Online Consultants Can Help You Relocate To Canada

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Posted on May 18, 2010, 9:15 am, by Adriana Noton, under SEO & Google Marketing.

There are many residents in Canada who know somebody who is in the planning stage of immigrating to Canada. Or, it could be a relative or friend who wants to enroll at one of the country’s excellent universities or schools. Either way, you should recommend the use of one Canada’s immigration consultants.
There are so many reasons why people seek citizenship in Canada. Apart from its awesome beauty and vast natural resources, the United Nations declared Canada to be the ‘best country to live in’ for 7 consecutive years. It is the 2nd largest country in the world and is America’s biggest trading partner. A Canadian passport allows citizens entry to over 20 countries without having to apply for a visa.
It is a multicultural, diverse country offering fantastic options for business growth and job opportunities. A comprehensive public health scheme is offered to every citizen. In addition, it has good judicial and welfare systems. With many fine schools, public and private, Canada is known to be one of the best educated nations in the world. People of varying cultures and backgrounds live in complete harmony, and Canada is free of discrimination.
The government has taken steps to encourage immigration. This is to guarantee that long-term plans for economic development come to fruition. It is hoped that at the end of 2010, some 250,000 new citizens will settle in Canada. With this injection of skilled labor, the country can grow and quickly recover from the economic downslide.
To encourage immigrants, the government has allowed each province to determine the number of extra skilled workers needed. Quebec has made great strides in this regard and has implemented an effective Skilled Worker program. This is to facilitate an easy immigration transition for new residents.
Essentially, this means that Quebec has formed its own unique immigration policy. It has laid down a set of criteria that do not necessarily conform to existing national immigration policies. This means that if you have applied for a work visa, but it has been declined, you are free to apply to Quebec.
To receive immigration approval, a person has to be skilled so that they can easily be integrated into Canada’s job market. To further increase chances of success, applicants should have a basic knowledge of French, and able to converse fluently in English. Those who have qualifications in a highly skilled field will receive priority.
It will help to have family members who are Canadian citizens or those who have ‘permanent resident’ status. If the applicant is married, his or her spouse may have ties with Canadian residents. In this case, these details should also be furnished. Most importantly, the applicant should be in possession of a written employment offer by a registered business in Canada.
Seeking out immigration consultants is easy online. It would be best to find one who is well versed with all the immigration criteria in Canada and its provinces. By hiring such a person, you could save expenses and lengthy waiting periods. Your consultant will be able to ensure that the application goes through smoothly. If every requirement has been properly addressed, you should have a good chance of success.
Looking to receive a home inspection, increase your safety training to your employees, or perform SEO services for your company? Then contact your local consultant to perform essential services to sustain your business!

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Skilled immigrant-worker need to skyrocket by 2020, study says

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By Ian Shelton, Times Colonist June 18, 2010

 

Robert Cui was happily shocked last July. After two years of scraping by in Victoria, two years of weighing the value of going to a meeting or ponying up $2.25 for bus fare, the single father from northern China was a security check away from a post with the Department of National Defence.
"I just couldn't believe it. I didn't believe I could get anything from the federal government," Cui said, pointing to eight fruitless interviews with provincial departments.
The elation was short-lived. Not yet a Canadian citizen, Cui was not eligible for the job.
Cui was crushed but took the bad news in stride.
"Sometimes it's just about how to accept reality."
Cui's disappointment is common among recent immigrants. But a looming labour shortage and dwindling numbers of skilled workers immigrating to B.C. mean the province will be forced to share in his troubles.
In the next decade, B.C. will depend on immigrants to fill about one in three job openings, according to the recently released British Columbia Labour Market Outlook: 2009-2019. At the same time, the number of skilled workers immigrating to the province appears to have hit a 15-year low.
About 15,100 skilled workers settled in the province last year, based on B.C. Stats numbers and provincial government targets. It's the lowest total since 1994.
These numbers include federal skilled worker program immigrants -- 12,081 for 2009 -- and provincial nominee program numbers -- a target of 3,000 for fiscal 2009-10 -- as well as actual numbers for a mix of previous fiscal and calendar years.
The problem has not gone unnoticed in the provincial government.
"Immigration is the key to future economic growth in B.C.," Moira Stilwell, the minister in charge of labour market development said by e-mail. "Even though the economy has slowed down, skilled labour shortages remain."
Until a decade ago, engineers, accountants and other immigrants selected for their skills arrived under the federal skilled worker program. Since then, the B.C. government has expanded its provincial nominee program, which fast-tracks applications for people with skills in short supply locally.
The program took in 2,500 skilled workers in 2008, with about 3,000 expected during the last fiscal year and more than twice that number hoped for by 2012.
During the same time, though, the federal program has dwindled, delivering half the number of skilled immigrants to the province last year as it did at its peak, more than a decade ago.
To some extent, the program is a victim of its own success -- attracting a glut of immigrants that settlement services were ill-prepared to absorb.
Annie Shum, a counsellor with the Victoria Immigrant and Refugee Centre, said the problems of credential recognition, language barriers and a lack of North American experience continue to plague her customers.
Shum heads up the centre's Skills Connect program, a provincial initiative that supports skilled immigrants hunting for work. She said that the challenges immigrants face are often hard to predict.

"I know of one client who is an engineer. She comes from a country where they're at war right now so it's impossible to get her credentials from the university," said Shum.
Stilwell said some studies place the outflow of immigrants to other provinces and countries at as high as one in three, though B.C. gains more immigrants from other provinces than it loses.
"Regardless of the actual figures, the loss of immigrants ... is a matter of concern to B.C. as it represents not just a loss of human capital to the province, but a missed opportunity for both the province and the immigrant."
For Cui, the pressures of migration took a personal toll. The loneliness and relative poverty that accompanied the move to Canada strained his marriage to the breaking point. His wife returned home two years ago, leaving Cui with his son Bob, now six years old.
He said he doesn't fault Bob's mother. He said he accepted her choice and has moved forward.
Last week, he found work at a large electronics manufacturer, Schneider Electric in Saanich, which produces sensors for power systems. More secure than he's been in a long time, Cui said he never doubted his choice to migrate.
"Whatever happens, I got my son here," he said.
"I win."

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Canada: Challenges and Oportunities for Immigrants.

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Most new immigrants are pleased to be living here and have positive views of Canada's social and political environment. However, after four years in the country, their biggest difficulties are still finding an adequate job, and dealing with the language barrier, according to two new reports from the third wave of the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada (LSIC).
The first report, "Immigrants' perspectives on their first four years in Canada", examines immigrants' assessments of life in Canada and the difficulties they face here.
Four years after arriving in Canada, the majority of new immigrants (84%) were positive about their decision to come here.
When asked about the single-most important reason for settling permanently in Canada, the most prevalent responses were the quality of life here (32%), the desire to be close to family and friends (20%), the future prospects for their family in Canada (18%) and the peaceful nature of the country (9%).
The report found that two-thirds of new immigrants said that life in Canada has lived up to their expectations.
These new immigrants were also asked what had been their biggest difficulties since arrival. The difficulty mentioned by the most immigrants was finding an adequate job (46%), followed by learning English or French (26%).
The second report, Knowledge of Official Languages among New Immigrants: How Important is it in the Labour Market? examines these two difficulties in detail. It analyzes the relationship between new immigrants' knowledge of the two official languages and their chances of finding an "appropriate" job.
It shows that the employment rate of immigrants increased with their ability to speak English.
Moreover, the ability to speak English is linked with the kind of job that new immigrants find, as those who reported speaking English well or very well were more likely to have an "appropriate" job than those who reported speaking it less well. However, the relationship between the self-reported ability to speak French and the chances of having an "appropriate" job was not as clear.

Two-thirds said Canada lived up to their expectations

The first report, "Immigrants' perspectives on their first four years in Canada", examines immigrants' subjective assessments and perceptions of life in Canada and the challenges they face here.

Note to readers This release summarizes the findings of two reports based on data from the third and final wave of the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada (LSIC). This survey was designed to study how newly arrived immigrants adjust over time to living in Canada. During the first LSIC interview, some 12,000 immigrants aged 15 and over were interviewed between April 2001 and May 2002, about six months after their arrival. During the second LSIC interview, about 9,300 of the same immigrants were interviewed again in 2003, about two years after their arrival. In 2005, about 7,700 of the same immigrants were interviewed a third time, around four years after their arrival.

Immigrants come to Canada with expectations, whether realistic or not, about what life will be like. LSIC respondents were asked whether life in Canada is better than they had expected, about what they had expected, or worse than they had expected.
About two-thirds of new immigrants reported a fairly positive congruence between their expectations and their experiences, while about one-third reported a low or declining degree of congruence between their expectations and experiences. Immigrants in different admission categories differed in this regard. While 15% of economic immigrants reported that their expectations of life in Canada had consistently been exceeded, this was the case for about one-third of family class immigrants and refugees.
Four years after arriving in Canada, the majority of new immigrants (84%) were positive about their decision to come here. However, those who felt their expectations about life in Canada had not been met were less likely than others to feel this way.
When asked about the single-most important reason for settling permanently in Canada, the most prevalent responses were the quality of life here (32%), the desire to be close to family and friends (20%), the future prospects for their family in Canada (18%) and the peaceful nature of the country (9%). Less than 5% cited employment-related reasons.

Immigrants themselves underscore difficulties in the job market

During the past 15 years, numerous studies have documented the difficult labour market faced by new immigrants. The findings of these studies have been underscored by immigrants themselves in the LSIC data.
The study found that between 7 and 24 months after arrival 62% of all new immigrants aged 25 to 44 had looked for a job, and that during the period between 25 to 48 months after arrival 53% had done so. The majority of job seekers reported that they experienced a problem or difficulty when searching for employment.
Considering all difficulties cited when seeking employment, lack of Canadian work experience was mentioned most often (50%), followed by lack of contacts in the job market (37%), lack of recognition of foreign experience (37%), lack of recognition of foreign qualifications (35%) and language barriers (32%).
New immigrants often experienced multiple problems when looking for work. For example, almost two-third of job seekers who reported a language problem also reported that lack of work experience was a difficulty.

Greatest challenges encountered since arrival

Four years after their arrival in Canada, new immigrants were asked what had been the greatest difficulties they had encountered. Two difficulties came out more than any other: 46% said it was finding an adequate job while 26% said it was learning English or French.
Among all new immigrants admitted in the economic category, almost half (45%) said finding employment was the greatest difficulty they faced while 15% said it was learning English or French. Among refugees, 26% said finding employment was their greatest difficulty and 30% said it was learning English or French.
The report "Immigrants' perspectives on their first four years in Canada", published today in a special edition of Canadian Social Trends (11-008-XWE, free), is now available from the Publications module of our website. For more information about the report, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Grant Schellenberg (613-951-9580 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              613-951-9580      end_of_the_skype_highlighting), Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division.

Language: Self-reported ability to speak English and French

The second report, Knowledge of Official Languages among New Immigrants: How Important is it in the Labour Market? examines in detail the two greatest difficulties encountered by new immigrants since their arrival — finding an adequate job and learning English or French. It looks at immigrants' self assessment of their ability to speak each official language and analyzes the relationship between new immigrants' knowledge of the two languages and their chances of finding an "appropriate" job.
In the survey, immigrants were asked to assess how well they could speak each official language at three points in time — six months, two years and four years after their arrival.
Six months after their arrival, 58% of immigrants reported that they were able to speak English well or very well, while the corresponding figure for French was 11%. Four years after arrival, 69% were able to speak English well or very well, and 14% could speak French so.
In Quebec, 55% of immigrants reported speaking French well or very well six months after their arrival. This proportion had climbed to 73% four years after their arrival. The corresponding proportions for English went from 40% to 54%.
For immigrants in Quebec, learning or improving the language of the minority, English, appeared to be just as important as learning or improving the language of the majority, French.
Overall, 45% of immigrants said they had taken language training in English since coming to Canada; 10% had done so in French. In Quebec specifically, 42% of immigrants had taken language training in French since their arrival, while 37% had done so in English. About 16% of Quebec immigrants had taken language training in both official languages.

Knowledge of English increases the chances of having an "appropriate" job

The percentage of immigrants employed grew substantially over time, according to LSIC data. The employment rate of immigrants aged 25 to 44, the prime working-age group, went from 51% six months after arrival to 65% two years after arrival. Four years after arrival, it had reached 75%.
The employment rate of immigrants in the survey's third wave thus approaches the national rate for Canadians in the same age group calculated for the equivalent period, specifically 81.8%.
Knowledge of the two official languages can be expected to be an asset in looking for a job. LSIC data showed that the employment rate of immigrants aged 25 to 44 increased with higher levels of self-reported proficiency in spoken English, for each of the survey's three waves.
Across the country in general, the chances for immigrants of having an "appropriate" job increased with their ability to speak English.
More specifically, immigrant's whose self-reported level of spoken English was good or very good were more likely to have a high-skill job, a job in the intended field, a job similar to the one held before immigrating and a job related to training or education. They also had higher wages, compared to immigrants whose spoken English level was not as good. This was true six months, two years and four years after immigrants' arrival in Canada.
However, the relationship between the self-reported ability to speak French and the chances of having an "appropriate" job was not as strong, nor as persistent.
In Quebec specifically, the impact of language was mainly on earnings. The hourly earnings of immigrants who spoke English very well were generally higher, regardless of the level of French, than those of immigrants who did not speak either official language well.
In Quebec, the level of French spoken by immigrants was not found to be related to their chances of having an "appropriate" job.

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Canada's brand advantage

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Kevin Lynch, BMO Financial Group, Financial Post · Tuesday, Jun. 15, 2010

Corporations and other organizations spend enormous energy on creating, managing and protecting their brands. Through their brands, companies can differentiate themselves in crowded, competitive marketplaces. Many universities, for example, invest considerably in brand recognition to attract students, philanthropy and faculty.
This raises a rather basic question: If brand reputation appears to add value for high-performing companies and institutions, why would they not be similarly valuable for countries. In short, does Canada need a brand?
A number of countries already spend considerable effort on branding efforts. Remember the "Cool Britannia" campaign. France brilliantly markets both high culture and high technology. Ireland as the "Celtic Tiger." Singapore as a sophisticated, business friendly entrepot in Asia. Australia as an Asia-savvy, can-do partner. Israel as a high-tech centre.
What all these countries, and many more, have in common is that they understand that the global marketplace has great opportunity, but it is competitive, fragmented, characterized by imperfect information, and has considerable consumer and investor uncertainty. They also understand that the scale and scope of global markets make it very difficult for all but a few individual firms or institutions to create global brands. Therefore, they understand that "country" or "national brands" can act as a public good, helping to market the goods and services of their businesses, to attract foreign investment, to interest immigrants, to entice tourism and to encourage educational placements.
The countries that project national brands globally do so in different ways, but all involve strong partnerships between government and business and often universities. All are strategic in the type of brands they want to develop. All view these "national brands" as strategic and long term, not tactical and short term. And all are aware of the importance of projecting a unified brand image in targeted markets.
A national brand should encapsulate the strengths, characteristics, and values that the country has and wants to project. The brand has to be sufficiently broad to capture the essence of a diverse country and sufficiently focussed to make a clear, uncluttered impression and instill brand awareness. The country brand should be a combination of characteristic brands (e. g. high tech, cultural icons, values, sports, etc.), endowment brands (natural resources, unique institutions, history, skilled people) and public policy brands (fiscal policies, tax policies, immigration policies, foreign policies, etc.).
With the upcoming G8 and G20 meetings being held in Canada later this month, the world's spotlight will be on Canada. Now is the time to develop a strong Canada brand, organized around the rubric of public policy, endowments and characteristics.
First, Canada has strong public-policy brand potential, and this has increased in relative value as the world emerges from the financial crisis and recession. Canada's financial sector has been rated the world's soundest by the World Economic Forum. Canada's fiscal position is by far the best among the G7 countries. Canada has established a substantial corporate tax advantage over the U.S. to attract and retain business investment. Immigration policies provide a growing labour force to counter demographic aging. And Canada has unique access to the North American marketplace through NAFTA. A strong public policy brand helps reduce investor uncertainty and influences corporate investment decisions.
Second, Canada has a unique endowment brand potential. Canada is among the top countries for many natural resources, and is the largest provider of secure energy supplies to the U.S. market. We have a well-educated, multicultural workforce, and Canadian cities are consistently top-rated globally as places to live and work. Canada has a strong education system, good universities and excellent research capacity.
Third, Canada also has brand potential based on our values, our multiculturalism in a globalizing world, and our approach to relationships, networks and flexibility. To a large extent, these characteristics are a large measure of today's foreign impressions of Canada.
Taking these three elements together, the Canada brand should project our good governance in a world where trust and security have been shaken, our natural resources in a world clamouring for them, our skilled and multicultural workforce in a world scrambling for talent, and our values which make us a good and reliable partner in an uncertain world.
It is true that we can build an attractive and welcoming business environment, but we then have to market it globally in selective regions to selective target groups of companies in selective sectors. It is the national/ provincial equivalent of a sophisticated corporate "road show," and needs to be approached accordingly.
A clear and compelling "Canada brand" can be a key part of the investment promotion toolkit; indeed, a Canada brand can be the differentiator among similar investment possibilities. Given the global shifting of economic activity now underway, engaging in a concerted way on investment promotion would appear timely and potentially productive.
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-The Honourable Kevin G. Lynch is vice-chair of BMO Financial Group.

Read more: http://www.financialpost.com/executive/Canada+brand+advantage/3155189/story.html#ixzz0qyCNDdhS
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What Obama And The U.S. Need To Learn From Canada

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Guest Article by:
Shaun Rein, 06.14.10, 12:45 PM EDT
Source: Forbes.com 

To start with, it has a healthy financial system and affordable higher education.

Many Americans think mainly of Eskimos and hockey when they think of Canada. Some also think of Michael J. Fox and James Cameron. They should be thinking of a functioning financial system and the most robust economy in the developed world. Unlike the U.S. and Europe, Canada has emerged relatively unscathed from the financial crisis. Its unemployment rate has been improving for the past year and stands at 8.1%. Canada's minister of finance, Jim Flaherty, is already calling for an end to government stimulus, even though the government debt stands at less than 35% of gross domestic product, less than half the level in the U.S.
Why is Canada doing so well while America's doing so poorly? For one thing, its financial regulations have emphasized dullness rather than encouraged exotic financial instruments. The big five banks have never been allowed to merge, and they've only dabbled in investment banking and subprime mortgages. Also, the banks' chiefs have never received huge bonuses like Lloyd Blankfein at Goldman Sachs ( GS - news - people ). In other words, the banking system has been forced to be conservative--as a banking system should be.

Canada also has good immigration and education policies that have set it up for continued strength. There are lessons President Obama can learn from Canada as worries of a double-dip recession in the U.S. linger.
For the past week I've been in Montreal speaking at the International Economic Forum of the Americas. The other speakers have included former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, Former British Prime Minister John Major, French Minister of Foreign Affairs Bernard Kouchner and several central bank heads from Europe. Perhaps the best speech, though, came from Jean Charest, the premier of the province of Quebec. Where most of the speakers focused on trade and economics, Charest said that Quebec needs to continue to attract the best people from around the world to come to work there. This is something that is going all wrong in the U.S., as America erects yet more obstacles to immigration in the name of preserving American jobs. Those anti-immigration policies are foolish and will hurt America in the long term.

Let me tell you a story to illustrate just how absurd America's immigration policy has become. I recently interviewed a young Harvard graduate who also was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University. He was one of the most impressive young people I've ever met. He had an offer in hand from one of the big private equity firms in New York--but despite his credentials, he couldn't get a working visa. Yes, a Harvard graduate and Rhodes scholar with a job offer in hand was unable to get a visa from the U.S. government. As a result, I was sitting with him in Shanghai interviewing him to join my firm, as he desperately sought another job.
This young man is exactly the kind of person America, or for that matter any nation, needs. Why couldn't he get a working visa? Because immigration is an issue that has become so freighted with fear that people can't think about it rationally. This has been especially true recently, as scared people like the Tea Partiers have looked for scapegoats for America's economic mess--though in reality the pendulum has been swinging this way since Sept. 11, 2001. Immigrants are easy targets, but rarely are they the problem.

 

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