April 16 2010 by Liam Clifford
The Canadian immigration authorities and their counterparts in Taiwan have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for a working holiday scheme between the two nations.
Working holiday schemes allow young people, usually aged 18-30, but in this case aged between 18 and 35, to live in another county, working temporarily to pay for their trip.
This scheme would allow young people from Taiwan to live in Canada and obtain a temporary Canadian work visa to allow them to work for a short periods in certain industries. The agreement will also allow young people from Canada to spend time living in Taiwan under the same terms.
Taiwan has had a similar agreement in place with Australia since 2004 and thousands of people have benefitted from the chance to experience living and working in Australia as a result.
The scheme is intended to boost the number of people from Taiwan visiting Canada, and maybe even eventually deciding to move to Canada. The number of visitors from Taiwan has reduced from 112,413 in 2004 to just 61,893 last year, according to official statistics.
The agreement is set to come into effect on 1 July.
Work Force Fueled by Highly Skilled Immigrants
ST. LOUIS — After a career as a corporate executive with her name in brass on the office door, Amparo Kollman-Moore, an immigrant from Colombia, likes to drive a Jaguar and shop at Saks. “It was a good life,” she said, “a really good ride.”
Amparo Kollman-Moore, 60, moved to St. Louis in the 1970s and is now a consultant and business school professor.
As a member of this city’s economic elite, Ms. Kollman-Moore is not unusual among immigrants who live in St. Louis. According to a new analysis of census data, more than half of the working immigrants in this metropolitan area hold higher-paying white-collar jobs — as professionals, technicians or administrators — rather than lower-paying blue-collar and service jobs.
Among American cities, St. Louis is not an exception, the data show. In 14 of the 25 largest metropolitan areas, including Boston, New York and San Francisco, more immigrants are employed in white-collar occupations than in lower-wage work like construction, manufacturing or cleaning.
The data belie a common perception in the nation’s hard-fought debate over immigration — articulated by lawmakers, pundits and advocates on all sides of the issue — that the surge in immigration in the last two decades has overwhelmed the United States with low-wage foreign laborers.
Over all, the analysis showed, the 25 million immigrants who live in the country’s largest metropolitan areas (about two-thirds of all immigrants in the country) are nearly evenly distributed across the job and income spectrum.
“The United States is getting a more varied and economically important flow of immigrants than the public seems to realize,” said David Dyssegaard Kallick, director for immigration research at the Fiscal Policy Institute, a nonpartisan group in New York that conducted the data analysis for The New York Times.
The findings are significant because Americans’ views of immigration are based largely on the work immigrants do, new research shows.
“Americans, whether they are rich or poor, are much more in favor of high-skilled immigrants,” said Jens Hainmueller, a political scientist at M.I.T. and co-author of a survey of attitudes toward immigration with Michael J. Hiscox, professor of government at Harvard. The survey of 1,600 adults, which examined the reasons for anti-immigration sentiment in the United States, was published in February in American Political Science Review, a peer-reviewed journal.
Americans are inclined to welcome upper-tier immigrants — like Ms. Kollman-Moore — believing they contribute to economic growth without burdening public services, the study found. More than 60 percent of Americans are opposed to allowing more low-skilled foreign laborers, regarding them as more likely to be a drag on the economy.
Those kinds of views, in turn, have informed recent efforts by Congress to remake the immigration system. A measure unveiled last month by Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, and Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, aims to reshape the legal system to give priority to high-skilled, high-earning immigrants, offering narrower channels for low-wage workers. (A bill in 2007 by the Bush administration tilted even more sharply toward upper-tier immigrants; it failed in Congress.)
Yet while visa bottlenecks persist for high-skilled immigrants, on the whole, the census data show, the current system has brought a range of foreign workers across skill and income levels. The analysis suggests, moreover, that the immigrants played a central role in the cycle of the economic growth of cities over the last two decades.
Cities with thriving immigrant populations — with high-earning and lower-wage workers — tended to be those that prospered the most.
“Economic growth in urban areas has been clearly connected with an increase in immigrants’ share of the local labor force,” Mr. Kallick said.
Surprisingly, the analysis showed, the growing cities were not the ones, like St. Louis, that drew primarily high-earning foreigners. In fact, the St. Louis area had one of the slowest growing economies.
Rather, the fastest economic growth between 1990 and 2008 was in cities like Atlanta, Denver and Phoenix that received large influxes of immigrants with a mix of occupations — including many in lower-paid service and blue-collar jobs.
In metropolitan Denver, where the economy doubled between 1990 and 2008, 63 percent of immigrants worked in jobs on the lower end of the pay scale.
Denver “did a great job of attracting people from other places in the world,” said Rich Jones, director of policy and research at the Bell Policy Center, a nonpartisan group in that city that focuses on the impact of economic and fiscal policies in Colorado. “They are coming with a variety of skills,” Mr. Jones said. “They created demand for goods, services and housing that began a dynamic.”
The figures on jobs and earnings of immigrants in American cities are based on an analysis by the Fiscal Policy Institute of census data for the 25 largest metropolitan areas from 1990 to 2008. The data from 2008 are the most current in-depth census statistics on immigrants’ places of residence and earnings; they also include the first year of the severe recession. The analysis includes legal and illegal immigrants and naturalized citizens.
St. Louis is a good vantage point to observe the census analysis play out on the ground — both in the past and, possibly, the future.
Amparo Kollman-Moore, 60, moved to St. Louis in the 1970s and is now a consultant and business school professor.
As a member of this city’s economic elite, Ms. Kollman-Moore is not unusual among immigrants who live in St. Louis. According to a new analysis of census data, more than half of the working immigrants in this metropolitan area hold higher-paying white-collar jobs — as professionals, technicians or administrators — rather than lower-paying blue-collar and service jobs.
Among American cities, St. Louis is not an exception, the data show. In 14 of the 25 largest metropolitan areas, including Boston, New York and San Francisco, more immigrants are employed in white-collar occupations than in lower-wage work like construction, manufacturing or cleaning.
The data belie a common perception in the nation’s hard-fought debate over immigration — articulated by lawmakers, pundits and advocates on all sides of the issue — that the surge in immigration in the last two decades has overwhelmed the United States with low-wage foreign laborers.
Over all, the analysis showed, the 25 million immigrants who live in the country’s largest metropolitan areas (about two-thirds of all immigrants in the country) are nearly evenly distributed across the job and income spectrum.
“The United States is getting a more varied and economically important flow of immigrants than the public seems to realize,” said David Dyssegaard Kallick, director for immigration research at the Fiscal Policy Institute, a nonpartisan group in New York that conducted the data analysis for The New York Times.
The findings are significant because Americans’ views of immigration are based largely on the work immigrants do, new research shows.
“Americans, whether they are rich or poor, are much more in favor of high-skilled immigrants,” said Jens Hainmueller, a political scientist at M.I.T. and co-author of a survey of attitudes toward immigration with Michael J. Hiscox, professor of government at Harvard. The survey of 1,600 adults, which examined the reasons for anti-immigration sentiment in the United States, was published in February in American Political Science Review, a peer-reviewed journal.
Americans are inclined to welcome upper-tier immigrants — like Ms. Kollman-Moore — believing they contribute to economic growth without burdening public services, the study found. More than 60 percent of Americans are opposed to allowing more low-skilled foreign laborers, regarding them as more likely to be a drag on the economy.
Those kinds of views, in turn, have informed recent efforts by Congress to remake the immigration system. A measure unveiled last month by Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, and Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, aims to reshape the legal system to give priority to high-skilled, high-earning immigrants, offering narrower channels for low-wage workers. (A bill in 2007 by the Bush administration tilted even more sharply toward upper-tier immigrants; it failed in Congress.)
Yet while visa bottlenecks persist for high-skilled immigrants, on the whole, the census data show, the current system has brought a range of foreign workers across skill and income levels. The analysis suggests, moreover, that the immigrants played a central role in the cycle of the economic growth of cities over the last two decades.
Cities with thriving immigrant populations — with high-earning and lower-wage workers — tended to be those that prospered the most.
“Economic growth in urban areas has been clearly connected with an increase in immigrants’ share of the local labor force,” Mr. Kallick said.
Surprisingly, the analysis showed, the growing cities were not the ones, like St. Louis, that drew primarily high-earning foreigners. In fact, the St. Louis area had one of the slowest growing economies.
Rather, the fastest economic growth between 1990 and 2008 was in cities like Atlanta, Denver and Phoenix that received large influxes of immigrants with a mix of occupations — including many in lower-paid service and blue-collar jobs.
In metropolitan Denver, where the economy doubled between 1990 and 2008, 63 percent of immigrants worked in jobs on the lower end of the pay scale.
Denver “did a great job of attracting people from other places in the world,” said Rich Jones, director of policy and research at the Bell Policy Center, a nonpartisan group in that city that focuses on the impact of economic and fiscal policies in Colorado. “They are coming with a variety of skills,” Mr. Jones said. “They created demand for goods, services and housing that began a dynamic.”
The figures on jobs and earnings of immigrants in American cities are based on an analysis by the Fiscal Policy Institute of census data for the 25 largest metropolitan areas from 1990 to 2008. The data from 2008 are the most current in-depth census statistics on immigrants’ places of residence and earnings; they also include the first year of the severe recession. The analysis includes legal and illegal immigrants and naturalized citizens.
St. Louis is a good vantage point to observe the census analysis play out on the ground — both in the past and, possibly, the future.
Immigrants wanted: foreign workers will help pay pensions, Conference Board says
By Sunny Freeman (CP) – 4 hours ago
TORONTO — Canada will have to increase the number of immigrants allowed into the country by about 100,000 per year and boost productivity to help pay for pensions, the Conference Board of Canada's chief economist said Tuesday.
The government will have to implement an immigration policy to grow the workforce to increase the number of workers making pension contributions and help offset the retirement of the baby boomers, Glen Hodgson told an audience at the Board's 2010 Summit on the Future of Pensions.
Hodgson predicted slow labour force growth in the coming decades, means there will be fewer workers contributing to pension plans, but more retirees drawing from them.
"As all the boomers get ready to retire, as we look to new entrants, we won't have any where near the same numbers of entrants from the born in Canada population," he said.
"We'll have fewer workers coming in to feed the system... that's going to suck the life out of our economy. Slower labour force growth means slower economic growth."
Governments and the business world are struggling to head off a potential crisis borne of an aging workforce that is not putting aside enough for retirement.
Currently about 250,000 immigrants are currently allowed to enter Canada every year. As an older population and smaller families become the norm, immigrants will be the only source of population growth in Canada at some time around 2030, Hodgson said.
While immigration alone will not reverse Canada's aging trend, it will help keep population growth stable at around one per cent per year. As a result, immigration will be the dominant source of labour force growth in the future, Hodgson said.
Governments will need to implement policies that boost productivity, including developing an integrated immigration policy, investing in a more skilled workforce, and increasing the labour force by encouraging older people to work longer, he added.
While the recession took a toll on many people's pensions, a survey conducted by the Conference Board earlier this year found that the economic downturn did not significantly affect the age at which Canadians plan to retire, Hodgson said. Only one person in three said the recession made them think about delaying retirement.
The average retirement age in Canada is exceptionally low, he said, but Canada should aim to avoid measures taken across Europe and Japan to raise the age at which workers can access government-sponsored retirement plans.
Hodgson said he favours a voluntary supplement to the CPP, in which enrolment would be automatic for all people with no corporate pension plans, with a choice to opt out.
But moves toward that approach were shot down by Alberta's finance minister at a pension summit in that province Tuesday.
Ted Morton said Alberta would rather see an "incremental" approach that would allow governments make a few regulatory changes to give financial institutions more leeway to encourage people to save.
Copyright © 2010 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
TORONTO — Canada will have to increase the number of immigrants allowed into the country by about 100,000 per year and boost productivity to help pay for pensions, the Conference Board of Canada's chief economist said Tuesday.
The government will have to implement an immigration policy to grow the workforce to increase the number of workers making pension contributions and help offset the retirement of the baby boomers, Glen Hodgson told an audience at the Board's 2010 Summit on the Future of Pensions.
Hodgson predicted slow labour force growth in the coming decades, means there will be fewer workers contributing to pension plans, but more retirees drawing from them.
"As all the boomers get ready to retire, as we look to new entrants, we won't have any where near the same numbers of entrants from the born in Canada population," he said.
"We'll have fewer workers coming in to feed the system... that's going to suck the life out of our economy. Slower labour force growth means slower economic growth."
Governments and the business world are struggling to head off a potential crisis borne of an aging workforce that is not putting aside enough for retirement.
Currently about 250,000 immigrants are currently allowed to enter Canada every year. As an older population and smaller families become the norm, immigrants will be the only source of population growth in Canada at some time around 2030, Hodgson said.
While immigration alone will not reverse Canada's aging trend, it will help keep population growth stable at around one per cent per year. As a result, immigration will be the dominant source of labour force growth in the future, Hodgson said.
Governments will need to implement policies that boost productivity, including developing an integrated immigration policy, investing in a more skilled workforce, and increasing the labour force by encouraging older people to work longer, he added.
While the recession took a toll on many people's pensions, a survey conducted by the Conference Board earlier this year found that the economic downturn did not significantly affect the age at which Canadians plan to retire, Hodgson said. Only one person in three said the recession made them think about delaying retirement.
The average retirement age in Canada is exceptionally low, he said, but Canada should aim to avoid measures taken across Europe and Japan to raise the age at which workers can access government-sponsored retirement plans.
Hodgson said he favours a voluntary supplement to the CPP, in which enrolment would be automatic for all people with no corporate pension plans, with a choice to opt out.
But moves toward that approach were shot down by Alberta's finance minister at a pension summit in that province Tuesday.
Ted Morton said Alberta would rather see an "incremental" approach that would allow governments make a few regulatory changes to give financial institutions more leeway to encourage people to save.
Copyright © 2010 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
Government of Canada Introduces New Program for Business People From Mexico
OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - April 9, 2010) - Canada's visa office in Mexico City has established a special visa application program for Mexican business travellers, Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney announced today.
"Canada welcomes travellers from Mexico and has been looking at ways to provide enhanced services to applicants. The Business Express Program is another example of our commitment to making service improvements where we can," said Minister Kenney.
"Canada and Mexico are among each other's largest trading partners," said Peter Van Loan, Minister of International Trade. "This program will help Canadian and Mexican companies do business together and continue to fuel our economic recovery."
The new Business Express Program was created to provide qualified businesses and their employees with a number of service advantages, including less paperwork, priority processing of visa applications, and a dedicated service to respond to the needs of those within the program. Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) is working closely with Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada and visa application centres in Mexico on this initiative.
The Business Express Program is modeled on a similar successful program introduced in New Delhi, India, in June 2008.
The program in Mexico is targetted at people employed by companies in Mexico who have a proven need for frequent travel to Canada. Participation in the program is by invitation only. Businesses with key connections to Canada are identified by the visa or trade sections of the Embassy of Canada in Mexico City, or Export Development Canada.
Businesses that have good immigration track records, meaning those with employees who were admissible, who previously travelled to Canada and adhered to Canada's immigration laws, and who have a significant number of business visitors destined to Canada are then invited by the Embassy of Canada to register for the program. Only businesses that are registered can submit visa applications through the facilitated process.
So far, the embassy has invited 113 companies to enrol in the program. Twelve businesses have registered.
Qualified applicants from businesses that are enrolled in the program can apply for their visa at one of the three visa application centres in Mexico, located in Mexico City, Monterrey and Guadalajara. Processing by the Canadian visa office will be swift, with a turnaround time of 24 hours.
"Mexico is an important strategic partner. The Government of Canada continues, as a priority, to extend and improve services that will facilitate official, trade and educational travel from Mexico to Canada," said Minister Kenney.
"Canada welcomes travellers from Mexico and has been looking at ways to provide enhanced services to applicants. The Business Express Program is another example of our commitment to making service improvements where we can," said Minister Kenney.
"Canada and Mexico are among each other's largest trading partners," said Peter Van Loan, Minister of International Trade. "This program will help Canadian and Mexican companies do business together and continue to fuel our economic recovery."
The new Business Express Program was created to provide qualified businesses and their employees with a number of service advantages, including less paperwork, priority processing of visa applications, and a dedicated service to respond to the needs of those within the program. Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) is working closely with Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada and visa application centres in Mexico on this initiative.
The Business Express Program is modeled on a similar successful program introduced in New Delhi, India, in June 2008.
The program in Mexico is targetted at people employed by companies in Mexico who have a proven need for frequent travel to Canada. Participation in the program is by invitation only. Businesses with key connections to Canada are identified by the visa or trade sections of the Embassy of Canada in Mexico City, or Export Development Canada.
Businesses that have good immigration track records, meaning those with employees who were admissible, who previously travelled to Canada and adhered to Canada's immigration laws, and who have a significant number of business visitors destined to Canada are then invited by the Embassy of Canada to register for the program. Only businesses that are registered can submit visa applications through the facilitated process.
So far, the embassy has invited 113 companies to enrol in the program. Twelve businesses have registered.
Qualified applicants from businesses that are enrolled in the program can apply for their visa at one of the three visa application centres in Mexico, located in Mexico City, Monterrey and Guadalajara. Processing by the Canadian visa office will be swift, with a turnaround time of 24 hours.
"Mexico is an important strategic partner. The Government of Canada continues, as a priority, to extend and improve services that will facilitate official, trade and educational travel from Mexico to Canada," said Minister Kenney.
Canada ready to lead the world recovery
Actions have spoken louder than words for the federal government
By Jayson Myers
Source: The National Post
In the run-up to this year’s G20 meetings, which Canada will host, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is warning world leaders that economic recovery is by no means fully assured and is asking each one to continue to take steps to stimulate economic growth. Above all, he is urging governments to work together to avoid protectionism and open markets even further to encourage international trade and investment.
Harper’s advice reflects his government’s priorities, based on the sensible rationale that the private sector economic and job growth needed to sustain economic recovery, depends on access to business and investment opportunities around the world.
From the Canadian point of view, this is self-evident. Exports account for more than half of Canada’s industrial output and imports for 30% of total domestic demand. High value jobs in the country depend on the ability of Canadian businesses to expand and find customers for their more-specialized products, services, and technologies around the world. At the same time, they need to attract investment and draw on the best of goods and services, skills, knowledge and technologies that international markets have to offer.
Actions have spoken louder than words for the federal government. To encourage business investment, it has cut Canada’s federal corporate tax rate. By 2012, the average combined federal and provincial tax rate on business income will fall to 25%. The government has also introduced a two-year depreciation rate for investments in manufacturing equipment and accelerated write-offs for investments in clean energy and information technologies. As a result of federal support, value-added consumption taxes will be in place in all but three smaller Canadian provinces by this summer.
In a bold move, Harper’s government took the initiative to open Canadian markets to international trade and investment. The recent federal budget eliminated tariffs on all imported machinery and equipment and manufacturing inputs. And the government went further in its plan to loosen investment restrictions in Canada’s telecommunications and other regulated services sectors and to improve the tax treatment of foreign venture capital funds invested in Canada.
On the trade front, the Harper government has concluded free trade agreements with Colombia, Peru, Jordan and EFTA, and has launched trade negotiations with the European Union and more than 10 other countries and regional trading blocs. The recent procurement agreement that the Canadian government concluded with the United States will keep provincial and municipal procurement markets in Canada open to U.S. producers in return for exclusions for Canadian manufacturers from Buy American restrictions applied under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. It also commits Canada and the United States to enter into negotiations on a more open procurement agreement covering state, provincial and local jurisdictions.
Some economic experts may believe that during this period of fragile markets and dependency on government stimulus, Harper’s call for concerted action to liberalize trade may seem altruistic. In the face of continuing overcapacity and intense international competition in many industrial markets, his commitment to open the Canadian economy even further to international trade and investment may even appear naive.
As host of the G20, Prime Minister Harper surely has an obligation to remind world leaders of their commitment not to erect protectionist barriers, but the reality over the past year has been an increasing array of regulatory and procurement restrictions put in place around the world that favour domestic producers. The result — mounting tensions among governments.
The political stakes in economic recovery are high. As Prime Minister Harper insists, it will take real leadership to overcome the short-term political attractions of protectionism. But, that is what will be required to ensure a sustainable economic recovery.
We know the consequences of a game plan based on restrictive preferences and retaliation. In today’s world of internationally-integrated financial markets, supply chains and business operations, jobs cannot be secured anywhere when economic opportunities are being restricted more and more to domestic markets.
Canada and other economies around the world will suffer if Harper’s advice is ignored. Yet, my bet is that at the end of the day, the economic advantage will go to those countries that follow our lead.
We are the little country that could, and did. It’s time the globe followed our lead as we chart the course to economic renewal and prosperity.
By Jayson Myers
Source: The National Post
In the run-up to this year’s G20 meetings, which Canada will host, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is warning world leaders that economic recovery is by no means fully assured and is asking each one to continue to take steps to stimulate economic growth. Above all, he is urging governments to work together to avoid protectionism and open markets even further to encourage international trade and investment.
Harper’s advice reflects his government’s priorities, based on the sensible rationale that the private sector economic and job growth needed to sustain economic recovery, depends on access to business and investment opportunities around the world.
From the Canadian point of view, this is self-evident. Exports account for more than half of Canada’s industrial output and imports for 30% of total domestic demand. High value jobs in the country depend on the ability of Canadian businesses to expand and find customers for their more-specialized products, services, and technologies around the world. At the same time, they need to attract investment and draw on the best of goods and services, skills, knowledge and technologies that international markets have to offer.
Actions have spoken louder than words for the federal government. To encourage business investment, it has cut Canada’s federal corporate tax rate. By 2012, the average combined federal and provincial tax rate on business income will fall to 25%. The government has also introduced a two-year depreciation rate for investments in manufacturing equipment and accelerated write-offs for investments in clean energy and information technologies. As a result of federal support, value-added consumption taxes will be in place in all but three smaller Canadian provinces by this summer.
In a bold move, Harper’s government took the initiative to open Canadian markets to international trade and investment. The recent federal budget eliminated tariffs on all imported machinery and equipment and manufacturing inputs. And the government went further in its plan to loosen investment restrictions in Canada’s telecommunications and other regulated services sectors and to improve the tax treatment of foreign venture capital funds invested in Canada.
On the trade front, the Harper government has concluded free trade agreements with Colombia, Peru, Jordan and EFTA, and has launched trade negotiations with the European Union and more than 10 other countries and regional trading blocs. The recent procurement agreement that the Canadian government concluded with the United States will keep provincial and municipal procurement markets in Canada open to U.S. producers in return for exclusions for Canadian manufacturers from Buy American restrictions applied under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. It also commits Canada and the United States to enter into negotiations on a more open procurement agreement covering state, provincial and local jurisdictions.
Some economic experts may believe that during this period of fragile markets and dependency on government stimulus, Harper’s call for concerted action to liberalize trade may seem altruistic. In the face of continuing overcapacity and intense international competition in many industrial markets, his commitment to open the Canadian economy even further to international trade and investment may even appear naive.
As host of the G20, Prime Minister Harper surely has an obligation to remind world leaders of their commitment not to erect protectionist barriers, but the reality over the past year has been an increasing array of regulatory and procurement restrictions put in place around the world that favour domestic producers. The result — mounting tensions among governments.
The political stakes in economic recovery are high. As Prime Minister Harper insists, it will take real leadership to overcome the short-term political attractions of protectionism. But, that is what will be required to ensure a sustainable economic recovery.
We know the consequences of a game plan based on restrictive preferences and retaliation. In today’s world of internationally-integrated financial markets, supply chains and business operations, jobs cannot be secured anywhere when economic opportunities are being restricted more and more to domestic markets.
Canada and other economies around the world will suffer if Harper’s advice is ignored. Yet, my bet is that at the end of the day, the economic advantage will go to those countries that follow our lead.
We are the little country that could, and did. It’s time the globe followed our lead as we chart the course to economic renewal and prosperity.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Check our online courses now
Click Here now!!!!