Changes would take away automatic citizenship

By Mark Dunn, Senior National Reporter

Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, in Vancouver, Wednesday February 22, 2012, (CARMINE MARINELLI/QMI AGENCY)

OTTAWA - Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says the government is considering citizenship law changes to prevent so-called anchor babies from automatically becoming citizens.

Kenney says his department is not sure how widespread the problem is of foreign women duping the system by coming to Canada on tourist and visitor visas for the sole purpose of having a child.

"This is not a new phenomena. We have been aware of this happening for some time," Kennedy said in Vancouver where he announced changes to speed up the recognition of foreign credentials.

"In fact ... hospital administrators in Montreal have raised the problem with me ...in that they have seen a growing number of people ostensibly as visitors giving birth to children and immediately leaving without paying their hospital bill."

Kenney was reacting to reports in Canada and Asia that pregnant Chinese women are coming to Canada to have a baby so the child is a citizen.

The Chinese fraud is mostly based in Hong Kong where bogus immigration agents are coaching wealthy mainlanders how to keep their pregnancies hidden while entering Canada.

All babies born in Canada are considered citizens - meaning they could return later in life as students, for example, and sponsor their parents under family reunification applications. Many other countries do not grant automatic citizenship to babies born to foreigners.

Kenney could not say if the problem is widespread outside the Chinese community.

"We don't want people to get the idea that citizenship is a way to get a passport of convenience, that Canada is a country to be exploited," he said.

Opposition politicians said any changes being considered should be brought before Parliament, and not left for the minister to arbitrarily implement as he has done in the past.

"Allow politicians from all political parties to weigh in on the issue as opposed to 'Gee whiz, I hear about this, I want to glorify the issue and I want to talk tough,"' said Liberal immigration critic Kevin Lamoureux.

Kenney's officials say the matter will be brought before the Commons citizenship and immigration committee before changes are made.

Mark.Dunn@sunmedia.ca

Twitter:MarkDunnSun

Total complete applications received since July 1, 2011

On January 31, 2012, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) and Statistics Canada updated the 2006 edition of the National Occupation Classification (NOC) with a 2011 version. The changes affect Federal Skilled Worker applications in certain occupations.

For more information, see the full notice.

Between July 1, 2011, and June 30, 2012, a maximum of 10,000 complete Federal Skilled Worker applications will be considered for processing. Within the 10,000 cap, a maximum of 500 Federal Skilled Worker applications per eligible occupation will be considered for processing within this same time frame.
Starting November 5, 2011, CIC will accept a total of 1,000 applications from international students who have completed at least two years of study towards a PhD and or who graduated from a Canadian PhD program in the 12 months before the date their application is received byCIC. Find out more about eligibility for this category or see the number of applications received to date on this site.
These limits do not apply to applications with an offer of arranged employment (job offer).

Note: Due to the high volume of applications we receive, the CIO cannot review each application for completeness on the same day it arrives at the office. The numbers on this page are updated at least once a week, but these figures are meant as a guide only. There is no guarantee that an application sent in now will fall within the cap by the time it reaches the CIO.

*The number of complete Federal Skilled Worker applications received is approximate.
**Once the cap has been reached, we can only accept applications for this occupation from people with an existing offer of arranged employment.

Eligible Occupation (by National Occupational Classification [NOC] code)	Number of Complete Applications Received*
0631 – Restaurant and Food Service Managers	500 (Cap reached)**
0811 – Primary Production Managers (Except Agriculture)	138
1122 – Professional Occupations in Business Services to Management	500 (Cap reached)**
1233 – Insurance Adjusters and Claims Examiners	439
2121 – Biologists and Related Scientists	500 (Cap reached)**
2151 – Architects	500 (Cap reached)**
3111 – Specialist Physicians	500 (Cap reached)**
3112 – General Practitioners and Family Physicians	500 (Cap reached)**
3113 – Dentists	500 (Cap reached)**
3131 – Pharmacists	500 (Cap reached)**
3142 – Physiotherapists	273
3152 – Registered Nurses	500 (Cap reached)**
3215 – Medical Radiation Technologists	70
3222 – Dental Hygienists and Dental Therapists	41
3233 – Licensed Practical Nurses	500 (Cap reached)**
4151 – Psychologists	152
4152 – Social Workers	500 (Cap reached)**
6241 – Chefs	144
6242 – Cooks	341
7215 – Contractors and Supervisors, Carpentry Trades	157
7216 – Contractors and Supervisors, Mechanic Trades	404
7241 – Electricians (Except Industrial and Power System)	189
7242 – Industrial Electricians	199
7251 – Plumbers	53
7265 – Welders and Related Machine Operators	54
7312 – Heavy-Duty Equipment Mechanics	61
7371 – Crane Operators	13
7372 – Drillers and Blasters – Surface Mining, Quarrying and Construction	12
8222 – Supervisors, Oil and Gas Drilling and Service	147

Applications received from PhDapplicants:

Applications received toward the overall cap: 197 of 1,000

Toward a better refugee-determination system

Canada has a long-standing and well-deserved reputation as a place of refuge for people fleeing persecution in their homelands.

At the same time, however, it has also gained repute as an easy mark for the unscrupulous who fraudulently use our generous refugeedetermination system as a way to get into Canada without submitting to standard immigration requirements and procedures.

Last week the federal government introduced what it calls the Protecting Canada's Immigration Act, legislation intended to make it more difficult for what Immigration Minister Jason Kenney calls "bogus" refugee claimants to game the system, and to streamline the existing cumbersome screening process.

The bill aims to dissuade refugee claimants coming from what the government classifies as "safe" countries - notably European Union member states, from which there has lately been an uptick in refugee claimants. Safe countries, by the government's definition, are ones with democratic political systems, solid human-rights records and independent judiciaries.

The processing of refugee claimants from countries designated as safe would be fasttracked - completed within 45 days as opposed to the 1,000 days it currently takes. Failed claimants from these countries would be immediately deported without recourse to appeal.

The legislation also proposes harsher penalties for those who engage in human smuggling, as well as for asylum-seekers who pay smuggling syndicates to get them to Canadian shores. And it allows for the collection of biometric data - fingerprints and digital photos - of people entering Canada on a visitor visa, a work permit or a study visa.

Both of these measures are advisable. Human smuggling is an odious enterprise that should be severely punished. And while the smugglers' clients are perhaps desperate people in many cases, they are nevertheless participants in an illegal activity that should be strongly discouraged.

The collection of biometric information is a sensible security precaution that will be a valuable tool in preventing people from slipping into the country with false identities.

However, refugee advocates have a point in their complaints that the legislation is too harsh in the removal of appeal provisions for persons from designated safe countries seeking refugee status.

The measure was invoked in large part due to a flood of applicants of Roma origin from eastern European countries, notably Hungary. And while Hungary and others, such as Romania, Bulgaria and the Czech and Slovak republics, would qualify as safe under the proposed criteria, all of them have a history of discrimination against and persecution of their Roma populations.

As such, closer examination of their cases than the legislation allows might show some of these to be legitimate claimants.

Also, the new bill would eliminate a provision in previous refugee legislation that called for a committee of experts to decide which countries should be designated as safe. This should be restored. It is preferable to leaving it up to the government - any government - to decide, a process in which humanitarian considerations could be overridden by political considerations.

Shielding the refugee system from false claimants is not only in the best interest of Canadians, on whom they are a financial burden, but also of legitimate applicants who stand to lose out if bogus claimants cast the system as a whole into disrepute.

Establishing a system that is both efficient and fairly balanced is a daunting challenge, but it is one that should be tackled realistically and at the same time in a spirit of generosity that should stand as a Canadian hallmark.

© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Toward+better+refugee+determination+system/6182455/story.html#ixzz1n4SsMiCJ

Pregnant Chinese women conning immigration system

BY MARK DUNN ,SENIOR NATIONAL REPORTER

OTTAWA - The government plans to crack down on a scam in which pregnant Chinese women are coming to Canada for the sole purpose of giving birth so the child becomes a citizen, QMI Agency has learned.

The fraud is mostly based in Hong Kong where unscrupulous consultants are coaching wealthy Chinese mainlanders how to keep their pregnancies hidden entering Canada on student or visitor visas.

Avoid any baby or maternity items in luggage, wear dark clothing going through customs to look slimmer, and arrive in Canada no later than in the seventh month of pregnancy are among the tips given.

Once here, the women go into hiding until they are due to give birth and then go to a hospital to deliver the baby. No one knows the extent of the abuse.

All babies born in Canada are considered citizens - meaning they could return later in life as a student, for example, and sponsor their parents under family reunification.

It is illegal under Canadian immigration laws to lie about the purpose of one's visit. A woman would be denied entry if she told an immigration officer the reason for the trip is to have a baby.

Unlike Canada and the United States, Australia, Britain, South Africa, New Zealand and many European countries have rules in place where citizenship is not automatically granted to foreigners who give birth there.

Officials in Immigration Minister Jason Kenney's office said changes are coming to strengthen laws.

"We are aware of crooked consultants who encourage pregnant women to illegally travel to Canada to give birth and gain access to Canada's considerable benefits," said Candice Malcolm, a spokeswoman for Kenney.

"We condemn the practice of circumventing our laws to game the system."

Changes being considered include making pregnancy exams a condition of obtaining visas, and rewriting rules so automatic citizenship does not come with birth on Canadian soil.

Mark.Dunn@sunmedia.ca

Twitter:MarkDunnSun

Canada’s foreign worker boom

Since 2006, Canada’s low-wage temporary workforce population has ballooned by 70 per cent

by John Geddes on Tuesday, February 21, 2012 11:00am

It was the worst imaginable way to jolt Canadians toward noticing that low-wage foreign workers are an increasingly important segment of the country’s labour force. Ten workers, nine from Peru and one from Nicaragua, recruited to fill jobs vaccinating chickens, were killed, and three others badly injured, when their van ran a stop sign and collided with a truck at a rural crossroads in southwestern Ontario. The truck driver, a Canadian, also died in the crash early this month. The accident thrust the reality of who works at the lowest tiers of farming and some other sectors briefly into the news. But even with that burst of attention, the swelling statistics on migrants remain little discussed. When Stephen Harper’s Conservatives won power in 2006, 255,440 foreign temporary workers lived in Canada. By 2010, their ranks had expanded to 432,682.

They are an increasingly diverse group. A changing mix of migrant occupations signals a shift in the way employers rely on foreigners to do jobs Canadians won’t. York University immigration expert Alan Simmons says the rapid growth has come outside traditional farm and domestic work, in industries like meat-packing, warehousing and hotels. Temporary workers now greatly outnumber newcomers accepted for good. From 2006 to 2010, the number of foreigners living in Canada as permanent residents on their way to citizenship increased only 12 per cent, from 251,642 to 280,681, during a five-year span when the foreign temporary-worker population ballooned by nearly 70 per cent.

The two groups enter Canada under starkly contrasting terms. Those admitted as permanent residents are joining family members who are already citizens, or have been selected under a federal points system that values education and a good grasp of English or French, or are refugees. Those allowed in temporarily are accepted only because their employers applied to the federal government to recruit abroad to fill vacancies they couldn’t interest Canadians in at the prevailing wage.

The fast growth of this temporary class fits with broader federal policy. Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney have signalled they want to more closely match permanent immigrants, too, to immediate job openings. That could mean fewer with advanced degrees, more with in-demand practical skills. Some provinces have already taken on a bigger role in carefully picking immigrants to meet employer demands. Temporary workers have always needed a clear job offer before being allowed in. And Kenney firmed up regulations last year to make sure those offers are genuine. As well, he put a four-year limit on how long temporary workers can stay. Last fall, Kenney and Human Resources Minister Diane Finley met with business leaders, along with labour representatives, in Calgary to discuss making the policy even more “responsive to labour market needs,” although no further policy changes have so far been announced.

A minority of these temporary workers are given the chance to become permanent immigrants. Domestic workers—often live-in caregivers from the Philippines—typically come on short-term visas, but are allowed to apply to immigrate after two years here. Some high-skilled foreign workers can also hope to make the leap from temporary to permanent, but most are offered little or no chance to stay.

Among the provinces, only Manitoba has passed comprehensive legislation to protect foreign temporary workers. “We had identified a pattern that I think others across the country also saw,” says Ben Rempel, assistant deputy minister in the province’s Ministry of Labour and Immigration, “of frequent abuse of foreign temporary workers, most often by unregulated recruitment activity, sometimes by employers who didn’t honour the terms of contracts offered.” Manitoba’s 2009 law requires companies bringing in foreign workers to register with the province. Recruiters must also be licensed. Fines for violations of rules on, for instance, pay and working conditions can be high, up to $25,000 for an individual and $50,000 for a corporation.

Rempel says other provinces are now looking closely at Manitoba’s model. International experience is also well worth examining. Other rich countries have long struggled with how to treat large numbers of foreign workers who live in their midst for many years without qualifying for citizenship, including Turks in Germany and Latin Americans in the U.S. In Canada, the issue may only now be emerging on a large scale. Simmons says it poses two urgent policy questions: “Who’s monitoring the safety and well-being of these workers? Who’s looking at what rules should allow people who really invest in the building of this country to convert to permanent residents?” The answers Ottawa and the provinces arrive at could determine if more foreign workers represent a mutually advantageous economic solution, or a dawning social problem