Immigration Canada: June 2013

Ottawa on Track to Become Canada's Most Welcoming City for Immigrants

Flag of the city of Ottawa, Ontario (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Canadian parliament from the Musée canadien des Civilisations in Gatineau Français : Parlement canadien depuis le Musée canadien des Civilisations à Gatineau (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Deutsch: Ottawa: Kuppeln der Nationalgalerie (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Langevin Block, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Confederation Square, with National War Memorial in its centre, in Ottawa, Canada. The view towards downtown from the Corktown Pedestrian Bridge in Ottawa, Canada. The Laurier bridge and Château Laurier are visible. Français : Vue vers le centre-ville depuis la passerelle de Corktown à Ottawa (Canada). On peut voir le Pont Laurier et le Château Laurier. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Rideau Canal in Ottawa, Canada, January 2005 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Editors Note: There is a calendar of events and a backgrounder associated with this press release.

On June 26, at 8 a.m., at a breakfast reception with business executives, civic leaders and representatives of faith communities in the region, the Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson will proclaim June 25 to 30, 2013 as the first-ever "Welcoming Ottawa Week (WOW)." The Mayoral proclamation reception is one of several activities planned during WOW to bolster the capital's reputation as a welcoming city for newcomers. The calendar for the inaugural Welcoming Ottawa Week is marked by a series of engaging dialogues and celebratory activities, including community sports events, public lectures and seminars, a movie screening in a neighbourhood park, music, artists' gatherings, and the 2nd Annual Ottawa Immigration Forum.

"We have long recognized the value of immigration to our city's prosperity and vitality," says the Mayor of Ottawa, Jim Watson. "The Welcoming Ottawa Week will underscore our genuine respect and hospitality to newcomers, while at the same time creating opportunities for dialogue and interactions between newcomers and established residents."

This year's Ottawa Immigration Forum, hosted by the Ottawa Local Immigration Partnership(OLIP) in collaboration with the Réseau de soutien de l'immigration francophone de l'Est de l'Ontario, is themed "The Building Blocks of a Welcoming Community." The Forum will take place on Thursday, June 27, from 8 a.m. to 12:00 noon, and coincides with Multiculturalism Day.

Forum attendees will hear about Manitoba's model for welcoming and integrating newcomers from Gerry Clement, a former senior official with the Manitoba Government and one of the principal architects of Manitoba's highly acclaimed immigrant attraction and integration strategy. Representatives of Ottawa's post-secondary institutions will also reflect upon the opportunities and challenges they face as they seek to extend and enhance Ottawa's reputation as an international student destination hub.

In 2012, Ottawa was the fourth-largest international student destination in Canada, after Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, and the first choice for international students among Canada's mid-sized cities.

"As a community, we are committed to strengthening our capacity to welcome and integrate immigrants," said Dick Stewart, Chair of the OLIP Council. "The 2013 Ottawa Immigration Forum will help us learn from the successes of other cities; and enable us to discuss ways in which we can maintain and enhance what works well."

The Forum will also celebrate the successes of the OLIP partners over the last eight months and continued progress towards the goals of the Ottawa Immigration Strategy, launched in 2011.

Welcoming Ottawa Week events begin on June 25 with two seminars: one on "Building Sustainable Capacity for Welcoming Organizations" featuring three prominent speakers and the tabling of a summary report on Phase 1 of Ottawa's first-ever Equity Project; the other on "Les Enjoux de l'immigration francophone a Ottawa."

The Mayor's proclamation and breakfast reception will anchor the Week, with an official proclamation ceremony on June 26. Local artists and arts organizations will gather on June 28 to discuss how to promote pluralism in the arts.

The Week will conclude on June 30 with the Community Cup event at Brewer Park. Over 2,000 guests are expected to gather to enjoy this fun-filled family event, with soccer competitions, demonstrations of sports such as cricket and Tai Chi which are popular among immigrants and minority residents, children's games, an international food bazaar, and a citizenship reaffirmation ceremony during which 200 Ottawans will renew their vows to Canada and to each other.

"We are excited about WOW," said Hindia Mohamoud, OLIP director. "A lot of good work is being done by the OLIP partners and countless Ottawans are welcoming to immigrants. The Welcoming Ottawa Week is about joining our voices and conveying clearly and unequivocally that we are intentioned to being the most welcoming city in Canada to newcomers both current and prospective."

Initiated by the Ottawa Local Immigration Partnership and championed by the Mayor of Ottawa, Welcoming Ottawa Week is designed to create recurrent opportunities for Ottawans to express and reflect on the warmth of our welcome; and for newcomers and long-time residents of Ottawa to have quality-based recreational and intellectual interactions that will foster trust and understanding.

Ottawa Local Immigration Partnership

The Ottawa Local Immigration Partnership (OLIP) was founded in October 2009 by the City of Ottawa and Local Agencies Serving Immigrants (LASI). The partnership is funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada with the mandate of improving local capacity to attract, settle and integrate immigrants. OLIP is one of over 40 Local Immigration Partnerships in Canada. Visit the Ottawa Local Immigration Partnership online at www.olip-plio.ca.

Immigration in Canada by the numbers

English: Calgary Tower, Calgary, Alberta, Canada (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

BY KIRSTEN SMITH, POSTMEDIA NEWS

The proportion of foreign-born population in G8 countries and Australia (reported statistically)

Japan — 1.0 per cent (2000)
Italy — 8.0 per cent (2009)
Russia — 8.2 per cent (2002)
France — 8.6 per cent (2008)
United Kingdom — 11.5 per cent (2010)
United States — 12.9 per cent (2010)
Germany — 13 per cent (2010)
Canada — 20.6 per cent (2011)
Australia — 26.8 per cent (2010)

Recent immigration (2006 to 2011)
Canada — 1.2 million
Toronto — 381,745
Montreal — 189,730
Vancouver — 155,125
Calgary — 70,700
Edmonton — 49,930
Winnipeg — 45,270
Ottawa-Gatineau — 40,420
Saskatoon — 11,465
Windsor — 9,225
Regina — 8,150

The make-up of first-, second- and third-generation immigrants compared to total population:
First generation (born outside Canada): 7.2 million or 22 per cent Of them:
• 93.3 per cent immigrants
• 4.9 per cent foreign students and foreign workers • 87,400 were born outside Canada to parents who are Canadian
Second generation (born in Canada but at least one parent was born abroad): 5.7 million or 17.4 per cent • 54.8 per cent said both their parents were born outside Canada • B.C. was home to the most second generation residents 23.4 per cent • 3 in 10 second-generation residents were a visible minority
Third generation (born in Canada, both parents also born in Canada): 19.9 million or 60.7 per cent

Original source article: Immigration in Canada by the numbers

Latest Canadian immigration figures from the OECD

Canadian visa for single entry (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recently released its International Migration Outlook Report for 2013. The report contains subsidiary reports on all the 34 countries that make up the OECD including Canada.

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The report finds that Canada has continued to accept more migrants than most other OECD countries; it is sixth in the OECD. According to Statistics Canada, the country receives on average 7.5 immigrants per thousand people annually; one of the highest in the industrialised world and twice the rate of the US. Much of Canada's population growth in recent years has been down to immigration.

The latest figures presented in the report are for 2011. Overall immigration fell by 11% on the previous year. Canada admitted 249,000 new permanent residents in 2011. 62.8% of these were admitted under the economic migrant stream. This stream includes those who are admitted to Canada for work purposes and their families. Only 22.7% of new permanent residents were admitted under the family stream.

The OECD breaks down the figures differently in its report, including family members of workers as family migrants. Consequently, the OECD figure shows that, in 2011, 25.9% of new Canadian permanent residents are in the 'work' category. This compares very favourably to the US figure of 6.1%.

Many new Canadians from Asia

The three major countries of origin for new economic permanent residents were Asian. They were

The Philippines 14%
China 12%
India 10%

Canada also admitted around 191,000 temporary workers under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program in 2011, 6.4% more than in 2010 and also issued nearly 100,000 student visas, 3.3% more than the previous year. There were also around 36,000 humanitarian migrants in 2011.

The OECD notes that Canada reformed its economic immigration categories in 2012. Regular readers of workpermit.com will know that Canada reformed its main skilled worker immigration program, the Federal Skilled Worker Program, and also expanded the Canadian Experience Class and announced the creation of both the Start-up visa for entrepreneurs and the Federal Skilled Trade Program for tradespeople.

Canada intends to move towards an 'expression of interest' model for work-based immigration in coming years. Immigration minister Jason Kenney has already introduced major changes in 2012 and he has said he wants to introduce further changes to allow new residents in Canada to 'hit the ground running.

Permanent migration figures

	2010	2011
Citizenship	76,600	64,400
Family	170,600	148,200
Humanitarian	33,400	36,100
Total	280,700	248,700

Temporary migration figures

	2010	2011
Students	76,700	77,200
Working holiday	50,000	55,000
Seasonal workers	23,900	24,100
Intra company transfer	13,600	13,500
Other temporary	85,500	87,500
Total	249,700	257,300

Top ten countries of origin

Philippines
China
India
United States
Iran
United Kingdom
Haiti
Pakistan
France
United Arab Emirates

Source: http://www.workpermit.com/news/2013-06-24/latest-canadian-immigration-figures-from-the-oecd

Looking for a job in Canada? Try Saskatoon

Stonebridge, Saskatoon, Stonebridge subdivision Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By Nadine Kalinauskas | Daily Brew

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Adzuna, a U.K.-based job-search engine, has recently expanded to help Canadians find work, too.

After "some serious number crunching" — Adzuna compared their data from 36 Canadian job websites with the latest Employment Insurance and unemployment statistics — the site determined the 45 best and worst places to find a job in Canada.

In top spot: Saskatoon, where there are just 4.4 job seekers per vacancy.

Other great places to find work include Nanaimo, Kamloops, Winnipeg and Regina.

"Nanaimo is a service centre for the mid-Island, a transportation hub, a draw for tourists and we have a growing technology sector developing here so, unlike other Canadian cities, our economy is not overly reliant on any one sector," says Sasha Angus, head of the Nanaimo Economic Development Corporation.

If you're looking for work in the St. Catharines-Niagara area, however, be prepared for some major competition: there are currently 99.9 jobseekers per job vacancy, in part due to factory closings and fewer tourists from south of the border.

Other tough places to find work include the Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo region (where Research in Motion has been cutting jobs), Cape Breton, Oshawa and Windsor.

These results are somewhat surprising. In Windsor, where the unemployment rate is at 9.2 per cent, there are 27 job seekers for every posting. But in Waterloo Region, where the unemployment rate is at a considerably lower 7.1 per cent, there are 73 job seekers for every posting, the Record reports.

These stats may be reflecting a mismatch between the skills job seekers have and the jobs that are currently available, argues Art Sinclair, Waterloo Region's Chamber of Commerce's vice-president.

"It is a problem across Canada that there are jobs available but there is not a match between the people looking for jobs and the jobs that are available," Sinclair tells the Record. "That trend may be more accentuated here in Waterloo Region."

"There are vacancies in information technology here, of course, but those jobs require a pretty specialized skill set," he says.

The nationwide survey also found that Montreal is a great place for students and recent graduates, as9 per cent of job postings are for graduate positions or summer internships.

Jobs in sales comprised the top hiring sector in Canada, with 8,567 jobs currently available at an average annual salary of $45,302, the report lists.

The greatest growth in the job market is being seen in the information/technology and renewable-energy sectors. Adzuna forecasts 84,000 job opportunities being created in this areas by the end of 2013.

Adzuna country manager James Maskell acknowledges that not every job is posted on job boards — it's almost impossible to measure word-of-mouth and social-media-posted vacancies — but believes Adzuna's database of 100,000 jobs is large enough to accurately outline job trends.

"We have good coverage and are confident that our numbers are correct," Maskell says.

Adzuna lists real-time vacancies for job-seekers, like a news aggregator for jobs.

"Our main pitch is that we collect as many jobs as we possibly can from the Internet," Maskell tells theCambridge Times. "We bring them together in one place and make them searchable, very much kind of like a Google, but just for jobs."

This "gives us an up-to-the-minute view of how the employment market is changing across the country," Andrew Hunter, the company’s co-founder, tells the Globe and Mail. “In times of economic uncertainty, job seekers should be looking to arm themselves with data to help them target their job search in parts of Canada where they have the best possible chance of finding work.”

The Globe and Mail's Tavia Grant writes that Adzuna's information about the Canadian job market fills a void in this country's employment statistics:

"Detailed public information about current job demand has been in short supply in Canada. Statistics Canada releases data on vacancy trends, but it is by province, while the Conference Board’s help-wanted index tracks change, but not by industry. It’s a vital piece of missing information about the labour market, as these data can help job seekers make more informed decisions on whether to move, stay put or, in some cases, change careers."

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/dailybrew/looking-job-canada-try-saskatoon-145001048.html

Americans moving to Canada in record numbers: report

Barack Obama, President of the United States of America, with Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By Andy Radia | Canada Politics

In what seems to be a reversal of fortunes from the 1990s, more and more Americans are looking to Canada as the 'land of opportunity.'

According to a new report by CTV News, economic woes in the U.S. are driving a record number of Americans across the northern border as they seek better job opportunities and cheaper education in Canada.

In 2011, Ottawa approved 34,185 visas for U.S. residents — a figure that falls just short of the all-time record of 35,060 approved visas in 2010. By comparison, fewer than 20,000 Canadians moved to the U.S. over the past two years — the lowest number in nearly a decade.

It wasn't always this way.

When I was in university — back in the late 1990s — my economics professor asked how many of us intended to move to the United States. Almost all of us, fourth-year macroeconomics students, raised our hands.

It was the 'brain-drain' era: the American economy was strong and many of Canada's best and brightest were heading south to find work. Both the media and and politicians dubbed the exodus a crisis; studies were commissioned and papers were written.

But what a difference a decade makes.

"Since the 2008 economic crises, we have witnessed a steady stream of Americans applying for Canadian work visas," Canadian immigration attorney Michael Niren told Yahoo! Canada News in an email exchange on Thursday.

"The main reason for this is lack of employment in the U.S. and our strong Canadian dollar."

Niren says most Americans who come to Canada do so through the expedited "NAFTA visa" process which requires applicants to have a Canadian job offer in one of 63 recognized occupations. The U.S. has a similar temporary visa — the TN visa — for Canadians who want to work there.

For the time being, however, it appears Canada's brain drain has been plugged.

Canada tops list for immigrant businesses

BY CHRIS RIDDELL, FINANCIAL POST

Canada is the country of choice for many immigrants searching for a better life. It also happens to be a popular destination for would-be entrepreneurs.
The World Bank labelled Canada the best place in the G-7 to start a business, and thanks to an open immigration policy, a comparatively easy one to enter. Add a strong banking system, growing job market, and high standard of living, and it's no wonder it tops immigrant entrepreneurs' list.
For many, the government's Start-Up Visa launched in April is making Canada an even more appealing place.
The program, which awards permanent resident status to those who qualify, is a huge incentive. The 2,750 visas are intended to attract the best and brightest, which means applicants must meet a set of criteria to qualify, and even if a visa is awarded, it doesn't guarantee success for the business.
Naeem Noorani knows the difficulties: He came to Canada 15 years ago and, unable to find a job in advertising, he took a job in publishing. A round of layoffs in 2003 again left him looking for a job. Unable to find a well paying position, he decided to start a business.
In 2004, he launched Canadian Immigrant magazine to highlight the success stories of immigrant entrepreneurs. He grew it to a $250,000-a-year publication and then sold it to The Toronto Star in 2006.
Mr. Noorani is now a managing partner for Destination Canada Info Inc. and bestselling author of Arrival Survival Canada.
He was also part of a Start-Up Visa roundtable discussion with federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney. Mr. Noorani learned how to address the many challenges of setting up a business as an immigrant through a YMCA self-employment program.
"We know we're going to have challenges accessing traditional banking because we're new to the country," he says.
"This program took me through the whole process of how to apply for a bank loan, how to go there, how to present yourself, how to create a business plan. It was very methodical, and I owe a lot to the YMCA.
"Immigrants say they want to come to Canada and start a business. I would say don't do it. Spend at least a year in Canada before you start a business because if you're going to replicate the business you did back home without seeing if there's a demand for it, you'll lose everything you brought," he advises.
David LeBlanc, managing director with Ferriera-Wells Immigration Consulting, agrees that taking time to do market research will only benefit your efforts in the long run.
"One of the smartest things you can do is to find a mentor in a Canadian business," Mr. LeBlanc advises. "Lots of industries have mentorships, and sometimes it's just a matter of getting a hold of someone and saying, 'I admire what you're doing in your business. Can I come in and talk to you?'
"Most often the people have a fair amount of business savvy, so it's just a matter of putting them in touch with honest business resources," Mr. LeBlanc says.
"They're going to need a good tax accountant. They're going to need a good banker. They usually will need a realtor, someone who can introduce them to commercial properties that are available for purchase. Sometimes if they're looking for a line of credit or don't have the skills to write a business plan, we'll put them in contact with someone who can assist in preparing a proper and cogent business plan."
One of the requirements for the Start-Up Visa is developing good English language skills. Matt Man, founder of Green Owl Mobile, was born in Hong Kong and lived in Canada for 20 years before launching his traffic app. But he still found that communicating effectively was one of the biggest hurdles to overcome.
"Try to do as much face to face as possible," Mr. Man says. "Face to face can always make up for some of what I lost due to my accent or the way I'm communicating."