Immigration Canada

Five myths about Canada's immigration policies

Elie Mikhael Nasrallah

There are few things Canadians like to stay away from discussing and debating: religion, politics and changes to the game of hockey. Well, you could add another untouchable topic: immigration. Is Canada losing control of its culture, heritage and future? As immigration continues to be central to our future, it is worth, I believe, discarding some misconceptions and misinformation about Canada's immigration policies and rules.

1. Canada has an open door immigration policy.

Nothing is further from the truth. Slowly and steadily, Canada has been tightening its immigration laws since 2002. Under the present Federal Skilled Worker Class, which is based on the points system like--education, languages, occupation, age, etc--the government added the "Ministerial Instructions" scheme/list where it publishes every year a selection of occupations that it deems needed in Canada. Only the applications that fit that list are accepted and processed. In fact, the government introduced a cap on the numbers accepted in each occupation which is currently 500 per skill down from 1000 a year ago. In addition, in 2010 the total number of this category was capped at 20,000 in total. The new list of 2011 reduced the total applications accepted to 10,000 per year.

Furthermore, the investor program has been revamped and made harder and a maximum of 700 applicants are accepted each year, and the entrepreneur stream is also under revamping. (The 700 cap is already reached which started only July 01)

In total about 250,000 new Canadians are accepted each year in all categories. That is barely a replacement of the retirees, the sick and the deceased.

2. Canada can dispense of immigration by raising the retirement age and increasing fertility rate.

Around the world, as population rates growth slow and stop, countries are discovering that the proportion of working- age people in their population is shrinking, and the proportion of those who have retired and therefore depend on state and private pensions, medical and care funds is rising fast. Canada is no exception. According to the bond-rating Standard & Poor's, "By 2050, most Western countries--including Canada--will have to devote between 27 and 30 per cent of their GDP to spend on retirees and their needs. This will produce fiscal deficits in most advanced countries of almost 25 per cent of GDP, making the current crisis seem miniscule by comparison."

Canada will soon be fighting to attract and retain highly skilled and not too skilled, immigrants to get to work, and squeezing as much as we can from the remaining few. Affluence and cultural habits also limit the desired increase in fertility rates.

3. New immigrants don't contribute much these days and are different lot from previous waves of immigrants.

Consider these facts: Between 1995 and 2005, 25 per cent of every new high-tech company in America and Canada had an immigrant founder. Companies created by immigrants--or have immigrant roots--loom like icons of the information technology era: Intel, Google, Yahoo, Sun Microsystems, YouTube, eBay, PayPal and LinkedIn. Moreover, while making up less than 20 per cent of the Canadian population, immigrants possess half of all new doctorate degrees in engineering; Forty-nine per cent of master's degrees in computer sciences and information technology.

The new waves of immigrants although different from the past, they are not less productive, desirable or lacking in ambition. Each era has its own dynamics and type of immigrants. Google alone generated billions of dollars to the North American economies and created thousands of jobs and economic spin-off to all sectors. That alone is an economic miracle.

4. Multiculturalism has failed and immigrants don't assimilate into the Canadian mainstream culture.

"We favour multiculturalism." That was Stephen Harper's declaration during the leader's debate in the last federal election. He continued saying:" And we show through multiculturalism our willingness to accommodate their differences, so they are more comfortable. That is why we are so successful integrating people as a country. I think we are probably the most successful country in the world in that regard."

Unlike Britain, Germany or France, Canada does not have ethnic ghettos and extreme alienation of ethnic youth trying to find themselves in an alien culture. In fact, assimilation is increasing and the participation of the ethnic voters in the last federal election is a striking example where the Conservatives made breakthroughs in Toronto and Vancouver at the expense of the Liberal party which had a monopoly on that score.

5. Reduce immigration levels or stop it all together.

Wishful thinking at best. At a time when the business community, major bank institutions, many construction companies, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, most universities and colleges and specialists in the field are all advocating staying the course or even increasing the levels to about 300,000 per year, any drastic reduction could be damaging to the economy and to future growth in many sectors.

Regardless what the Centre for Immigration Policy Reform advocates, the fact remains that immigrants are a positive influence on Canada overall, the net economic benefits outweigh the costs and Canada is gaining an advantage over other counties preparing itself for a diverse, pluralistic and multicultural world ahead.

Elie Mikhael Nasrallah is a practicing Immigration Consultant (ICCRC) in Ottawa for the past 13 years.

An important spectacle

National Post · Nov. 16, 2011 | Last Updated: Nov. 16, 2011 4:08 AM ET

Among Canadian immigration opponents, there is a popular narrative that goes like this: Newcomers to this country want our generosity, but not our values. They arrive on our shores with their hands outstretched, refuse to learn English or French, go on welfare and reject Canadian liberal values in favour of retaining their old-world backwardness and bigotry.

As it turns out, for the vast majority of immigrants to Canada, none of this is true.

Earlier this year, Jacob L. Vigdor, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a conservative American think-tank, published a study titled Comparing Immigrant Assimilation In North America And Europe. In it, he examined the most recent data on the rates of assimilation of immigrants to Austria, Canada, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. His conclusion: "Immigrants from Canada rank first in terms of overall assimilation."

(For the purposes of measuring assimilation, Mr. Vigdor examined economic, civic and cultural indicators - including educational attainment, earnings, occupational prestige, employment status, labor-force participation, citizenship attainment, military enlistment, language skills and the decision to marry a nativeborn spouse.)

Our status as number-one assimilator manifests itself for almost every single geographical category of immigrant - including Chinese, Southeast Asian, African and Eastern European. Mr. Vigdor also found that Muslim immigrants to Canada rank first in overall assimilation as compared to Muslim immigrants to other Western nations.

"Two facets of Canadian immigration policy may help explain the rapid integration of foreigners into Canadian society," he concluded. "First, the path to citizenship in Canada is short and easily travelled.... Second, Canadian immigration policy places a distinct emphasis on attracting skilled migrants. Thirty percent of foreign-born adults in Canada have college degrees, while the rate is 23% in the United States and 10% in Spain and Italy.... The link between immigrants' level of education and their degree of assimilation is strong."

A bar chart contained in Mr. Vigdor's report is especially telling: Canada is the only nation to score higher than 80 on his assimilation index. The United States - and every studied European nation except Portugal - scores below 60. More than 80% of Canadian immigrants naturalize within 10 years of coming to Canada. In the United States, the 80% level isn't realized, on average, till immigrants are stateside for four decades.

"Multiculturalism" may exist as a popular catchphrase in academic circles and some forms of government literature, but the reality of Canadian life, especially since the Tories came to power, is that newcomers to this country are expected to adapt to our values, not the other way around.

All this helps explain why Canadians react with so much revulsion and shock when some unassimilated immigrants do violate our norms - by shrouding women in burkas, imposing female genital mutilation on infants, sending teenage girls abroad for forced marriages, or, most tragically, killing their daughters in the name of "honour." These are the vile exceptions to an otherwise benign rule.

It is wrong to say, as some commentators suggest, that honour killings have become "common" in Canada. Nor is it true that they are exclusively associated with Islam: The scourge of honour killings originates in pastoral, tribal regions across the Middle East and South Asia, including Christian, Sikh and Hindu societies. In these areas, honour killings are motivated by the idea that women have no independent will or identity, and are merely an extension of a clan's status, expendable once they "fail" in that role.

This is the anti-Western mindset that infects Mohammad Shafia, the Afghan-born patriarch who allegedly organized the drowning of three of his children, along with his unloved first wife, in the Rideau Canal. To his thinking, his daughters' adoption of Western dress and dating customs was a form of "treason." After his daughters' deaths, he called them "filthy" "whores." In words that will echo long beyond his trial, he declared to his surviving family: "Nothing is more dear to me than my honour."

News reports of the Shafia trial are upsetting and awful - never more so than when the court heard that the father had asked "the devil" to "s--t on their graves." Yet there also is some edifying value in this spectacle for that minority of Canadian immigrants who approve of Mr. Shafia's repellent attitudes. Throughout the trial, Mr. Shafia, his son and his second wife are not shown to be "honourable" in any way. Rather, they are portrayed as figures of absolute contempt who, if convicted, will lose everything they have.

In some Third World countries, "honour killings" are treated lightly by courts. That is not the case in Canada. Just the opposite: Most of us see retrograde notions of "honour" as an especially horrible motive for murder. As tragic as the deaths of Mr. Shafia's wife and daughters were, the ensuing trial at least allows Canadian society to drive home a powerful message to those few immigrants who need to hear it.

Thompson: How much are your parents worth to Canada?

By Allan ThompsonSpecial to the Star

So just how much is Grandma worth anyway? And how about Dad?

That, in essence, is the question that Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has now asked Canadians to ponder in a national discussion about whether or not it makes sense to encourage the sponsorship of parents and grandparents as immigrants.

Kenney froze any new applications for parental sponsorship for two years pending a deliberation about what to do with the program.

To be fair, while the moratorium on new applications is in place, Kenney has ordered his officials to crank up the processing of parent and grandparent sponsorship applications to try and reduce the backlog of applicants.

He is also creating a new ten-year ‘super visa’ that would allow parents and grandparents of Canadian residents to come and go almost as they please on visits, so long as they have private health insurance.

In the meantime, Kenney says, the government will consult Canadians on how to redesign the parents and grandparents program to ensure that it is “sustainable” in the future.

The clear subtext from Kenney is that parents and grandparents who come to this country as immigrants cost us money, use social services and take up space in hospital emergency wards.

Kenney talks repeatedly about his desire to make the parent and grandparent stream of the family sponsorship program “sustainable” and “sensitive to financial constraints.”

In other words, how much is Grandma worth? And is she worth more than she costs?

That’s a fair enough question for discussion, as long as you don’t start off by telling us the preferred answer by stating again and again that this class of immigrants is a drain on Canadian society.

Just how did the minister reach that conclusion? Which research study has he been consulting? It is one thing to do the math and calculate the cost of the services that sponsored parents and grandparents consume, compared with the financial contribution they make through taxes.

But is that all there is to it? Just how do we measure the contribution that an immigrant parent or grandparent makes to our society or the value attached to a complete family unit? Surely this is not just a matter of dollars and cents.

If it was only about money, we wouldn’t take in any refugees either. Many refugees arrive on our shores with nothing — having fled their homelands for fear of persecution. We don’t select refugees for the economic contribution they will make to Canada, or for their language or job skills. Refugees are allowed to stay in this country based on evidence that they need Canada’s protection.

It seems to be clearly understood that offering protection to a significant number of the world’s refugees is just something that Canada does. And it is not an immigrant stream that is measured in dollars and cents.

As we embark on a national conversation about the logic of sponsoring parents and grandparents as immigrants, let’s not forget to measure the true contribution this class of immigrant makes to our society and then decide how to proceed.

In fairness to Kenney, he is not the first immigration minister to question the value of parents and grandparents as immigrants. Liberal immigration ministers before him also put in place measures to make it more difficult to sponsor parents and grandparents, essentially making them second-class applicants behind spouses and children in the family class category.

So on one score, Kenney is right: It is time for a national conversation about our immigration program and the value we attach to different classes of immigrants.

But please, let’s remember that not everything can be measured with dollar signs.

World Citizen appears every other week. Email: immigration@thestar.ca.

International students needed to boost economy

Shortly after Nova Scotia received a historic shipbuilding contract, the federal government is presenting the province with another opportunity to build our economic future. It’s up to us to mobilize and take action.

Recently, Canada’s minister of immigration announced a program that would assist up to 1,000 international PhD students to become permanent residents. With most of Nova Scotia’s research capacity housed within the university sector, it is imperative that Nova Scotia act now to retain this talent pool, which in turn will contribute to innovation and growth within local industries. We must not stand by and watch our most talented students move to other Canadian cities to establish careers and families.

Nova Scotia has a serious demographic challenge. Outmigration, an aging population and low birth rates are contributing to a shrinking labour force. EduNova, a non-profit alliance of education and training providers in Nova Scotia, believes that our skilled-labour shortage can be addressed in part by having more international students put down roots in the province.

According to the Atlantic Association of Universities, Nova Scotia international student enrolments have increased again this year by more than 17 per cent. With international students also studying in K-12 schools, private-language schools, career colleges and the Nova Scotia Community College, Nova Scotia punches above its weight with a total enrolment of about 8,500 international students.

Consider the impact on our communities if only 10 per cent of this talent pool chooses to remain in Nova Scotia for further studies and for work. Would 850 educated young people, many of whom speak several languages, change Nova Scotia’s economic outlook? Would PhD students, many working on research that would benefit Nova Scotia-based enterprises, contribute to growing our economy?

Özlem Özgun, a Turkish-born graduate of Saint Mary’s University and owner of House of Moda, is an international student who has made Nova Scotia her home. Having positioned herself as one of Atlantic Canada’s top jewelry designers, Özgun speaks highly about the business climate in Nova Scotia. However, she’s also seen many friends leave for larger cities due to an inability to secure work here.

When asked if many of her international counterparts are staying in Nova Scotia, she responds that it’s 50-50. "A lot of my friends first looked for a job here in Nova Scotia. Once they can’t find one, they leave," says Özgun. "My husband and I get pressured by friends to move to Toronto. I don’t see why I would. I was able to build my business because of the supportive Halifax community."

Many students believe that Nova Scotia could do more to help them stay here. A big attraction for international students is the opportunity to study in co-op programs which combine academic studies with work experience. Enabling all international students to work, regardless of program, would help them integrate more quickly. The International Student Connector Program at Greater Halifax Partnership is on the right track, but is so far only for MBA and master of finance students.

We need more programs that specifically connect international students with employers. And not just for the benefit of students. Employers need to know what a great resource we have and open their doors, and minds, to hiring students from other countries.

Bernard Boudreau, dean of the faculty of graduate studies at Dalhousie University, is encouraged that the federal government is recognizing the potential international students bring to Canada: "International graduate students represent not only some of the best and brightest minds from their countries of origin, these are adventurous and highly motivated individuals who are willing to come to a culturally and often linguistically different country in pursuit of their educational goals.

"They consequently possess the qualities that Canada states it wants in its immigrants: self-motivation, independence, a desire to succeed, and high-order skills and education."

The immigration minister has given us a platform on which to retain the most highly skilled of these students. We need to take advantage of it by collectively extending a welcoming hand to international students and giving them reasons to stay here.

Ava Czapalay is president and CEO, EduNova ( www.edunova.ca).

About the Author

By AVA CZAPALAY

If you are interested in Immigration to Canada, contact Nexus Canada for information and advice on which visa is best suited to you. You can also try our visa eligibility assessment to see if you are eligible to apply for a visa to Canada.

New polymer $100 bill goes into circulation

By Fabiola Carletti, CBC News

Posted: Oct 3, 2011 5:15 PM ET

Last Updated: Nov 16, 2011 10:24 AM ET

The new $100 bill has a plastic feel and two clear windows. The new currency design was unveiled in Toronto and other cities, June 20. (Fabiola Carletti/CBC)

Many businesses are already leery about accepting large-denomination bills because of the number of counterfeits out there, so they'll likely be even more wary when people start trying to pay with the unfamiliar new banknotes that will start circulating through ATMs and bank tellers in November.

While the new bills may cause some awkward moments in the checkout line in the short term, the government says they have a number of high-tech features that should actually help reduce the counterfeit problem in the long run.

The new $100 bills went into circulation Nov. 14. They have two portraits of prime minister Robert Borden, as well as an image of a researcher using a microscope and a depiction of a strand of DNA.

The Bank of Canada's new $50 bills are scheduled to be released in March 2012. New $20 notes will be issued before the end of 2012, according to the BOC, followed by new $10 and $5 notes in 2013.

Redesign

The Bank of Canada periodically redesigns Canada's banknotes, aiming to make them easier to check and harder to copy. It says the rate of fake bills was at an all-time high of 470 per million before a redesign done 2004, when Canadians were introduced to holographic stripes and other security features. The rate has since fallen to 35 bad bills per million today.

The BOC says the new polymer bills have a radical new look and enhanced security features that are designed to reduce the rate of counterfeits even more.

New look, feel, security

The difference between the old and new bank notes is in the details:

The film that coats the new bills, each made from a single piece of polymer, has a smooth, plastic feel and two clear panels.
The clear panels feature metallic images as well as hidden numbers, visible when the bill is held up against a light source.
The BOC advises people to "feel, look, and flip" the new bills to experience the new security features. This interactive graphic has the details of what the new bill design includes.
Sir Robert Borden is still featured on the $100 note, and William Lyon Mackenzie King remains on the $50 note. But now both former prime ministers look you straight in the eye.
You'll no longer see the tribute to the "famous five" of women's suffrage on the $50 bill, nor the discovery-themed miscellany on the back of the old $100. The new theme is "frontiers," with the back of the $100 bill showcasing medical innovations by depicting a scene connected with the discovery of insulin, and the $50 paying tribute to Arctic research with the CCGS Amundsen.
The other denominations will take us from battle frontiers like Vimy Ridge to space frontiers with the Canadarm.
The BOC states that the polymer in the new notes has a lighter environmental footprint. The bills are 2.5 times more durable than their cotton-based counterparts and can be recycled after they are taken out of circulation.
Security features now include more sophisticated holograms and raised ink on the prime ministers' shoulders, on the biggest number and on the words "Bank of Canada."

Immigrants healthier than Canadian-born citizens

The healthy immigrant effect persists, according to a Statistics Canada study released Wednesday that found immigrants are generally healthier than Canadian-born citizens.

Some healthy people who immigrate to Canada find their health deteriorating after their arrival, but little is known about why the edge in health declines for immigrants the longer they live in Canada.

The mortality rate for newcomers continued to be lower than for Canadian-born residents, even after immigrants have lived here more than 20 years, the new study suggested.

The study does not examine the reasons immigrants tend to have better health, but those are likely to include the screening that selects an inherently healthier group of people who arrive in Canada, and also those who have a healthier diet and are more physically active in their native countries.

The longer the immigrants live in Canada, the more closely they adopt the patterns and behaviours common here.

The relationship between immigration and health has become more difficult to determine, however, as the origins and demographics of immigrants to Canada have changed.

New Canadians take the oath of citizenship during a ceremony as part of Canada Day celebrations in Vancouver. Most new Canadians arrive in better health and stay healthier than the rest of the population. (Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press)

Statistics Canada's current analysis relies on the 1991-2001 Canadian mortality followup study, which examined 2.7 million people, of which 552,300, or 20 per cent, were immigrants.

Immigrants had significantly lower mortality rates than Canadian-born people: 1,006 versus 1,305 for men, and 610 versus 731 for women.

In 2006, immigrants made up 19.8 per cent of Canada’s population, a proportion that is expected to increase to at least 25 per cent by 2031, Statistics Canada says.

Mortality rates differ according to the origins of immigrants, and the study suggests there is a need for more in-depth analysis of health by country of origin.

Source: CBC news

Give provinces more control over immigration, Clark

BY JONATHAN FOWLIE, VANCOUVER SUN NOVEMBER 14, 2011

VICTORIA — Provincial governments should have more control over Canadian immigration policy, and over who gets approved to live and work in the country, Premier Christy Clark said Monday.

“Immigration is one of the most important economic levers government has. The fact that responsibility and control for it resides almost solely in the hands of the central government doesn’t work very well,” Clark told The Vancouver Sun in an interview from Bangalore, India.

“We [the provinces] are closer to the ground. We know the needs of the economy better and I think Canada will do a better job of shaping immigration policy if the provinces have a greater ability to impact that,” she added.

Clark’s comments came just one week after the federal government announced an expansion of the Provincial Nominee Program, under which immigrants with skill sets that provinces deem to be desirable — or those most likely to invest and create jobs — are able to have their permanent-resident applications fast-tracked.

British Columbia has yet to receive details of its new allotment under the program, but the federal government has said the number of spaces available nationally will increase to between 42,000 and 45,000 next year from a projected 40,000 this year.

On Monday, Clark said she and other premiers asked the federal government in July to have the caps removed from the program.

“It is ridiculous that our investor-immigrant allowance fills up in a couple of hours — literally overnight,” she said.

“So we have all these investors that want to come and create jobs in British Columbia and we say, ‘No, sorry. You can’t come in.’ To me, that’s just not smart.”

Clark added that her government is also contemplating more significant proposals on immigration as well, but that it is too early to disclose exactly what she has in mind.

She raised the issue of the provincial role in immigration on her Asian trade mission Monday, while speaking on a panel at the World Economic Forum in Mumbai.

The panel included three provincial leaders from India, and Clark said the discussion centred on what role states and provinces should play in a national government.

“What we were looking at was the role of the state vis-a-vis the national government, and the appropriate areas of jurisdiction for each in order to drive the economy,” she said Monday, after travelling to Bangalore from Mumbai.

Clark said that during the panel session she highlighted the success, in Canada, of processes such as environmental review, but also raised the issue of immigration, where she believes Canada can do better.

Clark’s comments on immigration come close to two months after a speech by federal Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Jason Kenney, in which he rejected the idea of more provincial control.

“We do maintain that there is an important ongoing role for the national government in immigration and we’re not just going to contract out all of the immigration selection to the provinces,” he said Sept. 16, speaking to the Calgary Chamber of Commerce. “That would not be responsible.”

Kenney was not available for comment Monday, but his spokeswoman touted the success of the Provincial Nominee Program.

“This program allows provinces to play an active role in immigrant selection by authorizing them to nominate individuals who meet local labour-market demands,” Candice Malcolm said in an emailed statement.

“Since the Conservative government took office, the number of individuals British Columbia has been permitted to sponsor into Canada has grown by 500 per cent, from less than 1,000 per year in 2005 up to 5,000 today.”

jfowlie@vancouversun.com