Town of Oakville Welcomes New Canadians

The Town of Oakville, in partnership with Citizenship and Immigration Canada, welcomed 50 new Canadian citizens at a citizenship ceremony at Town Hall on November 17, 2011.

Oakville’s newest Canadians come from 21 different countries, including Bangladesh, China, Colombia, England, India, Iraq, Kenya, South Korea, Macedonia, Russia, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Venezuela.

“As an immigrant myself, I appreciate the opportunity to be a part of this day— to witness the joy and enthusiasm of people from around the world who will now proudly call themselves Canadian,” Mayor Rob Burton said. “On behalf of the town and residents of Oakville, I encourage our newest citizens to get involved in our community and experience all the great things Oakville has to offer.”

A representative for MP Terence Young, along with MPP Kevin Flynn, Halton Regional Chair Gary Carr, and Mayor Rob Burton welcomed the new citizens before Judge Kris Mohan presided over the official ceremony. This is the third citizenship ceremony hosted by the Town of Oakville.

“The town holds citizenship ceremonies at Town Hall and at the library to showcase our municipal government for new citizens,” Mayor Burton explained. “This Council is committed to making Oakville a more inclusive community – and to put us one step closer to our vision of becoming the most livable town in Canada.”

Mayor Burton during the Citizenship Ceremony

According to the 2006 census, almost one third of Oakville residents are immigrants to Canada, and almost one in five residents identifies themself as a visible minority. To assist residents who speak a language other than English, the town subscribes to Language Line, an over the phone interpretation service that provides interpreters in more than 150 languages. This service ensures that whether in person or by phone, residents will receive great customer service. The town is also in the midst of upgrading its website to improve access to information and services, and will include an online translation tool that will make town information available in the most commonly spoken languages in Oakville.

A number of town departments including the Oakville Public Library (OPL), Recreation and Culture, and Environmental Policy offer a variety of programs and participate in numerous outreach activities to help meet the needs of our diverse residents. These include recreational programs for residents with special needs, multicultural themed
family performances at Town Hall, library online resources to improve language skills, as well as workshops that assist children and teens with homework or help newcomers build a career in Canada. The OPL also offers a growing number of print, audio, and DVD materials in languages other than English for both children and adults.

To learn more about the diverse make up of our community, check out the If Oakville was a village of 100 people booklet available at Town Hall, town community centres, libraries, the Halton Multicultural Council, and the Newcomer Information Centre.

There are many initiatives underway that demonstrate the town’s commitment to diversity. For more information, read the Diversity Initiatives Update report that went to Council on November 7, 2011 on the town’s website at www.oakville.ca.

Vying for best of new talent

By CHERYL BRINK CBRINK@STANDARD-FREEHOLDER.COM

Updated 12 hours ago

CORNWALL — Leaders in business, politics and community agencies gathered on Wednesday to brainstorm new ways to attract immigrants to the region.

The Eastern Ontario Training Board hosted the event, which featured an official from the Conference Board of Canada who spoke about how to compete for the incoming workforce.

"Cornwall is among the communities in Canada that have this as a major priority," said Diana MacKay, director of education, health and immigration. "...Cornwall seems at the ready to get serious about a strategy for successful integration of newcomers."

She said she was impressed with the 50-plus attendees from various industries and organizations who came to hear "how to make Cornwall and region the most attractive."

MacKay said they face a challenge because the five counties —– networked in a Local Immigration Partnership (LIP) — are not well known beyond Ontario.

"They have to market the region and its goals," she said. "Everyone is competing for the best available talent."

During a question-and-answer session, MacKay noted Canada is currently accepting 250,000 new residents each year, which is not sustainable considering the low birth rate and aging population. She said the conference board's research shows 350,000 immigrants per year is necessary to maintain the country's workforce.

"We do tons of analysis on how things would be better if we had our act together," she said.

Because there aren't enough new labourers to go around — in part due to a seven-year queue for the federal government to process applications — communities have to be strategic in how they reach out to immigrants.

But MacKay added that aboriginals are a growing workforce that should be invited in as well, and more women and people with disabilities should be accommodated.

She said though Cornwall is already doing plenty to improve its workforce, agencies have to ensure immigrants don't feel isolated in the rural areas. Schools are also a major factor in attracting and retaining new residents.

Sharon McRae, LIP project manager for the training board, said the lack of local post-secondary education is what turns many potential residents away.

Because immigrant families are generally very close-knit, she said those who do settle here often move away later to be closer to universities for their children.

She said the Wednesday morning forum was the final step in the development of a region-wide strategy that will be reviewed by the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration early next year. The community input will be incorporated into the document, in addition to already-completed surveys and focus groups with immigrants.

Statistics will be compiled along with the strategy, showing how many newcomers settle in the five counties, why they move here and how long they stay.

McRae said their current data shows about 350 immigrants arrive each year, and most are highly educated, buy homes and start businesses in the community.

"It really adds to the economy," she said.

McRae said the strategy will form phase two of the LIP project, and include next steps for business leaders and agencies in the coming months.

The partnership includes T.R. Leger Immigrant Services, social services in all five counties, employment services and the Eastern Ontario Training Board.

"We're not doing anything wrong," she said. "But we could be doing a lot more right."

"What we don't want to happen is for people to go sit in their office and think in isolation," said MacKay. "There has to be a shared strategy."

Ottawa faces legal challenge over backlogged immigrant visa applications

Nicholas KeungImmigration Reporter

More than 300 people around the world awaiting immigration visas have filed legal notices against the Canadian government, claiming they are being “warehoused” in a lengthy backlog.

The notices, filed with the Federal Court of Canada, are asking Citizenship and Immigration Canada to process their applications within a reasonable time frame.

The litigants, some of whom applied as far back as 2004, accuse CIC of violating a pledge to assess and finalize decisions in a timely fashion.

“These people paid the application fees, but immigration has never even started processing their applications,” said Tim Leahy, one of the lawyers representing the litigants.

The legal notices — from Asia to Africa, Europe and the Middle East — are growing in numbers with the recent launch of an online appeal for litigants at unfaircic.com. It is not a class-action lawsuit, so a court ruling would apply only to those involved in the litigation.

Litigants include those who filed before February 2008, when new laws were brought in to fast-track new applications from skilled workers, and those who filed between 2008 and 2010, when further restrictions capped the number of skilled-worker applications.

Ottawa has argued restrictions are needed to reduce a backlog of 900,000 applications.

But some litigants claim the government has effectively ceased assessing applications filed before 2008.

Shrish Aithala, who has a master’s degree in computer integrated engineering from New York’s Rochester Institute of Technology, filed his application in 2006 in New Delhi.

“I cannot understand how the existing backlog can be bypassed. I’m sure there are skilled and educated people in the backlog ready to contribute to the economy,” Aithala, 36, told the Starfrom his current job in Dubai.

“Because of the uncertainly of my application status, I have missed out on many opportunities as commitment was required from my side with regards to these work assignments.”

Applicants who filed between 2008 and 2010 say they, too, are being unfairly treated since the application cap was brought in.

Rasoul Nikkhah, a 42-year-old computer network administrator from Tehran, Iran, was thrilled when Ottawa rolled out its fast-track federal skilled-worker program in 2008, anticipating a quick processing. The government promised to finalize cases within six to 12 months.

Immigration acknowledged receipt of Nikkhah’s application in April 2009 and 26 months later his file is still “in process,” he said.

“The reason I participated in this legal action is to bring justice to my case and similar cases, as I believe I have been treated unfairly by CIC.”

The immigration department confirmed receipt of the legal notices, but declined to comment on the allegations.

“The Federal Court has not yet even determined whether it will hear any of these cases, and as such, there has been no decision on the merits of the cases,” said immigration spokesperson Nancy Caron.

Caron said the skilled-worker backlog from before February 2008 has been reduced from 641,000 people to 314,000. About 140,000 applicants from the early phase of the fast-track program are still awaiting a decision, she said.

In 2002 and 2003, the federal government was confronted with a similar volley of court challenges to new regulations and the treatment of backlogged cases.

Ottawa offered a $2.9 million settlement to 105,000 backlogged applicants, agreeing to get rid of the new rule that affected pre-existing applications negatively, said Leahy, who led one of the lawsuits.

Source: Toronto News

Canada's visa system badly flawed: watchdog

By David Ljunggren

OTTAWA | Tue Nov 22, 2011 5:06pm EST

(Reuters) - Canada could be admitting people who are security threats or carrying serious diseases because of a flawed visa system, a parliamentary watchdog warned on Tuesday.

The report by the auditor general is likely to bolster U.S. critics seeking much tighter controls on the U.S.-Canada border on the grounds that Ottawa is letting in terror suspects and militants who could one day attack the United States.

Interim Auditor General John Wiersema said visa and security officials "need to do a much better job of managing the health, safety and security risks" of applicants."

Wiersema said officials at the two main departments involved, Citizenship and Immigration and the Border Services Agency, were overworked, ill-trained, poorly supervised and were using outdated methods.

"Visa officers are responsible for deciding whether to grant or refuse a visa to enter Canada. The system lacks basic elements to ensure they get the right information to make those decisions," he said in a statement. "We've been reporting some of these problems with visas for 20 years, and I find it disturbing that fundamental weaknesses still exist."

In 2010, visa officers processed applications for 1.04 million people seeking temporary residence and 317,000 people seeking permanent residence. Canada, with a population of 34.5 million, is one of the few western nations actively encouraging immigration.

The report comes at a sensitive time. President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Stephen Harper will meet in Washington next month to sign an agreement on closer co-operation on border security.

"Why is the prime minister heading such a disorganized government?" opposition Liberal Party legislator John McCallum asked in the House of Commons.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said he shared Wiersema's concerns and the government had made "made significant investments in improving security screening".

Ottawa was embarrassed in 1999 when U.S. officials arrested Algerian-born Ahmed Ressam as he crossed from Canada on a mission to blow up Los Angeles airport. Ressam had ignored a deportation order and used a faked birth certificate to gain a Canadian passport.

Wiersema said two of the Border Services' manuals used to help officers screen for security risks had not been updated for several years and one was last revised in 1999.

"There has been no analysis to determine whether the current risk indicators to help identify potentially inadmissible applicants are appropriate or properly applied," he said.

Almost two-thirds of foreign-based visa officers interviewed by Wiersema's team reported problems validating information provided by applicants.

Wiersema also found potential immigrants were not being properly assessed to see if they were medically admissible. Officials focus on syphilis and tuberculosis even though the federal Public Health Agency has identified 56 diseases that need monitoring.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; editing by Rob Wilson and Janet Guttsman)

Super visas will make immigrants' lives easier

BY MANPREET GREWAL, VANCOUVER SUN NOVEMBER 23, 2011

Although the jury is out on the Canadian government's moratorium on new applications to sponsor parents and grandparents for immigration, few would argue the wisdom of the new parent and grandparent super visa. In principle and on paper, it is a nice piece of policy work rooted in the reality of many immigrants' family lives.

The super visa is a multiple entry visa valid for up to 10 years, which will allow family members to remain in Canada for up to 24 months at a time. According to a Citizenship and Immigration Canada news release, this super visa will come into effect on Dec. 1 and should be issued within eight weeks of the application on aver-age. This means that instead of eight years, which is the usual processing time for permanent resident applications, parents and grandparents will be able to join their families here within two months.

Currently, more than 165,000 parents and grandparents who have applied to become permanent residents of Canada are still waiting for a decision. Each year out of the 38,000 applicants, many parents and grand-parents apply for a permanent resident status because that is their only option for visiting their children in their Canadian homes and spending any quality time with their families. Many of them were denied a visitor's visa on the grounds that their attachment to their children in Canada would prevent them from returning to their home country. In fact, many of them were rerouted to apply for permanent residency.

For those who just wanted to visit their children and grandchildren, the permanent resident status complicated their lives. They got caught up in the cycle of travelling back and forth from their home country to Canada to maintain their permanent resident status. It also caused undue duress on families when the different generations used to independent lifestyles became locked into living in extended family situations for lengthy periods. The relationship dynamics can change quickly between grandparents, parents, children and grandchildren when the joy of timely temporary visits is converted into a permanent living situation.

What was meant as a noble goal of family reunification many times created unbearable family conflict and sadness. Many seniors have regretted leaving their homeland behind and moving to Canada only to lead a life of dependency and isolation within their children's homes. Many immigrant children have been embarrassed by the family breakups caused by the intervention of seniors. The super visa will allow parents and grandparents to follow a natural flow between Canada and other countries without creating an unnecessary burden on the Canadian taxpayer or spinning families into unnecessary stress.

The visa might add a financial bur-den on the sponsoring family, how-ever, because parents and grandparents applying for a super visa will be required to obtain private health care insurance for their stay in Canada - but that will be a small price to pay.

What remains to be seen is the translation of the policy into practice. Parents and grandparents usually want to come here for family occasions like significant birthdays, weddings, deaths and births. Sometimes, immigration officials have been brutal in denying people entry to attend funerals of even close relatives. Following the moratorium on sponsorship applications for parents and grandchildren, any effective strategy has to take into consideration the volumes of people who will apply for the super visa and how effective Citizenship and Immigration Canada will be in processing them and allowing people to travel here in a timely manner. This will lead to pressure on visa offices over-seas and will require more resources to address the increased volumes to meet the required timelines.

Nor will the super visa solve the problem of parents and grandparents who want to spend their waning years living closer to their children in Canada and also to bring their dependent children here to live closer to their siblings. This moratorium will hurt them because their children could be excluded by age by the time they can apply. It is also not clear if the super visa will allow dependent children to visit with their families. Not being able to bring them along will effectively limit the parents and grandparents in their enjoyment of their own tourist visas.

Manpreet Grewal is an Abbotsford-based writer.

Chinese economist faces barriers to Canadian job market

11/23/2011 | Paul Gallant, Yonge Street

Source: citytv.com

Maggie Chen. Courtesy of Voula Monoholias

When Maggie Chen worked in Shanghai as an economist for the Chinese government, she looked at macro-economic trends in order to analyze the impact on the labour force, vocational training and the social-insurance system. After immigrating to Canada just over three years ago, Chen found herself in the middle of something of an economic experiment. The test: Will the Toronto job market embrace the skills and experience she has, or will she have to alter her career path to make a living?

"I'm struggling with switching between my plan A and B," says Chen, 41. "It's a cost-efficiency evaluation problem."

As an economist, Chen has a greater awareness than most Canadians of the factors that determine what kind of job she will get. Her decision to move to Toronto with her son was motivated mostly by lifestyle. She liked Canada's fresh air and clean water, as well as the social environment and the predictability of life here: "With systems in Canada, if you want something, you know what you have to put in and you know what your outcome will be."

But she soon faced the obstacles faced by many new Canadians: integrating into the workforce. The well-known example of the cab-driving doctor is only the most extreme scenario. A 2009 report by the Conference Board of Canada points out that lack of recognition of international qualifications and experience, lack of Canadian experience, language barriers, lack of workplace integration and diversity programs, and discrimination all get in the way, adding up to a lot of wasted talent. An off-cited Conference Board report from 2001 estimated that the cost of not recognizing the credentials and skills of Canadians, notably immigrants, is between $4.1 billion and $5.9 billion annually. As a result, the earnings of recent immigrants are, on average, $5.04 less per hour than Canadian-born employees.

After arriving in Canada, Chen spent a year studying accounting at Seneca College and then landed a six-month contract at The Martin Prosperity Institute. While at the institute, she contributed to a discussion paper on where Toronto's service workers tend to live, where they tend to work and the transportation and career-development issues they face. "We realized that service workers don't have a lot of time for training, and employers aren't going to find a lot of time to train them."

She also co-authored a paper, The Geography of the Creative Economy in China, which applies the theories of Richard Florida, author and head of the Prosperity Institute, to China's creative economy, finding that it is unevenly distributed across the country, making it "unlikely that China will shift to a post-industrial economy all at once."

After her contract at the Martin Prosperity Institute ended, Chen found herself unemployed for six months. To pay the bills, she took a job as a bookkeeper working for a fertilizer company in Aurora. Although she continues to look for work as an economist, she wonders if becoming a certified accountant might be the more practical option. In a way, Chen's still an economist, watching herself as a subject.

"It's very interesting to me, because you can see that Canada needs skilled workers and it's ready to integrate them, but there is a huge cost on both sides. The system has to be flexible, to train people, to accommodate diversity. But for immigrants, they need to be flexible, too, which takes time and effort. I can spend years looking for the right job or I spend that time studying something else. The terrible thing is how to decide. One of the biggest costs to immigrants is the uncertainty."

The good news side of Chen's experience is the growing number of resources available for new Canadians and awareness of the challenges they face. It's not like Canada can afford to snub its immigrants. Susan Brown, a senior policy advisor for labour force development at the City of Toronto, is familiar with Chen's situation, both theoretically and personally. As Chen's career mentor through the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council, Brown has been Chen's cheerleader through her job search.

"The thing about Maggie is that she has a plan A and a plan B. And she's made sure that plan B isn't waiting tables. New Canadians have to make sure that making money doesn't take them too far away from their goals," says Brown, who has a PhD in sociology. "The trick is to support immigrants to see the skills and education they have as being broad enough so they don't find themselves back at zero."

Salman Kureishy, manager of the International Accounting and Finance Professionals (IAFP) Program at Ryerson University's Chang School, immigrated to Canada from India five years ago. He gave himself a year to find a good job. He lucked out, finding one in less than nine months.

"I almost lost my way myself," he says. "Very often, people have to make compromises and work below their skill level. Sometimes, as long as it's possible to move up the ladder, that can work."

Kureishy is working with the Toronto Financial Services Alliance and the Conference Board of Canada to create an online tool for financial professionals to help them determine their own skill sets and how they meet job requirements.

"Sometimes applicants aren't really sure what their gaps and deficiencies are," Kureishy says.

Aside from the lack of personal networks that people born in Canada have, Brown isn't sure where Chen's gaps are. It's not language. It's not that there's much difference, from a researcher's perspective, between how you'd study economy of China and how you'd study Canada. It's not lack of trying. "I find Maggie drags me along as a mentor," says Brown. (A 2009 study by an economics professor at the University of British Columbia suggests that not having an English-sounding last name can be a factor.)

Chen, meanwhile, continues to earn her bookkeeping paycheque, even as she see the world through an economist's — and optimist's — eyes.

"One of the things China can learn from Toronto is to increase its tolerance, which is important to attract talent," says Chen. "People really try to help other people and there's tremendous economic value in that."