in Canada with the largest immigrant populations, the Liberals claimed victory in every one.
Economically speaking, there has yet to be a study produced showing a positive economic contribution from Canada's immigration policies. There does exist, however, a 2005 study by a Simon Fraser University economics professor pointing out that the 2.5 million immigrants who came to Canada between 1990 and 2002 received $18.3 billion more in government services and benefits in 2002 than they paid in taxes. All major parties advocate an increase in annual immigration numbers. The New Democrats are calling for an annual increase from 237,000 to 333,000. The Conservative party numbers are more modest, while the Liberal party recommendation is 490,000 immigrants annually by 2016.
A 2004 government-sponsored study, Counting and Courting the Immigrant Vote, states that "at no other time in our country's history has the foreign-born elector been so fundamental to whether there will be a majority or minority government in Canada." Perhaps it's time for immigration to take its rightful place among Canada's primary political issues.
Brad Saltzberg
North Vancouver
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/letters/story.html?id=5484f08c-1823-48b5-8b31-7ad768826819
Vancouver Sun
Friday, October 03, 2008
As Canada moves closer to election day, our most topical issues are being debated with increasing intensity. The subject of immigration isn't among them. Given its relevance in modern Canadian society, this seems curious.
Perhaps some answers can be found in the Sept. 29 Issues & Ideas article by James Bissett, former executive director of the Canadian Immigration Service. In it, he wrote that "there is only one reason why our political parties push for high immigration intake, and that is they see every new immigrant as a potential vote for their party."
A rather bold statement, but perhaps he's on to something.
The fact is, our mainstream political parties have been buying immigrant votes for decades. The Liberals have been most successful in using immigration to their electoral advantage. A 2005 poll found that 44 per cent of minority community members identified most closely with the Liberals, compared to six per cent identifying with the Conservatives. In the 15 ridings in Canada with the largest immigrant populations, the Liberals claimed victory in every one.
Economically speaking, there has yet to be a study produced showing a positive economic contribution from Canada's immigration policies. There does exist, however, a 2005 study by a Simon Fraser University economics professor pointing out that the 2.5 million immigrants who came to Canada between 1990 and 2002 received $18.3 billion more in government services and benefits in 2002 than they paid in taxes. All major parties advocate an increase in annual immigration numbers. The New Democrats are calling for an annual increase from 237,000 to 333,000. The Conservative party numbers are more modest, while the Liberal party recommendation is 490,000 immigrants annually by 2016.
A 2004 government-sponsored study, Counting and Courting the Immigrant Vote, states that "at no other time in our country's history has the foreign-born elector been so fundamental to whether there will be a majority or minority government in Canada." Perhaps it's time for immigration to take its rightful place among Canada's primary political issues.
Brad Saltzberg
North Vancouver
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/letters/story.html?id=5484f08c-1823-48b5-8b31-7ad768826819
Saturday, September 27, 2008
SERGIO R. KARAS TO LEAD IBA PANEL DISCUSSION
Sergio R. Karas will have the distinct privilege of leading colleagues from around the world in a discussion of "Global Business Immigration Update" at the International Bar Association (IBA) Annual Conference to be held in Buenos AIres, Argentina, from October 13 to 18, 2008. Several members of Visalaw Interantional are featured in the panel. Here is the program:
Global business immigration update
Session Chair
Sergio R Karas
This programme will cover the latest developments in immigration
law around the world, with special emphasis on workforce mobility,
new regulations and policies. The speakers will represent a crosssection
of different jurisdictions around the world.
Speakers
Shalini Agarwal ALMT Legal, Mumbai, India
David Garson Guberman Garson Bush, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Jelle Kroes Everaert Advocaten Immigration Lawyers, Amsterdam,
the Netherlands
Edward Lehman Lehman Lee & Xu, Beijing, China
Julia Onslow-Cole PricewaterhouseCoopers Legal LLP, London,
England; Council Member, Legal Practice Division
David Ryken Ryken and Associates, Auckland, New Zealand; Vice-
Chair, Immigration and Nationality Law Committee
Gregory Sisskind Sisskind Susser PC, Memphis, Tennessee, USA;
Website Officer, Immigration and Nationality Law Committee
Michael Thornton Thornton Immigration Law, Dandenong,
Victoria, Australia
Global business immigration update
Session Chair
Sergio R Karas
This programme will cover the latest developments in immigration
law around the world, with special emphasis on workforce mobility,
new regulations and policies. The speakers will represent a crosssection
of different jurisdictions around the world.
Speakers
Shalini Agarwal ALMT Legal, Mumbai, India
David Garson Guberman Garson Bush, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Jelle Kroes Everaert Advocaten Immigration Lawyers, Amsterdam,
the Netherlands
Edward Lehman Lehman Lee & Xu, Beijing, China
Julia Onslow-Cole PricewaterhouseCoopers Legal LLP, London,
England; Council Member, Legal Practice Division
David Ryken Ryken and Associates, Auckland, New Zealand; Vice-
Chair, Immigration and Nationality Law Committee
Gregory Sisskind Sisskind Susser PC, Memphis, Tennessee, USA;
Website Officer, Immigration and Nationality Law Committee
Michael Thornton Thornton Immigration Law, Dandenong,
Victoria, Australia
Thursday, September 25, 2008
CANADA: SERGIO R. KARAS QUOTED IN TORONTO STAR ARTICLE
A sea change in immigration, met by silence on the hustings
TheStar.com - Federal Election -
September 20, 2008
Nicholas Keung
Lesley Ciarula Taylor
Immigration Reporters
When politicians talk about temporary foreign workers, which isn't often, the Conservatives see them as the SWAT team of the global economy, the Liberals as not conducive to nation-building, and the New Democrats as migrants whose wages are exploitative and families fractured.
But no less than the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development has decided temporary labour migration is the global issue of 2008. More than 2.5 million temporary foreign workers arrived in wealthy countries in 2006, three times the number of immigrants invited to stay.
It "does not appear to be a foundation on which one can construct a solid migration policy," says John Martin, OECD director for employment, labour and social affairs, in the lead editorial of the 30-country policy group's 2008 report on international migration.
Temporary foreign workers have a role to play, he says, but relying on them while letting an immigration system slog through backlogs and poor integration of immigrants just doesn't work in the long run.
When their visas expire and they stay, temporary workers find themselves in jobs with half the pay of a legal worker. The OECD says the vast majority of illegal immigrants in wealthy countries are working.
And the demand is there: small and medium-sized businesses in Canada say almost a fifth of current job demand is for people with basic skills and labourers. Who are they? Hotel, hospital and nursing-home workers, food-service counter staff, construction workers, truck drivers, cleaners, fish-plant workers and taxi drivers.
These people are filling a long-term need, says the OECD, and few wealthy countries have created solid programs to recruit and protect them. Canada, in fact, gives work permits to the spouses of high-skilled temporary workers but not the low-skilled ones.
The number of temporary foreign workers – brought in on one-year visas to do specific jobs – has jumped 58 per cent in the past five years. Last year, Canada imported 115,470 temporary migrants for a total of 201,057, just 25,000 fewer than the number of skilled workers brought in as permanent residents and a 58-per-cent increase in five years.
And as the short-term numbers have been rising dramatically, the number of immigrants who get to come and stay drops. Combined with changes this summer that let Ottawa hand-pick newcomers for specific job skills, Canada is closing its borders in a way not seen since the middle of the 20th century.
"There is something cynical about this new model," says Myer Siemiatycki, a professor in immigration settlement studies at Ryerson University. "On one hand, it rules out most workers from becoming eligible for permanent residency. On the other hand, we induce them to come with the Canada Experience Class as bait. But while they are here, they better be compliant, docile and non-complaining employees."
One of the main reasons Canada has been able to avoid the headache of a huge illegal migrant population has been its focus on bringing in skilled workers as permanent residents, says Jeffrey Reitz, a sociology professor at the University of Toronto and expert on immigrant employment and settlement issues.
"Once you have a substantial underground economy, it is difficult to deal with," Reitz notes. "You see the backlash against immigrants in the U.S. If the public turns against immigrants as a result of misperception that people are bending the rules and are not authorized to be here, Canada's (immigrant) development program will be in jeopardy."
He wants the parties to explain:
What they would do to ensure temporary foreign workers leave Canada (we don't currently keep track).
How they would repair the lax system that allows employers to collaborate with recruiters and immigration consultants to exploit the temporary foreign worker program as a "back door to immigration."
How they would protect these workers who are being abused and exploited because their status is tied to specific employers.
"We bring in people for our permanent needs on a permanent basis and for our temporary labour market needs on a temporary basis," says Karen Shadd, spokesperson for Citizenship and Immigration Canada.
"Hogwash," responds Olivia Chow, NDP immigration critic and candidate in Trinity-Spadina. "This looks at immigrants as economic units. The expansion of the program was a band-aid for decades of neglect and a point system that is so perverse skilled trades can't get in."
Compared with other wealthy countries, Canada has carved out a policy that the numbers of who gets to come here should balance: skilled workers, refugees, families of workers, family reunification, temporary foreign workers. (The United States and France, by contrast, make family migrants 44 per cent of their total.) It means only about 25 per cent of Canada's immigrants are actually hand-picked skilled workers.
Another 21st-century phenomenon has skewed efforts to find the right workers: up to 50 per cent of long-term immigrants, the ones brought in to nation build, leave within five years for home or another country, says the OECD – even in countries like Canada, which give them permanent residence immediately and citizenship quickly.
There is much value to Canada's old open-door immigration policy, says Siemiatycki, the one in whichimmigrants were chosen based on professional skills and education, with the assumption they'd be more adaptable in an economic downturn.
"Tying permanent residency to employment is very short-sighted because the jobs that are available to you today might not be there tomorrow."
Citizenship and Immigration Canada praises its temporary foreign worker program as a quick response to rapid changes in the global market, as does Sergio Karas, chair of the Ontario Bar Association's citizenship and immigration section.
"This is the future of international migration, where we reward the highly mobile individuals who have the right skills to integrate quickly into the labour force and discourage those who will not be able to get a job and contribute to the society."
In an interview on Sept. 13, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said; "Our biggest challenge will be labour shortages, not unemployment."
Immigration has been shunted to the back shelf for years, deputy Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff told The Star last week. Immigration critic Maurizio Bevilacqua points out that as Tory spending increased 14 per cent, spending on immigration increased 1 per cent.
The ministry has been "a place where you blow your legs off," Ignatieff says of the five ministers in the past six years.
"This is about the Canadian dream and whether Canada keeps faith with that dream."
He evoked the memory of immigration minister Jack Pickersgill paying to fly hundreds of Hungarians caught in the revolution to this country 51 years ago. That, says Ignatieff, is what immigration needs to be again.
TheStar.com - Federal Election -
September 20, 2008
Nicholas Keung
Lesley Ciarula Taylor
Immigration Reporters
When politicians talk about temporary foreign workers, which isn't often, the Conservatives see them as the SWAT team of the global economy, the Liberals as not conducive to nation-building, and the New Democrats as migrants whose wages are exploitative and families fractured.
But no less than the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development has decided temporary labour migration is the global issue of 2008. More than 2.5 million temporary foreign workers arrived in wealthy countries in 2006, three times the number of immigrants invited to stay.
It "does not appear to be a foundation on which one can construct a solid migration policy," says John Martin, OECD director for employment, labour and social affairs, in the lead editorial of the 30-country policy group's 2008 report on international migration.
Temporary foreign workers have a role to play, he says, but relying on them while letting an immigration system slog through backlogs and poor integration of immigrants just doesn't work in the long run.
When their visas expire and they stay, temporary workers find themselves in jobs with half the pay of a legal worker. The OECD says the vast majority of illegal immigrants in wealthy countries are working.
And the demand is there: small and medium-sized businesses in Canada say almost a fifth of current job demand is for people with basic skills and labourers. Who are they? Hotel, hospital and nursing-home workers, food-service counter staff, construction workers, truck drivers, cleaners, fish-plant workers and taxi drivers.
These people are filling a long-term need, says the OECD, and few wealthy countries have created solid programs to recruit and protect them. Canada, in fact, gives work permits to the spouses of high-skilled temporary workers but not the low-skilled ones.
The number of temporary foreign workers – brought in on one-year visas to do specific jobs – has jumped 58 per cent in the past five years. Last year, Canada imported 115,470 temporary migrants for a total of 201,057, just 25,000 fewer than the number of skilled workers brought in as permanent residents and a 58-per-cent increase in five years.
And as the short-term numbers have been rising dramatically, the number of immigrants who get to come and stay drops. Combined with changes this summer that let Ottawa hand-pick newcomers for specific job skills, Canada is closing its borders in a way not seen since the middle of the 20th century.
"There is something cynical about this new model," says Myer Siemiatycki, a professor in immigration settlement studies at Ryerson University. "On one hand, it rules out most workers from becoming eligible for permanent residency. On the other hand, we induce them to come with the Canada Experience Class as bait. But while they are here, they better be compliant, docile and non-complaining employees."
One of the main reasons Canada has been able to avoid the headache of a huge illegal migrant population has been its focus on bringing in skilled workers as permanent residents, says Jeffrey Reitz, a sociology professor at the University of Toronto and expert on immigrant employment and settlement issues.
"Once you have a substantial underground economy, it is difficult to deal with," Reitz notes. "You see the backlash against immigrants in the U.S. If the public turns against immigrants as a result of misperception that people are bending the rules and are not authorized to be here, Canada's (immigrant) development program will be in jeopardy."
He wants the parties to explain:
What they would do to ensure temporary foreign workers leave Canada (we don't currently keep track).
How they would repair the lax system that allows employers to collaborate with recruiters and immigration consultants to exploit the temporary foreign worker program as a "back door to immigration."
How they would protect these workers who are being abused and exploited because their status is tied to specific employers.
"We bring in people for our permanent needs on a permanent basis and for our temporary labour market needs on a temporary basis," says Karen Shadd, spokesperson for Citizenship and Immigration Canada.
"Hogwash," responds Olivia Chow, NDP immigration critic and candidate in Trinity-Spadina. "This looks at immigrants as economic units. The expansion of the program was a band-aid for decades of neglect and a point system that is so perverse skilled trades can't get in."
Compared with other wealthy countries, Canada has carved out a policy that the numbers of who gets to come here should balance: skilled workers, refugees, families of workers, family reunification, temporary foreign workers. (The United States and France, by contrast, make family migrants 44 per cent of their total.) It means only about 25 per cent of Canada's immigrants are actually hand-picked skilled workers.
Another 21st-century phenomenon has skewed efforts to find the right workers: up to 50 per cent of long-term immigrants, the ones brought in to nation build, leave within five years for home or another country, says the OECD – even in countries like Canada, which give them permanent residence immediately and citizenship quickly.
There is much value to Canada's old open-door immigration policy, says Siemiatycki, the one in whichimmigrants were chosen based on professional skills and education, with the assumption they'd be more adaptable in an economic downturn.
"Tying permanent residency to employment is very short-sighted because the jobs that are available to you today might not be there tomorrow."
Citizenship and Immigration Canada praises its temporary foreign worker program as a quick response to rapid changes in the global market, as does Sergio Karas, chair of the Ontario Bar Association's citizenship and immigration section.
"This is the future of international migration, where we reward the highly mobile individuals who have the right skills to integrate quickly into the labour force and discourage those who will not be able to get a job and contribute to the society."
In an interview on Sept. 13, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said; "Our biggest challenge will be labour shortages, not unemployment."
Immigration has been shunted to the back shelf for years, deputy Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff told The Star last week. Immigration critic Maurizio Bevilacqua points out that as Tory spending increased 14 per cent, spending on immigration increased 1 per cent.
The ministry has been "a place where you blow your legs off," Ignatieff says of the five ministers in the past six years.
"This is about the Canadian dream and whether Canada keeps faith with that dream."
He evoked the memory of immigration minister Jack Pickersgill paying to fly hundreds of Hungarians caught in the revolution to this country 51 years ago. That, says Ignatieff, is what immigration needs to be again.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
CANADA: SERGIO R. KARAS ATTENDS "GIVE A DAY" EVENT
Visalaw International Canadian lawyer Sergio R. Karas recently attended an event sponsored by the "Give a Day" Foundation, an organization dedicated to raise funds to combat AIDS in Africa through local community involvement. Shown in the photo with me are former Chief Justice and Attorney General of Ontario, Roy McMurtry (far left) and former Canadian Ambassador to the UN, Stephen Lewis ( far right). The organization website is www.giveaday.ca
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