The best immigration policy is controlled immigration. That has been the practice of successive Canadian governments since the end of the Second World War.
Immigration alone can't solve the epidemic of Canada's low fertility rate. It has never been designed to solve inherently local social problems.
Canada's aging population is just at the beginning of its ascendency. Just imagine what Canada would look like without the 250,000 to 260,000 immigrants that it is getting each year.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business released a study in 2007 saying: "Sixty-nine per cent of small businesses expect the shortage of labour to get worse, but the immigration system does not come close to meeting the needs of smaller firms." Furthermore, by 2012 all labour growth in Canada will be dependent entirely on immigration.
In fact, in 2008 the government introduced a new category for immigrants called the Canadian experience class. It targets specifically international graduates and foreign workers already in Canada who most likely acquired language skills and basic knowledge of the country. We badly need these doctors, IT specialists, engineers, retail workers and general labourers in all trades.
The government is caught between a rock and a hard place: On one side, the business community keep lobbying and pushing for an immigration system that is adaptive and reflective of the economy's needs.
And, on the other side, demographers of all stripes and social conservatives are telling the government that immigration is not a solution and may well become a problem down the road.
By as early as 2015, a recent study by Statistics Canada predicts, Canadians aged 65 and older will, for the first time, outnumber those aged 15 and younger.
Immigration alone cannot change a demographic makeup of a country in one or two generations.
Columnist Dan Gardner is right in sending the message that producing babies, changing social habits and culture are more important and urgent than depending on foreign help to solve indigenous calamity that is heading our way. He is as thoughtful, elegant and well-prepared as ever.
Elie Nasrallah,
Source: The Ottawa Citizen
Ottawa to unveil proposals to reform refugee system
By Norma Greenaway, Canwest News ServiceMarch 28, 2010
Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Ottawa+unveil+proposals+reform+refugee+system/2737289/story.html#ixzz0jXKTE3Hl
OTTAWA — Immigration Minister Jason Kenney will unveil long-awaited proposals to reform Canada’s refugee system this week in what he has portrayed as a serious bid to speed the approval process for legitimate asylum-seekers while clamping down on abuse of the system.
Kenney plans a two-day roll out of the proposed initiatives, beginning Monday at a news conference at the Catholic Immigration Centre in Ottawa. On Tuesday, he is expected to introduce the legislative package to implement the changes, his office said Sunday.
Among other things, the package is expected to speed the initial handling of refugee applications by using trained federal civil servants to do the initial assessment, as opposed to the current system where applications are heard by a one-man refugee board. It would be part of a new system to fast-track applications from a list of so-called “safe” countries where human and democratic rights are deemed to be honoured.
Officials say the new system would still provide asylum from such “safe” countries to citizens who can demonstrate they are persecuted. They say the government has taken into account that women, gays and lesbians and other minorities can face persecution even in democracies.
The “safe” country idea is among the most controversial of the measures that will likely be proposed this week. The Liberals have indicated they are open to the idea, but the New Democrats and Bloc Quebecois are opposed.
The reform package is likely to generate fierce debate in the minority Parliament and across the country, with several refugee organizations vowing to dig in to keep the system as open and fair as possible. One of the big questions hanging over Kenney’s head is how much money the government is willing to earmark for the changes, including a stepped up effort by the Canada Border Services Agency to make sure rejected claimants are removed quickly from Canada.
Kenney has said the government is determined to come up with a system that will speed the 18 to 20 months it now takes for asylum claims to be heard, thereby reducing the 60,000 backlog in claimants still waiting to get their day before the Immigration and Refugee Board. The legislation will still allow claimants to resort to the courts if the board rejects their claim, but it is expected to reduce some of the appeals avenues.
The legislation caps a months long campaign by Kenney to persuade Canadians the system is broken, and overly generous to “bogus” claimants, as he puts it. Canada accepts about 40 per cent of all claims, a higher percentage than many other industrialized countries.
Kenney brought attention to what he called a major flaw in the system when he decided last summer to force visitors from Mexico and the Czech Republic to obtain visitors visas before entering the country after there was a sharp spike in refugee applications from Mexicans and Czech citizens as soon as they landed in Canada. He has warned the numbers coming in from Hungary also are unacceptably high, but so far has refrained from requiring visitors to have visas before arriving.
Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Ottawa+unveil+proposals+reform+refugee+system/2737289/story.html#ixzz0jXKfOAgQ
Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Ottawa+unveil+proposals+reform+refugee+system/2737289/story.html#ixzz0jXKTE3Hl
OTTAWA — Immigration Minister Jason Kenney will unveil long-awaited proposals to reform Canada’s refugee system this week in what he has portrayed as a serious bid to speed the approval process for legitimate asylum-seekers while clamping down on abuse of the system.
Kenney plans a two-day roll out of the proposed initiatives, beginning Monday at a news conference at the Catholic Immigration Centre in Ottawa. On Tuesday, he is expected to introduce the legislative package to implement the changes, his office said Sunday.
Among other things, the package is expected to speed the initial handling of refugee applications by using trained federal civil servants to do the initial assessment, as opposed to the current system where applications are heard by a one-man refugee board. It would be part of a new system to fast-track applications from a list of so-called “safe” countries where human and democratic rights are deemed to be honoured.
Officials say the new system would still provide asylum from such “safe” countries to citizens who can demonstrate they are persecuted. They say the government has taken into account that women, gays and lesbians and other minorities can face persecution even in democracies.
The “safe” country idea is among the most controversial of the measures that will likely be proposed this week. The Liberals have indicated they are open to the idea, but the New Democrats and Bloc Quebecois are opposed.
The reform package is likely to generate fierce debate in the minority Parliament and across the country, with several refugee organizations vowing to dig in to keep the system as open and fair as possible. One of the big questions hanging over Kenney’s head is how much money the government is willing to earmark for the changes, including a stepped up effort by the Canada Border Services Agency to make sure rejected claimants are removed quickly from Canada.
Kenney has said the government is determined to come up with a system that will speed the 18 to 20 months it now takes for asylum claims to be heard, thereby reducing the 60,000 backlog in claimants still waiting to get their day before the Immigration and Refugee Board. The legislation will still allow claimants to resort to the courts if the board rejects their claim, but it is expected to reduce some of the appeals avenues.
The legislation caps a months long campaign by Kenney to persuade Canadians the system is broken, and overly generous to “bogus” claimants, as he puts it. Canada accepts about 40 per cent of all claims, a higher percentage than many other industrialized countries.
Kenney brought attention to what he called a major flaw in the system when he decided last summer to force visitors from Mexico and the Czech Republic to obtain visitors visas before entering the country after there was a sharp spike in refugee applications from Mexicans and Czech citizens as soon as they landed in Canada. He has warned the numbers coming in from Hungary also are unacceptably high, but so far has refrained from requiring visitors to have visas before arriving.
Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Ottawa+unveil+proposals+reform+refugee+system/2737289/story.html#ixzz0jXKfOAgQ
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