Admit the best, not most fluent

THE STARPHOENIX OCTOBER 31, 2011

 

 

With Canada counting on attracting hundreds of thousands of skilled immigrants in coming years to replace its aging workforce and maintain its productivity and prosperity, Ottawa's proposal to get tougher with testing newcomers for fluency in either English or French is anachronistic and counterproductive.

"The ability to communicate effectively in either French or English is key to the success of new citizens in Canada," Immigration Minister Jason Kenney's department website quotes him saying.

Mr. Kenney says the proposal, which requires applicants to provide objective evidence - such as a third-party test, completion of a secondary or post-secondary education in English or French, or achieving a Canadian Language Benchmark Level 4 proficiency - is meant to improve "the integrity and effectiveness of the citizenship program for Canada and for new Canadians alike."

Already, Canada requires prospective economic immigrants, who are different from those granted residency for humanitarian reasons or under the family reunification category, to prove they possess the educational qualifications and work experience that will help them become contributing members of this society.

The current legislation requires capability in one of the two official languages. However, the government feels the current assessment system, which is based on a multiplechoice written test that also tests an applicant's knowledge of Canada and citizenship responsibilities, is inconsistently administered and ill-suited to ascertain someone's listening and speaking skills.

Yet, in an era where a vast majority of those skilled persons Canada is seeking to recruit will be employed in diverse areas that range from welding and carpentry to computer programming to scientific research, medicine and engineering, the official-language fluency requirement is questionable at best.

The comprehension and communications skills required aren't uniform across these jobs and professions, and a onesize-fits-all approach simply isn't feasible. To deny a Spanish-speaking engineer from Latin America the opportunity to contribute her skills to Canada simply because of a lack of fluency in an official language is as absurd as denying a Kazakh welder entry for that reason, when they both can communicate effectively enough to do their jobs.

And that should be the determining factor: Whether these skilled newcomers can communicate effectively in their areas of expertise to get the job done. Canada needs too many of them, from wherever they are willing relocate, to impose on them restrictions that have little to do with their ability to contribute but have much to do with our reluctance to be more expansive and accommodating.

Our forebears from places such as the Ukraine weren't deterred by their inability to speak English or French as they settled the Prairies, did back-breaking labour and opened up the West. They, like the prospective immigrants who possess the skills that today's Canada needs, brought with them the drive and ambition to succeed.

What they need is the opportunity to put their skills to use, instead of being turned away on the flimsy rationale that fluency in French or English is required for the "integration of newcomers by improving language outcomes and encouraging their full participation in Canadian society," as Mr. Kenney's proposal suggests.

The editorials that appear in this space represent the opinion of The StarPhoenix. They are unsigned because they do not necessarily represent the personal views of the writers. The positions taken in the editorials are arrived at through discussion among the members of the newspaper's editorial board, which operates independently from the news departments of the paper.

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Interview: Kenney aims to reshape and rejuvenate workforce through immigration Read it on Global News: Global News | Jason Kenney aims to reshape and rejuvenate workforce through immigration

Heather Scoffield,  Sunday, October 30, 2011 2:52 PM

Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Jason Kenney responds to a question during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, October 26, 2011. Kenney has plans to reshape and rejuvenate the Canadian workforce.Step one comes this week when he announces immigration targets for next year.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

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OTTAWA - Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has never suffered from lack of ambition and his latest goal is nothing short of reshaping and rejuvenating the Canadian workforce.

He envisions a nimble, efficient immigration machine that will help solve Canada's demographic imbalance and boost the country's competitiveness simultaneously.

Step one comes this week when he announces immigration targets for next year.

Kenney says when he is done with his multiple reforms of the system, the flow of newcomers into Canada will be predominantly young, well educated, highly skilled, and fluent in English or French.

They'll be admitted to Canada within a year of applying.

And soon after, they'll start paying taxes because they will have lined up a job prior to arrival or should be able to find one quickly once they land.

"Where we want to be in a few years time is a flexible, just-in-time . . . system where we admit people within a year of their application," he said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

"Where people with pre-arranged job offers are given priority, because they succeed best. Where we continue to see a better geographic distribution of newcomers. And where we can more flexibly change the (acceptance) criteria based on developments in the labour market," he explained.

"That's where we want to go."

But getting there is no easy amble. His critics don't disagree with his goal, but they have qualms about how he will achieve it.

"It's like saying 'we want to have sun in January.' We all want that," NDP immigration critic Don Davies said in a telephone call from Vancouver. "He doesn't explain how. He sets the goals but he doesn't say how we'll get there."

Kenney foresees a multi-step process that will require changes to many different parts of Canada's creaky immigration machinery.

His department has already undertaken major studies of what kind of immigrant succeeds in Canada and what kind fails. Kenney has followed up with extensive consultations and polling to find out what mix of immigration the public is willing to take.

Now comes the action. Kenney is expected to table the annual report on immigration on Tuesday. As usual, it will include his decisions about how many immigrants Canada should accept in 2012, and what kind.

The report will give a range of operational targets for each type of immigrant, from foreign skilled workers to parents and grandparents.

The key number is the overall number of immigrants Canada wants to let in — and that number is clearly not going up despite pressure from the opposition.

Under the Conservative government, Canada has let in an average of 254,000 immigrants a year, which is high by historical standards.

While some immigration observers argue that Canada could solve its demographic imbalance, workplace shortages, family demands and backlog issues all at the same time by opening the doors to far more immigrants, Kenney rejects that idea.

"I don't think realistically we can increase the levels of immigration in orders of magnitude," he said.

"I think it's important for policy makers to listen to public opinion on immigration and not become disconnected from public opinion, which has arguably led to some of the problems in Western Europe."

Immigrant-related riots in a few European countries over the past three years have become the spectre of what immigration policy makers around the world aim to avoid.

Kenney understands the logic in calculations that show Canada would have to at least triple the number of immigrants it lets in every year if it wanted to bring down the average age of its population and resolve expected labour shortages over time.

But Canada can't absorb that many people, he said, nor would Canadians accept that kind of inflow. He points to polling last year done by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. It shows 47 per cent of respondents say immigration levels are just right, and 34 per cent say they are too high.

"That, in my view, is in no way a reflection of anti-immigration sentiment, because new immigrants are disproportionately likely to say that," Kenney said.

"So this is just, I think, a sense that Canadians have that there's a practical limit to how many people can be successfully settled each year. The broad political consensus in Canada is pro-immigration, but the caveat on that is to make sure that we're able to successfully integrate and employ the people who arrive."

Once the levels of immigration are decided, Kenney will be turning his attention to getting rid of the enormous backlog of potential immigrants waiting in the queue to have their applications processed. There are about one million names on the list, many of whom have been waiting for years and years for word from Ottawa.

He has suggested capping the number of applications in some areas, perhaps starting with the parents and grandparents of permanent residents. That would cut down the backlog, make for a younger inflow, and reduce Canada's costs for social services.

Then, once the numbers are under control, Kenney wants to focus on shaping the quality of the various immigration streams.

Next spring, the minister wants to re-jig the point system that allows economic immigrants to qualify. Youth and high-quality education will be worth more, and the emphasis on English or French fluency is likely to be increased. Quantity of education will matter less, the minister says.

But this isn't the first time Kenney has tried to reform the stream of economic immigrants, points out Davies.

Kenney has given three major directives over the past few years to limit applications and put certain professions at the front of the queue. The fact that he's rehashing the system yet again is a sign that his previous attempts have failed, Davies says.

It's not enough for Kenney to simply be the "Energizer bunny" when it comes to shaping Canada's future workforce and diverse population, he adds.

"I don't think he knows what he's doing. I think he should slow down."

© The Canadian Press, 2011

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