The Canadian Government Must Expand Opportunities for Immigrant Investors, Study Concludes

Annual Contribution of $2 Billion to the Canadian Economy

TORONTO, March 24 /CNW/ - Three prominent Canadian economists recommend that the Canadian government expand its Immigrant Investor Program, which provides an annual contribution estimated at $2 billion to the Canadian economy.

A study released today by Analysis Group measured the economic impact of the Program, which was founded 25 years ago to encourage the immigration of individuals likely to provide a positive economic and social contribution to Canada. In the study, Roger Ware, Professor of Economics at Queen's University, Pierre Fortin, Emeritus Professor of Economics at Université du Québec à Montréal and Pierre Emmanuel Paradis, Senior Economist at Analysis Group, conclude that Canada should welcome more immigrant investors, as they directly contribute to alleviating the country's demographic and economic challenges.

The authors of the study state that the "Immigrant Investor Program should be not only maintained, but expanded. It is financially profitable from a management standpoint, and results in the presence in Canada of thousands of affluent families who significantly contribute to the economy. Moreover, their demographic profile and the integration of the second generation directly contribute to respond positively to our future economic and social challenges. Also, because they still represent only 3% of new immigrants to Canada, their numbers may well be raised substantially."

Since its inception, more than 130,000 individuals have immigrated to Canada through the Immigrant Investor Program. About 34,400 of these immigrants were principal applicants and the rest were their family members. Program participants must demonstrate a net worth of at least $800,000 (all countries combined), commit to an interest-free investment of $400,000 for five years and possess adequate business and management experience.

Mr. Ware, Mr. Fortin and Mr. Paradis indicate that the Canadian Program is clearly competitive vis-à-vis similar initiatives designed to attract wealthy immigrants throughout the developed world. In addition, they recommend that Canadian authorities leverage the study's analysis as a starting point to optimise the Program's criteria and conditions compared to similar international initiatives and improve its weaker aspects. Specifically, they suggest reducing the processing time of applications, analysing the levels of initial contribution and wealth requirements, and improving the integration of new immigrants.

On the selection process, the study states that "although the number of applications processed reached an all-time high of 3,700 in 2008, it represented only half of the total number of applicants during this same year. A huge inventory has resulted from this excess demand, with nearly 9,000 files still waiting to be processed at the end of 2008."

The benefits of the Program include direct foreign cash inflows, productive use of investor funds, acquisition of personal assets (houses, cars, etc.) and personal consumption items, net productive contribution of immigrant workers and entrepreneurs, and the integration of second-generation immigrants in Canadian labour force and society.

Additional findings of the Analysis Group study include:

- top-5 countries of last permanent residence for immigrant investors
in Canada are China (29 %), Hong Kong (23 %), Taiwan (22 %), South
Korea and Iran. After 1999, mainland China became the main source
country, accounting for 53% of all investor immigrants;
- British Columbia is chosen as the primary province of settlement by
49% of all investor immigrants, followed by Ontario (23%) and Quebec
(22%);
- each immigrant investor is accompanied, on average, by three family
members, which is almost twice as much as in other economic immigrant
categories;
- the majority of immigrant investors were between 40 and 49 years old
at the time of immigration;
- educational attainment has substantially improved over time, as the
proportion of individuals with a high school education or less
dropped from 50% to 30% in recent years after 2000;
- immigrant investors are active players in the Canadian economy,
having acquired an average of $721,500 in personal and business
assets in Canada, including real estate;
- a majority of immigrant investors (82% of respondents) reside in
Canada on average between 10 and 12 months a year. About 90% of them
bought an apartment or house after settling in the country;
- among self-employed immigrant investors, some 30% were active in
business in Canada, with 12% having invested more than $1 million in
business assets;
- about 80% participated in philanthropic activities by donating their
time and/or financial support to a charity organization.

Canadians immigration looks at future skills needs as economy improves

Posted on 23 March 2010 by Apostolos Papapostolou
Source: http://canada.greekreporter.com

The Canadian economy is doing better than expected. There are increased job opportunities, overall trade data including oil exports are on the up. It is against this background that Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced recently a consultation to identify likely future skills needs. Canadian immigration will look at possible changes to make it easier for immigrants with the right skills to gain entry to Canada.
The Canadian Government would like views of Canadian on steps to take to make sure that Canada fully recovers from the recent Worldwide economic recession. The consultations will consider worker shortages in trades and professions in Canada. It will also look at factors that affect an immigrant’s ability to find a job in Canada.

The immigration consultations will help with the development of instructions to immigration officers on which economic immigration applications should be eligible for processing to help meet Canada’s skilled labour needs. The Action Plan for Faster Immigration resulted in the first set of instructions being issued in November 2008 which kept the backlog of applications from growing, and reduced the waiting times for immigrants.
“The Action Plan for Faster Immigration is designed to make immigration more responsive to Canada’s economic conditions. When these conditions change, the instructions are meant to change too,” said Minister Kenney. “The first set of instructions has had a significant impact, but our research shows it is time to revise them to make sure they continue to meet their goals.”
Canadian immigration says that the Action Plan for Faster Immigration has reduced the federal skilled worker category backlog by 40 percent. Previously there was a backlog of 600,000 applicants. Canadian skilled worker immigration applications are now dealt with within a year. This compares with processing times of perhaps six years under the old immigration system.