Immigration Canada

Canada reports slight increase in permanent residents from Latvia

First Canadian Citizenship ceremony on January...

Latvians Online

October 27, 2010

The number of persons from Latvia earning permanent resident status in Canada increased in 2009, but remains significantly lower than the figure recorded a decade ago, according to government statistics.
A total of 86 persons from Latvia became permanent residents of Canada last year, up from 66 in 2008, according to data compiled by Citizenship and Immigration Canada and released in September.
Under Canadian law, permanent residents must live in the country for at least two years within a five-year period. Otherwise, they risk losing their status. While permanent residents share many of the same rights as Canadian citizens, they may not vote in elections.
Ten years ago, 230 persons from Latvia became permanent residents, increasing to 286 in 2001.
The number steadily declined through 2006, when just 73 new permanent residents were recorded. However, the number jumped to 113 in 2007.
In the past decade, a total of 1,491 persons from Latvia have become permanent residents of Canada, according to the data. That is more than from Lithuania, which contributed 1,355 new permanent residents during the same period, or Estonia, with contributed just 403.
Last year, more than 250,000 persons from around the world became new permanent residents of Canada. China, the Philippines and India are the top three source countries, according to the data.

Improved innovation in Canada linked to immigration

Image by Ninja M. via Flickr

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's recent comments about the failure of multiculturalism, while controversial, were nothing new for Europeans. Former British prime minister Tony Blair seems to have started the ball rolling in 2006, when he told immigrants to "conform ... or don't come here," and since then, many European leaders have echoed such sentiments.
Given the problems Europe has experienced -- the London bombings of 2005, civil unrest in Paris, and the failure to integrate Muslim Turks in Germany -- the comments aren't terribly surprising. But one must be careful not to assume that these events are simply the fault of an ill-defined policy like multiculturalism -- or worse, the fault of freeloading immigrants.
Germany's problems with Muslim Turks, for example, has little to do with multiculturalism. The Turks were originally considered guest workers, and as Merkel herself admitted, everyone expected them to return home at some point. This is not multiculturalism, and is no way to ensure a lasting contribution from foreign-born workers.
Merkel did, however, advocate for the integration of immigrants, and asked how that's best accomplished. One answer is to look to Canada, which, of course, has a long-standing and sometimes controversial policy of official multiculturalism, and which has also benefited enormously from the contribution of immigrants.
This is the conclusion of a new report, Immigrants as Investors: Boosting Canada's Global Competitiveness, from the Conference Board of Canada. The report set out to test the presumption that immigrants are likely to be highly innovative, and, according to Diana MacKay, director of education and health for the board, "At every level we examined -- individual, organization, national and global -- immigrants were associated with increased innovation in Canada."
Among the specifics, the report found that 35 per cent of Canada Research Chairs are foreign-born, even though immigrants make up just one-fifth of the Canadian population. Further, immigrants win proportionally more prestigious literary and performing arts prizes, such as the Giller Prize and the Governor-General's Performing Arts Awards.
Perhaps not so surprisingly, immigration also affects trade levels between Canada and immigrants' countries of origin. According to the report, a one-percentage-point increase in immigrants can increase the value of imports by 0.21 per cent and raise the value of exports by 0.11 per cent. Also not surprisingly, foreign direct investment into Canada is greater from countries that are well represented in Canada through immigration.
Hence, whatever the supposed drawbacks of multiculturalism, Canada's immigrants have made important contributions to Canadian society. But things are not perfect, as the report notes that immigrants face many obstacles, including inadequate recognition of their international experience and qualifications, failure of employers to utilize immigrants' foreign language skills and lack of opportunities for newcomers to use their skills.
That returns us to Merkel's question about how best to achieve integration. And on that point, the report advises that employers hire immigrants at every level of their organizations, including leadership roles, match the diversity of their staff to their markets, and encourage immigrants to share their views.
This last recommendation is particularly important, as there's no better way to improve integration than to ask immigrants what they need to function effectively in Canadian society. And that doesn't in any way conflict with multiculturalism. Rather, it serves to respect the values of immigrants while, as the Conference Board report makes clear, also helping to improve conditions for all Canadians.

Immigrants Made Canada

Governor-general of Canada Michaëlle Jean

Image via Wikipedia

By J.L. Granatstein

October 25, 2010
Source: my towncrier.ca

Let me begin with one simple fact: Toronto’s public schools declare themselves the most multicultural in the world. One school, Thorncliffe Park Public School in Toronto’s east end, has 1,913 students speaking 54 languages. What that means is obvious —  Canada today is a nation of immigrants.

But what we forget too easily is that Canada always was a country of immigrants. Everyone who ever lived here came from someplace else, including the First Nations whose ancestors crossed into North America over a land bridge from Siberia. Everyone. The original European immigrants of Canada were the French followed by the Loyalists, the losers in the American Revolution, who settled in the late 1780s in what is now Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec. Most were of British origin, devoted to King George III and Great Britain, but there were also others of German, Dutch and other origins, as well as blacks, most but not all slaves. Those “originals” largely shaped Canada’s population mix for almost two hundred years.

Let me demonstrate. The Canada into which I was born in 1939 had a population of some 11.5 million, according to the 1941 Census figures, which was made up of those of British and French origin (50 percent and 30 percent respectively) and the others (20 percent). The others were of German, Ukrainian, Scandinavian, and Dutch origin in the main, with a scattering of other ethnicities. There were few blacks, Chinese, Japanese, or South Asians, the Canadian population almost wholly white.

Overwhelmingly the population was Christian with a few hundred thousand Jews and a handful of other denominations. The corporate, cultural, and political leaders in Canada were overwhelmingly drawn from among those of British origin, and French-speaking Quebeckers did not have anything like their fair share of economic or political power.

It is certainly fair to say that nation-building, such as it was, aimed to establish a British type of society in Canada. Culturally, this was reflected in Canada’s political, economic and social institutions. In law, all Canadians were defined as British subjects until the passage of the Canadian Citizenship Act in 1947, and a variety of cultural symbols ranging from the monarchy to the flag and to the names of army regiments showed the British underpinnings of English-speaking Canada. By and large, the government either ignored racial and ethnic differences or worked to turn all into British Canadians in attitude if not in ethnic origin.

Obviously, Canada is very different today. In the 2006 Census, the most recent, the “other” category, now with some 200 ethnicities, has reached 50 percent of the 31 million population. For example, there were reported to be 1.35 million Chinese, 962,000 East Indians, and 436,000 Filipinos, and one in six Canadian residents was a visible minority. Christians still predominate (some 70 percent), but as recently as 1951, 96 percent of the population was Christian. Today, there are far more Roman Catholics than Protestants (40 percent of the Canadian population is Catholic, only 30 percent Protestant), and Muslims are approaching one million, far more than those of Jewish belief. Those with no religion number one in six of the population.

In Greater Toronto, the nation’s largest city, very close to half of the 5.1 million population were immigrants, an increase of 27 percent in five years, and more than four in 10, or 43 percent of the population, were visible minorities, primarily Chinese, South Asian or black. India and China now provide most of the immigrants to Canada and Toronto, and in an ordinary year at least 250,000 immigrants come to the country, more than four in 10 of them heading to Toronto. At the time I was born and for my first 15 years, by contrast, the British Isles were the main source of immigrants to Canada.

So Canada has changed, and certainly much for the better. There are Members of Parliament in turbans, the Chief of Defence Staff is of Ukrainian ethnicity and the previous Governor-General Michaelle Jean is a Haitian woman immigrant who succeeded a Chinese female immigrant, Adrienne Clarkson. Jews hold three of the nine seats on the Supreme Court; a Jamaican-Chinese-Canadian multimillionaire made a huge donation to add a giant extension to the Royal Ontario Museum and a group of Italian-Canadian millionaires matched that with equally grand gifts to the redeveloped Art Gallery of Ontario; the public service is almost as mixed as the nation; and Toronto’s public schools, for example, declare themselves the most multicultural in the world. It may even be true. Mixed-race marriages are increasingly common in the larger cities, and adoptions abroad, especially in China and Africa, have created multiracial families all across the country.

There can be no doubt that this is a great success story. Immigration changed the old Canada, and immigration is continuing to do so. What the Canada of 2150 will look like, no one can say — except that it will not look at all like the Canada I grew up in.

Historian J.L. Granatstein is editor of The Canadian Experience. He writes on Canadian political and military and on foreign and defence policy.

Immigration consultants reflect on their work to help immigrants live their dreams during Citizenship Week

Toronto, ON – Canada’s Citizenship Week is a time for all Canadians to consider the shared benefits and responsibilities we enjoy as citizens, and immigration consultants are especially aware of just how lucky we all are.
As part of Citizenship Week, the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants (CSIC) is releasing What is a CCIC?, a video that details what Certified Canadian Immigration Consultants are and how they feel about helping immigrants live their dreams of becoming Canadian.
“Canada is a nation built on immigration and immigration continues to play a pivotal role in Canada’s future,” said CSIC Chair Nigel Thomson. “We are fortunate that many immigrants enrich our cultural fabric by choosing to make Canada their home.”
Members of CSIC, known as Certified Canadian Immigration Consultants, members of a provincial or territorial bar and Quebec notaries are the only paid representatives who are legally entitled to appear before the Canadian government on behalf of an immigration applicant.
“Immigration is a crucial step on the long journey to citizenship,” said Thomson. “Our members are proud to be a part of that journey by helping prospective Canadians navigate the often stressful and uncertain immigration process.”

The Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants is the professional regulatory body for Certified Canadian Immigration Consultants. Established in 2004 it currently has over 1,800 members. CSIC’s mandate is to protect consumers of immigration consulting services. Consequently, it is responsible for ensuring the education, competency testing and the discipline of its members. CSIC also requires its members to carry errors and omissions insurance and to contribute to a compensation fund. The best way to find a CCIC is via CSIC’s toll free referral line, 1-877-311-7926 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 1-877-311-7926 end_of_the_skype_highlighting.

Government of Ontario to organize Business Immigration Seminar

India Infoline News Service / 09:49 , Oct 17, 2010

The seminar series is being organized to showcase Ontario as part of the MEDT’s strategy to encourage greater participation by Indian businesses and to encourage Indian companies and entrepreneurs to set up global offices in the state.

The Government of Ontario, Canada, in association with FIEO is organizing business immigration seminars in Mumbai and New Delhi, Oct 18 and 21st October 2010 respectively.
The Business Immigration Section of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MEDT), Government of Ontario, Canada, provides a variety of services and support to business immigrants during the planning stages of immigration and after arriving in Ontario.
The seminar series is being organized to showcase Ontario as part of the MEDT’s strategy to encourage greater participation by Indian businesses and to encourage Indian companies and entrepreneurs to set up global offices in the state. Ontario has been ranked as the no. 1 province in Canada by Site Selection Magazine in their annual Canadian Competitiveness Rankings. By way of background, Site Selection is a U.S. based bi-monthly print magazine which provides CEOs, development planners and corporate executives’ news and information on all aspects of the business location/relocation process.
There are about half a million people of Indian descent living in Ontario which makes the province an attractive destination for Indian Companies and entrepreneurs. Many Indian Companies like Essar, Piramal, ICICI Bank, Bombay Chamber of Commerce have operations in Ontario. Similarly, Ontario companies Sun Life, Bank of Nova Scotia, and Celestica have operations in India.
The seminars aim to educate and help businesses understand the conducive policies and effective programs adopted by the government of Ontario to encourage business immigration. To be addressed by Immigration Specialist from the Business Immigration Unit at Ontario’s Ministry of Economic Development and Trade and by Royal Bank of Canada, which is a facilitator for the Federal Investor Program, the seminars will provide the attendees a complete picture of the advantages that are available to people seeking to immigrate under Ontario’s immigrations programs.
Ontario has a Provincial Nominee Program (PNP), an immigration program through which Ontario nominates individuals and their families for permanent resident status based on a pre-approved job offer in the province. Employers can attract individuals from abroad; individuals in Canada on a work permit or international student graduates from a publicly-funded Canadian college or university. It also has an Immigrant Investor Program (IIP) which allows prospective immigrants to make a passive investment in a government fund and become a landed immigrant.

Immigration aids innovation: report

Immigrants punch above their weight when it comes to increasing the rate of innovation in Canada, the Conference Board of Canada said in a report released Friday.
The ambition that leads them to move to a new country tends to predispose immigrants to the kind of risk-taking that leads to innovation, Michelle Downie, the report's author, told CBC News.

A study suggests better integrating immigrants will help Canada overcome its poor record on innovation. (CBC) "They tend to be very driven and they want to exceed their own expectations, so they're always pursuing more and trying to work harder."
An earlier report by the Conference Board, an Ottawa-based non-profit research organization, suggested Canada lags behind other advanced economies in innovation, ranking it 14th out of 17 in its capacity to develop new approaches in research and development.
The study, which reviewed existing research from various sources but also included interviews with executives, found that immigrants were associated with increased innovation in Canada.
The board said the interview sample was not large enough to be representative of all Canadian business, but found a number of measures that suggest employers benefit from hiring and integrating immigrants.

'Diversity of perspective is very important to innovation.'—Michelle Downie, report author

Sometimes, the fact that their views diverge from mainstream corporate culture is what makes their advice more valuable.
"That diversity of perspective is very important to innovation," said Downie.
"If you have people with the same experiences looking at the same problem, they may not see it in a different way. Sometimes bringing somebody in with a new perspective, who's had a different life experience, has had different training, they can see a problem a little differently and they might come up with a new solution."
The study also found immigrants pull above their weight in contributing to advanced research.
Although immigrants represent 20 per cent of the population, at least 35 per cent of university research chairs are foreign born.
It also suggested immigration resulted in increased trade with immigrants' countries of origin.
The Conference Board's model suggested a one-percentage-point increase in the number of immigrants could increase imports by 0.21 per cent and raise exports to countries of origin by 0.11 per cent.
Downie's research also suggested foreign direct investment into Canada was greater from countries that are well represented in Canada through immigration.

Obstacles limit contribution

But it also determined that immigrants face obstacles that limit their ability to contribute as innovators, including inadequate recognition of their experience and qualifications, and the failure of employers to use their knowledge of foreign languages in tapping into international markets.
Ottawa introduced measures in 2009 to speed up the recognition of foreign credentials and has expanded the role of overseas offices to better prepare immigrants before they enter the labour force here.
"It is hopefully going to make a difference for the regulated professions [such as accounting or engineering]," said Downie.
Downie found about half the executives interviewed were taking steps to better use their immigrant employees.
"There are a number of employers who are taking steps to ask their employees, particularly their immigrant employees, about the knowledge they have of diverse markets or how they can use their language abilities to help them in a new markets," she said.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2010/10/15/immigration-innovation-report.html#ixzz12U24nJvf

Immigrants help boost Canada’s innovation

The Ryerson University Library in Toronto, Ont...

Image via Wikipedia

Nicholas Keung Immigration Reporter

Guang Jun Liu arrived in Toronto in 1990 with a master’s degree in robotic control from China.Today, the Ryerson University professor is the Canada Research Chair in control systems and robotics, specializing in control systems in aircraft and mobile robots, and working with groups such as the Canadian Space Agency.
According to a new Conference Board of Canada study, Liu is living proof of how immigrants can help boost Canada’s stature in innovation, which ranks 14th out of 17 industrialized countries.
“Productivity and innovation are critical for economic development,” said the report, titled Immigrants as Innovators: Boosting Canada’s Global Competitiveness. “At every level of analysis, immigrants are shown to have an impact on innovation performance that is benefiting Canada.”
Examining the relationship between immigrants and innovation in areas such as research, culture, business and global commerce, the report found that:
• At least 35 per cent of an estimated 1,800 Canada Research Chairs are foreign-born, even though immigrants are just one-fifth of the Canadian population.
• Immigrants to Canada win proportionally more prestigious literary and performing arts awards, comprising 23 per cent of Giller Prize finalists and 29 per cent of winners; 23 per cent of Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards winners are immigrants;
• Immigration increases innovation by expanding Canada’s trade relations. A 1 per cent increase in the number of immigrants to Canada corresponds to an increase in imports of 0.21 per cent and exports by 0.11 per cent.
Yet, despite the enormous benefits that newcomers can bring to Canada, the report notes they still face “onerous and often unnecessary obstacles” that limit their potential.
These include inadequate recognition of international experience and qualifications, failure of employers to tap foreign language skills which could be employed in international markets, and lack of opportunities for newcomers to fully use their skills
Liu said he, too, had a tough time when he first came to Canada as a visiting scholar and later enrolled in the University of Toronto’s robot control PhD program.
“Language is a big obstacle. Technically, my English was good, but you need to be able to speak good English and communicate well to get published,” he said. “I was lucky to get my credentials recognized and have had some good employers.”
The report recommends employers hire immigrants at all levels of their organization, including in leadership roles; match the staff’s diversity to that of their markets; and encourage immigrant employees to share their diverse points of view, a key for innovation.
Innovative Immigrants in Canada
• K.Y. Ho came from China in 1984 and started the graphics company ATI with two other immigrants from Hong Kong. The company pulled in $10 million in revenue in its first year and was acquired for $5.4 billion by AMD in 2007.
• Mike Lazaridis came from Turkey in 1966 and founded Research in Motion (RIM), which created and manufactures the BlackBerry.
• Peter Munk came from Hungary in the 1940s and founded Barrick Gold, the world’s largest gold-mining corporation.
• Stella Melo came from Brazil in 1996. An atmospheric physicist, she has developed equipment and models to study the conditions of the atmosphere. The data she collects are used for weather forecasting and to examine people’s long-term impacts on the planet.
Source: Immigrants as Innovators: Boosting Canada’s Global Competitiveness

Project helps immigrants connect with workforce

TD Canada Trust Tower, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Image via Wikipedia

Mentorship offers both learning and networking

By Mario Toneguzzi, Calgary Herald October 13, 2010

There's an old saying in business that often it's not what you know but who you know when it comes to landing a job.
Era Wegad can attest to that.
Wegad, who came to Canada from India a couple of years ago, was able to secure a position in early September as a group sales representative for Equitable Life Insurance thanks to networking and connections her mentor, Mandy Lelke of TD Insurance, had in the community.
Wegad was one of 34 skilled immigrants who have completed a pilot project in the city through the Calgary Region Immigration Employment Council, which connected them with mentors in their fields to improve their chances for employment.
"It did help me in getting my self-confidence and self-esteem better because I saw people in the program believing in me. I thought, 'They believe in me, so I should believe in myself,' " said Wegad, who worked in the life insurance industry in India. "They helped me boost my confidence for sure and (gave) me direction.
"Mandy helped me as to the insurance licence I could get if I needed it. Also, networking and connecting me with the right people."
Job hunting can be hard enough when you know people, but when you're lacking local connections of any kind, it can be far more difficult.
Of 34 successful mentormentee relationships in the council's pilot project, seven mentees have so far secured local employment in their respective fields, with a number of others currently undergoing job interviews.
The employment council's 16-week Mentoring Collaborative is designed to provide skilled immigrants with the tools to secure meaningful employment in their fields, from engineering, engineering services, human resources, IT and project management to sales, accounting and auditing.
Community partner organizations included Bow Valley College, Immigrant Services Calgary, the Calgary Immigrant Women's Association and the Centre for Newcomers -- all of which recruit job-ready skilled immigrants as mentees. Local employers such as Flint Energy, TransCanada Corp., Canadian Pacific Railway, Calgary Airport Authority, TD Canada Trust, Royal Bank of Canada and SMART Technologies recruited appropriate employees as mentors.
"Our purpose is to help local leaders with immigrant employment strategies. The mentoring program is just one of our initiatives," said Marie-France Varin, the council's project leader.
"The reason we went with piloting that first was because there was such a success in Toronto with that similar program."
She said the pilot program will continue.
"We connect skilled immigrants with their Canadian counterpart in an occupation-specific mentoring relationship," she said.
"The main purpose of that relationship is to help these individuals understand their profession within a Canadian context.
"It's also for them to acquire effective job search strategies that are aligned with Canadian standards, and for them to get a better understanding of how to showcase their skills and their talents in their resume and (make sure) the resume does follow Canadian standards."
Also, with many professionals, it's helping them get their professional accreditation in their chosen fields.
"Often it's not what you know, but who you know. And what this program does is it truly connects them with their colleagues in their profession."
Lelke, who mentored Wegad for the 16 weeks beginning in June, said the pilot project connects people from professions in other countries to professionals here.
"It's a good strong match so that they're not just applying for something that is just kind of coming their way and then they're just really not satisfied," said Lelke.
"It's nice to be able to integrate people into the society into what their profession is without them having to go through again the challenges of finding employment just to find employment without something that directly relates to what they've done in the past."
A celebration of the program is being held on Thursday with mentors, mentees and partner organizations coming together.
mtoneguzzi@calgaryherald.com

Immigration Canada

Canada reports slight increase in permanent residents from Latvia

Improved innovation in Canada linked to immigration

Immigrants Made Canada

Immigration consultants reflect on their work to help immigrants live their dreams during Citizenship Week

Government of Ontario to organize Business Immigration Seminar

The seminar series is being organized to showcase Ontario as part of the MEDT’s strategy to encourage greater participation by Indian businesses and to encourage Indian companies and entrepreneurs to set up global offices in the state.

Immigration aids innovation: report

Obstacles limit contribution

Immigrants help boost Canada’s innovation

Project helps immigrants connect with workforce

Mentorship offers both learning and networking

Leave us a message

Check our online courses now

Subscribe to our newsletter

Vcita

Related articles

Related articles

Related articles

Related articles

The seminar series is being organized to showcase Ontario as part of the MEDT’s strategy to encourage greater participation by Indian businesses and to encourage Indian companies and entrepreneurs to set up global offices in the state.

Related articles

Obstacles limit contribution

Related articles

Related articles

Mentorship offers both learning and networking

Related articles

Leave us a message

Check our online courses now

Subscribe to our newsletter

Vcita