Canada best for immigrants, says UNDP

Toronto, Oct 6 (IANS) Canada has been lauded as a role model for the rest of the world for accepting new immigrants.
A new report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) praises Canada for its liberal and fair immigration policies.

Canada accepts more immigrants per capita than any other nation on earth in proportion to its population. With a population of about 34 million, Canada accepts more than 250,000 immigrants each year. They come from more than 150 countries, with India and China topping as the two main sources for immigration.

More than 30,000 Indians enter Canada as new immigrant each year, though it may take them up to six years to get their applications processed in New Delhi.

The UNDP report, which rates Canada as the fourth best country to live in, says immigration has benefited Canada and other wealthy countries as their populations age.

“All Canadians can be proud of what the report says about Canada,” David Morrison, UNDP executive secretary, said here Monday.

He said: “There are one billion people on the move and that number is going to grow as we look to the future. So the report argues that migration is a process to be managed rather than problem to be solved.

“The report really singles out Canada as a model as a receiving country.”

The UNDP official said: “Canada is historically a very open country. It is a country based on immigration to a very great extent. Today, Canada is one of the most open countries to migration in the world and accepts a large number of migrants each year, both on a permanent basis and as temporary workers.

It also accepts a large number, per capita given Canada’s population size, of asylum seekers.”

Citing how many other countries make it difficult for new immigrants to enter, the 217-page report says the cost of moving from Vietnam to Japan is six times the annual income per capita in that country.

“In one in 10 countries, the costs of a passport are about 10 per cent of the money you could expect to make on an annual basis,” the UNDP executive secretary said.

“So just preparing to become a legal migrant can be burdensome, which is why we have so many people migrating through illegal channels,” he added.

For more information and videos, please visit:

http://www.youtube.com/user/NexusCanadavisa

Canada holds on to second place as world’s top country brand

Canada has held on to the number-two spot as the world’s most respected country brand for the second year in row. The ranking comes from the fifth annual Country Brand Index (CBI) by FutureBrand of New York, NY.

“In a challenging year for the global economy, we’re especially pleased with the recognition that Canada’s tourism brand is holding firm in an intensely competitive international tourism marketplace,” said Greg Klassen, CTC senior vice president, Marketing Strategy. “Our travel marketing focuses on enticing travellers with extra-ordinary experiences against a backdrop of vibrant cities and spectacular natural settings. The strategy has market strength and is paying off. We’ve come a long way from an image of moose and mountains.”

After launching the new tourism brand-”Canada. Keep Exploring”-five years ago, Canada leapfrogged from twelfth place in 2006 to sixth place in 2007, and jumped again to achieve the second-ranked spot for the first time in 2008. This year, the United States received a bounce and has earned the coveted spot as the world’s top country brand for the first time, changing places with Australia, which slipped from the premier ranking to number three. Amidst this jostling, Canada’s tourism brand stands strong, resilient and competitive.

Said Klassen, “A country like the United States has a much bigger global footprint than Canada. As we are less well known, our tourism personality, or brand, has to carry more weight to succeed in getting travellers to choose us. This ranking is one way of validating that we’re on the right track.”

In the 28 different categories that the influential CBI uses to determine the Best Country Brand, Canada also ranked among the top five countries in ten of the categories, and ranked first in the categories of: Country You Would Most Like to Live In; Families; Resort and Lodging Options; Political Freedom; Safety.

Other countries making the Top Ten of the global 2009 CBI study include New Zealand, France, and Italy. CBI also identified the United Arab Emirates (UAE), China and Vietnam, respectively, as the top three “rising stars”-those likely to become even more competitive within the next five years.

CBI is a comprehensive study of around 3,000 international business and leisure travellers from nine countries-the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Australia, Japan, Brazil, UAE, Germany and Russia. The CTC has marketing programs in seven of them.

CBI examines how countries are branded and ranked, and identifies emerging global trends in the world’s fastest-growing economic sector-travel and tourism, which accounted for US$944 billion in international tourism receipts in 2008. This year’s index includes rankings and trends, themes in nation building and marketing issues, as well as in-depth analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the Top 10 country brands.

“This acknowledgement of our competitive edge is particularly satisfying as we head into the 2010 Winter Games,” added Klassen. “While the world is captivated, the CTC is executing a well-thought-out strategy to promote Canada’s tourism brand in its global markets. We’ve crafted the script and produced the movie that will inspire travellers to explore Canada because of the 2010 Winter Games-and long after the Olympic flame is extinguished.”

Stealing talent from Uncle Sam

Canada takes aim at skilled immigrants squeezed out by the U.S.

by Charlie Gillis and Colin Campbell on Tuesday, November 10,
Source: Mclean.ca

America’s best friend and oldest trading partner—that’s Canada. Happy member of the world’s largest free trading zone? Sure. But when it comes to the global competition for talent, well, friendship only goes so far. When immigration managers at Canada’s consulate in Los Angeles were asked last year to provide a snapshot of the immigration situation in their region, their tone sounded downright predatory. “Significant numbers of high quality economic class immigrants are being gleaned from this territory,” they wrote in a report obtained by Maclean’s. Most of the workers have been educated at U.S. universities, the document went on, obtaining degrees in valued fields like biomedical research or software engineering. With such talent in short supply in Canada, the pencil pushers in L.A. boasted, “this office regularly engages in promotion and recruitment efforts to exploit this talent.”

Exploiting? Canada? It would seem so—and at Uncle Sam’s expense. As a political war over immigrant workers rages south of the border, Canada has left a key under its mat for those who have been squeezed out and accused in some quarters of stealing high-paid work from native-born Americans. Each year, a wave of foreign-born employees in the U.S. exhausts the sixth and final year of work visas known as H-1Bs—documents created for companies who can’t find homegrown talent to fill certain jobs. But politicians in Congress have for years fought for a cap on the number of new H-1Bs (it now stands at 85,000), which has left thousands of educated, skilled workers out in the cold.

It is these workers Ottawa has been targeting, and its efforts appear to be paying off. During the period from 1998 to 2008, the number of skilled workers coming into the country from the United States more than doubled, from 1,969 to 4,085.

The trend has raised fears among business and political leaders south of the border, who see skilled immigrants as key drivers of economic growth. “The smartest people want to come here and that’s a huge advantage to us,” Microsoft founder Bill Gates told a congressional committee last month. “In a sense, we’re turning them away.” New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been calling for an increase in the number of visas, citing Canada, among other countries, as a destination for talent. He points to a study by the National Foundation for American Policy, which found that every time an American technology company requested an H-1B visa position, it added five additional jobs.

In some cases the restrictions have prompted companies to vote with their feet. Microsoft last year opened a 70,000-sq.-foot “development centre” in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond to house 300 workers hailing from more than 40 different countries. Many have “immigration challenges” preventing them from working in the U.S., explains Dennis Pilarinos, a former H-1B visa holder who returned to his native Vancouver to manage the facility. Now, at the sprawling complex, they work on everything from the XBox to Microsoft Office software. The rules have also been a boon for Canadian firms, says Tom Jenkins, executive chairman of Waterloo, Ont.-based Open Text. “It’s left Canada at a competitive advantage for attracting talent.”

Critics wonder whether offices like Microsoft’s represent a long-term gain for Canada. For some U.S. companies, the goal is to create a temporary home for employees before shifting them stateside as soon as possible; others are taking advantage of NAFTA provisions allowing people holding Canadian work permits to do business in both countries. In a practice known as “parking,” employers will place workers in Canadian branch offices, yet have them spend most of their time doing business south of the border.

But Canada’s innate appeal to immigrants often wins out in the end, says Peter Rekai, a Toronto immigration lawyer who has counselled former H-1B holders. “A lot of these workers end up liking things better here, and stay,” he says. “They find that it’s a better climate for them in Vancouver or Toronto—there are bigger [ethnic] communities, it’s more multicultural than where they were in the States.” Nor should Canadians underestimate the sheer demand for skills in certain parts of the country. Alberta, working in conjunction with Immigration Canada, has been running a special program targeting H-1B holders, offering permanent residency to workers with as little as one year’s experience in the U.S. In the past 18 months, it has received thousands of applications and accepted 393 workers—like Carlos Barrios, a civil engineer who jumped at the chance to move his family to Calgary from Houston. Barrios, who is originally from Venezuela, had spent seven years trying to get a green card in the U.S. before “Canada came in and offered me a chance to be a permament resident in less than six months. We love it here.”

That demand could work even more heavily in Canada’s favour as the U.S. economy languishes. This year was the first in several in which all of the H-1B spots made available in the U.S. weren’t filled on the first day (after six months, about 18,000 remain available). In other words, a shortage of work in the U.S., not a shortage of visas, may be driving these U.S. castaways north. Either way, Canada increasingly looks like a net brain-gainer after years of watching its best talent disappear south. The longer Uncle Sam takes to get his house in order, the better it is for us.

Scotiabank inks China banking partnership

* Allows immigrants to open Scotia account in China

* Gives Scotia an early shot at new customers

TORONTO , Nov 6 (Reuters) - Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS.TO) said on Friday it reached a partnership deal with China Everbright Bank [EVRBK.UL] that will allow people moving to Canada to open a Scotiabank account while still in China.

Canada's No. 3 bank said the deal gives Chinese immigrants and students planning to move to Canada the ability to open a Scotiabank account at any of the 119 participating Everbright branches in 33 cities across China.

"We are proud to partner with CEB and to be able to leverage their strong presence in China to reach out and meet the banking needs of people before they embark on their journey to Canada," Scotiabank's director of Asian markets, Gina Li, said in a statement.

Immigrants have become an appealing target for Canada's big banks as they seek to expand their safe and reliable retail banking operations. Immigrants are Canada's fastest-growing population group, and China is considered a key market for Canadian financial service companies.

Once clients open an account in China and move to Canada, they must visit a Scotiabank branch to activate the account, Scotiabank said.

Toronto-based Scotiabank is considered the most international of Canada's big five banks, with operations in much of Latin America, the Caribbean and parts of Asia.

China Everbright Bank, headquartered in Beijing, is one of the largest in China. (Reporting by Andrea Hopkins; editing by Peter Galloway)

Measuring up under the index of prosperity

HOW DOES one measure prosperity?

That question may have been answered by the Legatum Institute, a research and advisory group centred in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, with a Centre for Development and Entrepreneurship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The Legatum Institute has constructed the Prosperity Index, which measures global health and well-being by rating 104 nations that account for 90 per cent of the world’s population.

The index scores nations on nine different measures based on 79 different indicators. The goal behind it is to motivate policy-makers, academics and the media to learn more about what constitutes real prosperity.

Canada and the United States placed in the top 10 of the 104 countries rated by the index. Canada placed seventh, the United States 10th.

The top three nations were Finland, Switzerland and Sweden.

The bottom three nations were Yemen, Sudan and Zimbabwe.

The index highlights the importance of several factors in creating prosperity. One critical factor is the presence of a vibrant and productive entrepreneurial base that feeds innovation.

The index revealed the soundest economies are linked to environments that are friendly and supportive to entrepreneurs, and provide support for commercialization of new ideas.

The most highly correlated of all of the scales measured were economic fundamentals and entrepreneurship and innovation.

The entrepreneurship and innovation scale measured the ease with which new ideas led to commercial innovation in business, focusing on new startups, technological advancements and capacity.

The actual number of small businesses in each nation was not part of the measure. The index focused on the dynamic impact that such businesses had on innovative outcomes.

The index demonstrated that economic growth is encouraged by democratic institutions that are open, transparent and accountable.

It also measured personal freedom, in part, by focusing on whether individuals were free to start businesses and whether the nation was sufficiently secure for businesses to grow and prosper.

Canada ranked fourth out of 104 nations for entrepreneurship and innovation, while the United States ranked first. Canada ranked sixth for economic fundamentals, compared with the U.S. ranking of 14th.

Canada ranked sixth in terms of democratic institutions, compared with the U.S. ranking of second, while ranking 16th for education compared with a U.S. ranking of seventh.

The reason for Canada’s lower educational ranking was not clear, but it could be linked to student-teacher ratio, funding and years of secondary and post-secondary schooling.

The health of Canada’s people ranked 22nd. The U.S. failed to place in the top 25. The health measure included such items as infant mortality, health problems, number of health professionals, health satisfaction and issues relating to overall health and availability of health care.

Canada ranked ninth in terms of safety and security, while the United States ranked 19th. This measure included such aspects as how safe citizens felt, the levels of political terror and violence, rates for various crimes and the likelihood of people being displaced or becoming refugees.

Governance, a measure that captured such issues as regulation, political participation, effectiveness of government, confidence in the military, corruption and law, resulted in a ranking of ninth for Canada, compared to 16th for the United States.

Canada scored very high in personal freedoms, ranking third, compared to the U.S. ranking of eighth. Personal freedoms measured such things as freedom of choice, religion, movement, and ethnic tolerance.

Social capital focused on the overall influence on life satisfaction of such factors as relationships, helping others, charity, organizational memberships and trust. Canada scored ninth in social capital, while the U.S. ranked seventh.

While there is always room for improvement, Canada held its own in the third annual Prosperity Index, demonstrating that prosperity is linked to many aspects of governance and community.

A key strength was Canada’s rating for entrepreneurship and innovation, a measure that captures the extent to which entrepreneurship is favoured and embraced.

The index also showed that entrepreneurs play a vital role in growing a nation that is worth living in, and that is something to celebrate. The Prosperity Index can be viewed at www.prosperity.com.

BC's Top Employers

Background
Now entering its sixth year, BC's Top Employers is an annual competition organized by the editors of Canada's Top 100 Employers. This special designation recognizes the British Columbia employers that lead their industries in offering exceptional places to work.

Selection Process
Employers are evaluated by the editors of Canada's Top 100 Employers using the same eight criteria as the national competition: (1) Physical Workplace; (2) Work Atmosphere & Social; (3) Health, Financial & Family Benefits; (4) Vacation & Time Off; (5) Employee Communications; (6) Performance Management; (7) Training & Skills Development; and (8) Community Involvement. Employers are compared to other organizations in their field to determine which offers the most progressive and forward-thinking programs.

2010 WINNERS:

(in alphabetical order)

6S Marketing Inc.
airG Inc.
BC Housing Management Commission
BC Hydro
BC Public Service
British Columbia Liquor Distribution Branch
British Columbia Lottery Corporation
British Columbia Public School Employers' Assoc.
British Columbia Safety Authority
British Columbia's Children's Hospital Foundation
Cactus Restaurants Ltd.
Certified General Accountants Association of Canada
Clearly Contacts Ltd.
Club Intrawest
Coast Mountain Bus Company Ltd.
Davis LLP
Dayton & Knight Ltd.
Deeley Harley-Davidson Canada
EDS Advanced Solutions Inc.
FinancialCAD Corporation
Fraser Health Authority
Goldcorp Inc.
Golder Associates Ltd.
Great Little Box Company Ltd.
GrowthWorks Capital Limited
Harbour Air Ltd.
HSBC Bank Canada
Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Ledcor Industries Inc.
Mountain Equipment Co-op
Next Level Games Inc.
Nicola Valley Institute of Technology
Nintendo of Canada Ltd.
Parklane Homes Ltd.
Progressive Solutions Inc.
Providence Health Care
Provincial Health Services Authority
Rescan Environmental Services Ltd.
Royal British Columbia Museum Corp.
Schneider Electric PMC Victoria
Sierra Systems Group Inc.
Simon Fraser University
Sophos Inc.
Surrey, City of
Telus Corporation
University of British Columbia
University of Victoria
Vancity Group
Vancouver Coastal Health Authority
Vancouver International Airport Authority
Vancouver Island Health Authority
Vancouver, City of
Vision Critical Communications Inc.
Whistler, Resort Municipality of
Wickaninnish Inn, The

Newcomers to Canada benefit from the Library Settlement Partnership at Ottawa Public Library

November 02, 2009

BY Ottawa Public Library

Ottawa Public Library (OPL) staff, along with partners from Citizenship and Immigration Canada and various settlement agencies, celebrated the Library Settlement Partnerships (LSP) program, a service now available at the OPL that will help newcomers to Ottawa more successfully settle and integrate into their new home. Made possible through a three-way partnership between Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the settlement sector and public libraries, the Library Settlement Partnerships program provide information referral, and other services for newcomers in ten branches of the Ottawa Public Library. The program has been rolled out in 11 communities in Ontario and is funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

“Our government is helping make settlement services more accessible to immigrants,” said Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Jason Kenney. “Through this program, newcomers living in the area can access information on housing, transportation and employment opportunities in their neighbourhood library. Improving their access to settlement services will not only ease their transition to life in Canada, but also strengthen the community as a whole.”

“We are enormously proud to be able to provide newcomers with a program that will make their move to a new country a little bit easier. By offering the LSP program in our branches, newcomers to Ottawa can make a smoother transition to their new home,” said Barbara Clubb, city librarian. “The library already offers many services to newcomers of all ages. These range from story times in Mandarin to preparing for the citizenship test in Arabic. The Library Settlement Partnerships program makes a wonderful complement to the already existing services.”

The celebration of the Library Settlement Partnerships program, held at the Main Branch, coincided with the official unveiling of the branch’s recently renovated Newcomer Services space. The space provides the newcomer information officer a dedicated area in which to meet with clients and develop programs to help newcomers settle into the community. The funding to construct the Newcomer Services space was provided by the Friends of the Ottawa Public Library Association (FOPLA).

LSP partners include Citizenship & Immigration Canada, the Ottawa Public Library, the Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization, the Lebanese and Arab Social Services Agency, the Somali Centre for Family Services, the Ottawa Chinese Community Services Centre and Conseil Économique & Social d'Ottawa-Carleton.

For more information about the many services offered to newcomers at OPL, please visit the OPL website at www.BiblioOttawaLibrary.ca or call Info Service at 613-580-2940.

Longer lines and surprises in the plan for 2010

Source: Metro
author: Guidy Mamann

In Parliament on Friday, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney tabled his immigration plan for 2010.

Although the overall target will remain the same as in 2009 — 240,000-265,000 new immigrants — there will definitely be some big winners and losers in the year to come.

The big winners in the immigration game this year are the provinces, Quebec in particular, which will be handed the right to pick an even greater percentage of Canada’s immigrants than they have in the past.

In 2008, we accepted 43,360 skilled workers who came to Canada accompanied by 60,376 spouses and children. This overall total will drop to about 101,000 from 103,700 in 2010, with a greater percentage being reserved for those destined for Quebec. What is truly surprising about this number is that immigration experts expected the skilled worker program would be reduced so that the immigration department can allow for increased numbers in the Canadian Experience Class, which was introduced in September, 2008. The immigration department allowed for 5,000-7,500 immigrants to be landed in this category in 2009. However, it is only planning to admit 2,670-2,856 in this category in 2010. Most expected that the CEC would expand and the skilled worker program would contract. Inexplicably, the opposite is being planned.

Our once-proud business immigration program will continue to take a beating in 2010. In 2008, Canada received 447 entrepreneurs (who promised to start a business here), 164 “self-employed” individuals (farmers, and those contributing to artistic or cultural life in Canada) and 2,831 investors (who gave our government an interest-free loan of $400,000 for five years). Including their dependants, this group of 12,400 in 2008 will drop further to 10,800-11,620 individuals, a 6.5-13 per cent reduction.

So much for attracting foreign capital to stimulate our sagging economy.

Nannies should be smiling as their numbers could increase by nearly nine per cent in 2010. In 2008, 6,157 nannies were landed here with 4,300 dependants in tow. While this number is welcome given the fact that we have an aging society and more in-home care is needed, this number is hard to reconcile with a mere 3,442 business immigrants landed in 2008.

In 2008, Canada landed 21,860 refugees and is planning to land anywhere from 19,600-26,000 in 2010. I am betting that the actual number will be closer to the lower number than the higher, leading to a drop rather than a gain.

Also, it looks like humanitarian applications will be harder to get approved. Such applications are usually made by those who are here for a long time without status and are ultimately allowed to stay. In 2008, we accepted 10,627 in this category. This number will definitely drop to anywhere from 7,000-9,000 i.e. a huge drop in compassion of about 15-34 per cent.

Finally, I have some advice for those Canadians who might be falling in love with someone overseas. You will need more patience in 2010 because the line for sponsoring spouses (and any children) will be getting even longer. In 2008, we sponsored 47,451 spouses and children. In 2010, the immigration department has only budgeted for 42,000-45,000. With our growing population, it is hard to understand why the department would think Canadians would need to sponsor fewer spouses and children next year. In fact, the 42,000 figure hasn’t been seen in Canada since before 2003. Typically the department will stick to their numbers regardless of our needs. As usual, we will just have to patient.

That is the plan for 2010.

Saskatchewan PNP Update: Province introduces new procedural guidelines for faster processing

Earlier this month, the province of Saskatchewan introduced new procedural guidelines for the Entrepreneur category of the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program (SINP) that will speed up the processing of applications under this program. In recent years, Saskatchewan has been an attractive destination for immigrants to Canada because of the many employment and investment opportunities it offers.

According to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business ranking of top business-friendly cities, Saskatchewan is home to the most business-friendly cities in Canada. The province is currently experiencing a business boom and its highest population growth since 1952. As the economy grows, the creation of jobs and investment opportunities are increasing.

For this reason, the province has amended its immigration strategy to welcome a greater number of qualified immigrants.

“This new process will make Saskatchewan more competitive in Canada. It will bring talented managers and entrepreneurs to the province, it will spread opportunities for investment to more communities and create jobs,” said Saskatchewan’s Minister Responsible for Immigration Rob Norris.

Under the new process, nominations for the SINP Entrepreneur category are expected to be finalized within six months from the date of application.

In addition, three new streams have been added to this category:

* The Large Scale Investor Stream, for applicants who wish to invest $10-million or more in Saskatchewan;
* The Science and Technology Stream, for applicants who have an innovative idea or plan to partner with an existing Saskatchewan science and technology body; and
* The Young Farmers Stream, for applicants under the age of 40 who have farming experience.

Norris also announced plans to add two new streams to the SINP Entrepreneur category in the future: one for entrepreneurs to partner with First Nations and Métis businesses or communities, and one that will facilitate business succession in the province.

Source: Canada Immigration News

Quebec Immigration Update: Changes to the Quebec Skilled Worker Program will allow the province to welcome more immigrants

The new selection system for Quebec Skilled Workers may make it easier for some applicants to qualify.

The most significant change reduces the overall selection pass mark from 59 to 55 for a single applicant, and from 68 to 63 for a couple.

The breakdown of points awarded for education has been amended to recognize more types of diplomas than under the previous system. Undergraduate diplomas attesting to 1 or 2 years of university education and more vocational and technical diplomas are now considered.

In addition, the “Areas of Training” criterion, which awards bonus points to applicants with certain educational or training backgrounds, has been changed to reflect the current needs of Quebec’s economy and labour market. Applicants with certain educational backgrounds will not only benefit from more points, but will also qualify for priority processing.

The breakdown of points awarded for an applicant’s age has also been adjusted, so that it declines less rapidly after the age of 35 than under the previous system.

The more favourable weighting of the education and age criteria could make it easier for some applicants, who did not qualify under the previous system, to become eligible to immigrate to Canada under the Quebec Skilled Worker category.

Successful applicants obtain a Quebec Selection Certificate (CSQ), and must then submit their application to Citizenship and Immigration Canada (a Canadian visa office) for medical and security checks and the issuance of a Canadian immigration (permanent resident) visa.

This new selection system is in effect as of October 14 2009. Applications that were received by Quebec immigration offices before that date will be assessed under whichever system is more favourable to the applicant, while those received on or after October 14 will be assessed under the new system.

Source: Canada Immigration News