A bottom-up immigration strategy

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is to be congratulated for the urgency with which he is moving to transform the chaotic and dysfunctional nature of Canada’s current immigration system.

However, abdicating the immigrant selection process to the private sector is not the solution nor is it the remedy to overcoming a sclerotic immigration bureaucracy.

Reforming the whole continuum of Canada’s immigration and integration process needs to be undertaken and must involve many more partners. The following are some preliminary steps to strengthen a bottom-up, community-driven and owned process to create a more coherent, joined up and effective immigration system.

Community partnerships: The broad range of roles and responsibilities played by local agencies in the private, public and voluntary sectors who provide essential immigrant and settlement services needs to be strengthened. Immigration involves many local players and this is an opportunity to release the many existing (but under-resourced) place-based, bottom-up innovations that involve not just employers but a whole range of other important local stakeholders who are directly impacted by immigration. Immigration is an area that cries out for meaningful collaborative partnerships. For example, local stakeholder organizations are ideally placed to work with government to implement local, targeted immigrant attraction strategies in response to local labour market supply needs which can then be tied into custom designed post migration settlement and integration efforts.

Addressing institutional barriers: The dilatory way in which international education and professional qualifications are assessed and addressed in Canada is inexcusable. If Canada is to compete and succeed in the global marketplace of the 21st century, the present endless discussions with professional and trades associations must be replaced with robust and time-limited work to eliminate exclusionary barriers in the workplace and the implementation of professional and organizational practices that are inclusive and equitable.

Intergovernmental relations: The present climate of federal-provincial ambiguity regarding Ontario’s role in immigration has severely hampered the ability to respond to the changing dynamics around immigration in this province. The current inertia in intergovernmental negotiations must be saved from its low-level, bureaucratic backwater and given priority and profile. Given the huge impact and significance of immigration on towns and cities across the province, rather than the current token tickbox exercises, these negotiations need to formally involve municipalities in immigration matters.

Public education: The receptivity of the receiving society is a key determinant in ensuring the successful integration and participation of newcomers. The quality of local interactions in employment, schools, health care, housing, public transportation and so on is the glue that retains and keeps immigrants. If it is a hostile environment, it becomes that much more difficult to attracting immigrant and provide effective settlement services. Efforts are required to not only reduce public anxiety and apprehension about immigrants and immigration, but to promote the positive realities and benefits.

Local planning: Much stronger structural planning and co-ordinating mechanisms need to be put in place at the local level. In addition, much more useful and up-to-date information needs to be collected and analyzed that can actually increase our capacity to make informed decisions at the local level. This body of knowledge needs to be disseminated widely and in forms that are accessible to a wide range of audiences.

These preliminary suggestions offer a way by which we, as Canadians can begin to assume more involvement in making immigration work at the local, community level. An effective immigration system will be only be successful as a dynamic two-way process in which newcomers and we, as the receiving society, can work together to build secure, inclusive and prosperous communities.

Tim Rees is the former manager of immigration strategy with the City of Hamilton and has been involved in immigrant integration issues for the last 30 years.

Can you enter Canada if you have a criminal conviction?

By Steven Meurrens
May 4, 2012

In November 2011, the Auditor General of Canada Michael Ferguson released a report criticizing the Canadian government for having what he essentially described as a completely inadequate screening process for detecting people who pose a security risk to Canadians.

As one might expect, this did not go over too well with a Conservative government that spent much of the autumn session pushing a public safety agenda. It responded to the auditor general’s report by promising to comply with his recommendations, and stating that it had already begun to make significant investments to improve security screening. Previously, people with criminal convictions occasionally entered Canada undetected. Border officials would also often let them into Canada on a short-term basis without requiring much paperwork. Now, both of these scenarios are likely to become less common.

It is, therefore, important that people who have been convicted of a criminal offence determine in advance whether they will likely be prohibited from entering Canada.

 Will you be inadmissible to Canada?

If a conviction exists, then it is necessary to determine whether the conviction’s equivalent offence in Canada would be a summary, hybrid or indictable offence under an act of Parliament. Then, one must determine when the individual’s sentence was completed, and whether the offence is one such that passage of time nullifies the inadmissibility.

 Consequences for common offences

Here are immigration consequences for some of the more common offences that people have. In general, offences involving the operation of a motor vehicle while impaired by alcohol will render persons inadmissible to Canada for a period of 10 years following the completion of the sentence. The same is true for assault.

Trafficking cocaine, breaking and entering, and sexual assault will generally render persons criminally inadmissible to Canada. The passage of time will not in and of itself resolve this inadmissibility. On the other hand, the possession of a small amount of marijuana, multiple speeding tickets or engaging in prostitution usually does not result in an individual being inadmissible to Canada.

What to do if inadmissible 

If someone is criminally inadmissible to Canada, but needs to enter the country, they then can either apply for rehabilitation or for a temporary resident permit (“TRP”).  If a rehabilitation application is approved, then the person is no longer inadmissible to Canada, and can come and go as he or she wants. A TRP, however, is only good for one entry.

A certain period of time must pass before an individual who has been convicted of an offence can apply for rehabilitation; the general rule of thumb is it has to be more than five years since completion of a sentence. Applicants are required to provide their criminal record, court dispositions, reference letters and other documents demonstrating that the person is not a threat to Canadian public safety.

Immigration officers were previously willing to admit people into the country without the above documentation, but it is now unlikely due to the increased focus on enhancing security screening. As a result, if you have been convicted of a criminal offence, then it’s up to you to determine whether you are inadmissible, and the steps that you can take to overcome that.

Source: http://canadianimmigrant.ca/immigrate/can-you-enter-canada-if-you-have-a-criminal-conviction