Immigration Canada

Canada considers visas for Hungary due to influx of Romani immigrants

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 27.2.2012 18:28, (ROMEA)

Some Canadian MPs are considering the option of reintroducing entry visas for Hungarian citizens in connection with a strong wave of Romani immigrants from Hungary. The speaker of the Canadian Senate, Noël Kinsella, has delivered that message to the Speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary, László Kövér, in the Saudia Arabian capital, Riyadh.

Hungarian Press Agency MTI cited the Canadian legislator as saying Canada "cannot tolerate people coming [to Canada], requesting asylum, cashing in on welfare, and returning to Hungary, Romani or Slovakia." Kinsella was attending a meeting of heads of parliament of the G20 countries in Riyadh. Kövér was invited to the meeting even though his country is not a member of the 20 wealthiest countries in the world.

Hungary is not the only country facing an outflow of its Romani citizens to Canada. In recent days, dozens of Romani families from Slovakia have moved there, and some Romani people from the Czech Republic have made the pilgrimage to the Canadian "promised land" as well. When Canada reintroduced visas for the Czech Republic, the large-scale emigration stopped. Hungary now has similar problems.

Czech Press Agency, eurozprávy.cz, translated by Gwendolyn Albert
ROMEA

Immigrants should build TFSAs while waiting for RRSP eligibility

MARJO JOHNE

Globe and Mail Update

Shortly after she moved to Toronto from Hong Kong 20 years ago, May Fung learned about a fifth season in Canada, one that didn’t appear anywhere on her calendar: RRSP season.

“When I found out about the tax rates in Canada – which were very high compared to what I was accustomed to in my home city – I was eager to participate in a program that would give me instant relief from taxes,” says Ms. Fung, who is now senior manager of retirement planning at Bank of Montreal. “The idea of long term tax-free compounding for my investments also had great appeal.”

There was one problem. Like all newcomers to Canada, Ms. Fung could not immediately take advantage of the tax and savings benefits of an RRSP. That’s because RRSP contribution room is based on a percentage of income earned from the previous year. For immigrants just starting their lives – and careers – in Canada, this adds up to zero RRSP contribution room.

If they can’t contribute right away to an RRSP, are there other investment strategies new Canadians can use to save for retirement while reducing or deferring their taxes?

Absolutely, says Simeen Gaidhar-Bhanji, a chartered accountant in Vancouver. As a starting point, she recommends that newcomers put their money into a tax-free savings account (TFSA).

Introduced in 2009 by the federal government, a TFSA lets Canadians save up to $5,000 a year without incurring taxes on interest earned or withdrawals. Unlike money put into an RRSP, TFSA contributions are not tax-deductible.

“You don’t need to have earned income to be able to contribute to a TFSA,” Ms. Gaidhar–Bhanji says. “So in their first year, even their first day in Canada, new immigrants can start contributing to a TFSA right away.”

Ms. Fung agrees, noting that the tax deductions from an RRSP would not be particularly useful for new Canadians who are starting jobs on the low end of the wage scale. Families who have more than $5,000 to put away can open TFSAs for both spouses, which gives them $10,000 of tax-free savings. Those with adult children can also put money into a TFSA under each child’s name, Ms. Fung says.

When they have built RRSP contribution room, they can withdraw the money from their TFSA and put it in an RRSP.

“The best thing is to have both an RRSP and a TFSA,” she says. “If you’re taking money out of an TFSA and putting it into an RRSP, keep in mind that you can later re-contribute the same amount into your TFSA.”

In cases where one spouse finds work while the other remains unemployed for an extended period – a scenario not uncommon among new immigrants – putting money into a spousal RRSP is a good idea, Ms. Fung says.

“I see this commonly in the medical profession, where one spouse is a doctor and the other spouse is not working,” she says. “A spousal RRSP, which uses the contribution room of the working spouse, helps to equalize their income in retirement and reduce their tax liabilities overall in retirement.”

There are no statistics tracking the money immigrants bring when they move to Canada, but financial experts say many come with substantial assets, particularly those who were accepted into the country as immigrant investors or entrepreneurs.

This moneyed class of newcomers can boost their RRSP contribution room by buying a rental property, Ms. Fung says.

“Net income from a rental property is considered by Canada Revenue Agency to be earned income,” she says. “If you can’t get employment right away and have money to put towards a house or condominium, this is one way to create RRSP contribution room. And if you are working, then it’s a good way to increase your contribution room.”

Karin Mizgala, chief executive officer of Money Coaches Canada Inc., a Vancouver-based fee-for-service network of financial planning professionals, says money spent to renovate or maintain a rental property may also be tax-deductible. And while the owners will need to pay tax on capital gains when they sell the property, they will in the meantime enjoy deferral of these taxes.

Newcomers also build RRSP room when they’re earning income from their own business, Ms. Mizgala says.

“Within a year, they will have that RRSP room available,” she says.

Until that RRSP room becomes available, newcomers with money to invest could also look into a buying a home, Ms. Mizgala says.

“Your principal residence is tax-exempt, so that could be a good place to put your money,” she says.

Ms. Fung at Bank of Montreal says new Canadians who want to start building an investment portfolio right away should make sure they allocate their non-registered assets in a way that minimizes their tax liability. For instance, a tax credit applies to eligible dividends from Canadian companies, while capital gains are subject to income tax.

Ms. Fung urges newcomers to start saving money in an RRSP as soon as they’ve built up contribution room. That’s what she did. About a year after she started working – she began her career in Canada as a lawyer – she opened her first registered savings plan.

“New Canadians should not ignore the RRSP,” she says. “They may not have a lot of contribution room to play with, but over time, it builds up.”

For tips, stories, videos and live chats ahead of this year's RRSP contribution deadline, check the Globe Investor 2012 RRSP season section for daily updates.

Not worth the wait

Ontario imposes a three-month waiting period before newcomers can receive public health insurance. Critics say the result is people delay seeking treatment, which can make their ailments worse - and endanger the public's safety. Louisa Taylor reports

BY LOUISA TAYLOR, OTTAWA CITIZEN FEBRUARY 28, 2012

Ontario is one of only three provinces to impose a waiting period before new immigrants can receive public health insurance, and opposition to the restriction has united civic politicians, doctors, nurses and immigration settlement workers.

Newly arrived immigrants cannot get OHIP coverage for the first three months they are in Ontario. Refugees are supposed to be covered by a special federal health plan, but it is unpopular with physicians, who say it takes too long and is too bureaucratic. The result, critics say, is that newcomers delay seeking treatment until the waiting period is over, making health problems worse and in some cases, endangering public health.

Recent research suggests that most newcomers arrive in Canada healthier than native-born Canadians, but lose that health advantage over time. Statistics Canada studies show that recently arrived Canadians born in Asia and Africa have mortality rates significantly lower than those of Caucasian Canadians, but mortality rates for those immigrants who have been in Canada for more than 30 years are higher, even when age is taken out of the equation

Last month, the Ottawa Board of Health joined its Toronto counterpart, health agencies and even the Ontario Medical Association in calling on the province to eliminate the waiting period, especially when it comes to patients with tuberculosis.

Councillor Diane Holmes, chairwoman of the Ottawa Board of Health, sent a letter in January to Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews notifying her of the board's resolution against the wait and "advocating that new immigrants who have tested positive for latent tuberculosis infection, be able to receive immediate coverage from OHIP to ensure timely and effective treatment to prevent the development of active tuberculosis disease."

Tuberculosis is contagious and a public health challenge around the world. Prospective immigrants must pass a test for tuberculosis before they are issued visas, but cases of latent TB can go undetected.

There are approximately 1,600 cases of active TB in Canada, half of which are in Ontario. Most cases are found in immigrants from countries with high rates of TB, and they are at the greatest risk of developing active TB within the first five years they're in Canada.

The waiting period applies to all new and returning residents and is intended to give the province time to confirm a person's eligibility for insurance, David Jensen, spokesman for the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, said Monday. "Providing an exemption from the three month waiting period for only certain groups may raise concerns about the fair and equitable application of the Health Insurance Act to other Ontario residents who also require medical care during the waiting period for health insurance coverage," Jensen said.

Only British Columbia, New Brunswick and Quebec have a similar waiting period, and Quebec makes exceptions for tuberculosis.

Dr. David McKeown, Toronto's chief medical officer of health, says if a patient tests positive for TB, OHIP will pay for the medication but patients are still responsible for other treatment costs, including hospitalization, that can add up to tens of thousands of dollars. Even if the patient doesn't test positive, he or she has to pay the cost of the initial assessment.

"The three-month waiting period should be abolished," says McKeown. "The dilemma faced by a newcomer with a bad cough is they have to decide if they're going to wait it out or do the right thing and get assessed."

The province recommends newcomers buy private medical insurance but that's not always enough, says McKeown. He cited the case of a Toronto immigrant who bought private insurance. When he was later diagnosed with TB, his insurer denied his claim on the grounds that it was a prior medical condition.

"He did the right thing for himself, for his family and for the public at large but he still ended up with a bill for $20,000," says McKeown. "It's a particularly clear example in my mind of how the three-month waiting period isn't working."

Jensen points out that immigrants are welcome to seek treatment at community health centres, which are funded by the province. But one of the most vocal groups calling for an end to the waiting period is the Right to Health Care Coalition, which represents 30 community health centres, hospitals, settlement agencies and others. Jack McCarthy, executive director of Somerset West Community Health Centre and a member of the coalition says community health centres don't have the resources to cope with all the uninsured who come through their doors.

"I have a budget of about $66,000 for the non-insured this year and I'm going to blow that budget by $20,000," says McCarthy, who is also head of the health committee of the Ottawa Local Immigrant Partnership, a planning group working on ways to improve the integration of immigrants. "That includes the homeless and people who are noninsured for other reasons. We do the best we can but the resources are very limited. God help them if they need to go to hospital. We can't cover any acute care costs."

The Ontario Medical Association studied the issue last year in response to reports from member physicians, says Dr. Stewart Kennedy, association president. They found that it's not just patients with tuberculosis who are caught in the wait for insurance.

"Many emergency physicians were facing landed immigrants with no OHIP coverage," says Kennedy, a family physician in Thunder Bay. "They were uncomfortable turning anybody away from the emergency department. Some of their needs were acute - things like diabetes and chronic diseases, best managed in a family practitioner's office."

The OMA released a paper last year saying that the three-month wait fails to save taxpayers money, while endangering public health.

"It's supposed to save money but it's not, because there's a spike in OHIP billings after the three months and medical cases get more acute," says Kennedy, citing a 2004 study in the Canadian Journal of Public Health. "It just made common sense - if it's not saving any money, why have it?"

The waiting period is also intended "to create a disincentive to persons moving to Ontario briefly only for the purpose of acquiring insured medical services without the intending to make Ontario their primary place of residence," says Jensen.

McKeown isn't convinced.

"Governments say they are concerned about medical tourism, but really, I don't think anyone is going to go through the very long and complex process of immigration just to get three months of medical coverage," says McKeown.

louisataylor@ottawacitizen.com twitter.com/louisataylorCIT

ABOUT THIS SERIES

In 2011, the Citizen's Louisa Taylor won a fellowship from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research that allowed her to research and write about immigrant health in Nepal, India, the United States and Canada. "In my work I often hear about the 'healthy immigrant effect,'" says Taylor. "The idea that newcomers get sicker when they move here seems like an alarming trend in a country built on immigration. This fellowship was my chance to find out what we know about it and what it means for health care."

"Unhealthy Welcome" runs in the Citizen until today.

SATURDAY

New Canadians, old assumptions: The challenge to Canada's health-care system.

SUNDAY

Margins to mainstream: Frontline practitioners break new ground.

Lost in Translation: Overcoming the language barrier.

MONDAY

Reaching Out: Bringing health to newcomers.

ONLINE

See videos, slideshows, graphics and links to more information at ottawacitizen.com/ unhealthywelcome

Western Canadian employers court the Irish

SEAN SILCOFF

OTTAWA— From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

Published Monday, Feb. 27, 2012 7:20PM EST

Faced with a massive skills shortage and a surge of job openings, Western Canadian employers are looking to an old source for new workers: hard-up Ireland.

This week, two delegations of employers – one from Saskatchewan led by Premier Brad Wall, the other headed by British Columbia and Alberta construction industry representatives – are making a push to entice Irish citizens to leave their economically devastated country and come to Canada, as the ancestors of more than one in eight Canadians did generations earlier.

“We have a construction boom; they have a bust,” said Abigail Fulton, vice-president of the British Columbia Construction Association, whose 11-member delegation is meeting with Irish government, industry and union representatives in Dublin this week. The meetings, she said, are intended “to lay groundwork and develop an inventory of people who are looking for work” – then match the names to companies looking to fill more than 100,000 construction jobs expected to open up in B.C. and Alberta in the next five years.

Like the Alberta-B.C. delegation, the Saskatchewan group, which includes 27 employers, has a big presence at the Working Abroad job fair in Dublin this weekend, giving Canadian exhibitors close to 40 per cent of the booths. The Saskatchewan government has set up a website that greets potential Irish emigrants with the message “Welcome to your future” and hundreds of job postings. The province is even sending immigration officials to help applicants speed the process of moving to Saskatchewan, while Mr. Wall will greet job seekers on Saturday.

“They’re pushing it really hard,” said Chris Willis, a Canadian immigration consultant based in Hudson Heights, Que., who has attended the twice-annual job fair for the past six years. “This time it’s very much a Canadian-focused show.”

Among the exhibitors is Kevin Dahl, co-owner of Nipawin, Sask.-based K&R Contracting, which builds giant metal storage bins attached to grain elevators across the Prairie provinces and has had trouble holding on to employees. “This past year we needed 15 to 20 and couldn’t get any more than 12,” he said. “We’d hire a bunch of guys and they’d just disappear. There’s so much work in Saskatchewan that if you have a bad day, you can start 10 other jobs tomorrow.” He’s hoping to hire up to 10 metal workers this weekend.

With its steady economy, common language, similar training and work standards – not to mention shared history – Canada is one of a handful a popular destinations for Irish workers.

Moreover, the Irish economy holds few opportunities. Four years after the bursting of its property bubble – and its reputation as one of the strongest economies in the world – Ireland’s unemployment rate is stuck at 14.2 per cent, and the number of construction jobs is down more than 60 per cent from its peak in 2007. Construction activity is expected to sag to €6.5-billion ($8.7-billion) this year, one-sixth its level in 2007. “There’s not a huge amount of light at the end of the tunnel at the moment,” said Jimmy Healy, spokesman for Ireland’s Construction Industry Federation.

As a result, people are leaving the country of 4.6 million people in droves. In the year ending April, 2011, 40,200 Irish nationals emigrated, up 45 per cent from the same period a year earlier and triple the level three years earlier, according to the Irish Central Statistics Office.

Meanwhile, Citizenship and Immigration Canada reports 3,729 temporary foreign workers entered the country from Ireland in 2010 – up 25.7 per cent from the year before – either through the country’s one-year “working holiday” program for those under age 35 or after obtaining four-year permits under the temporary foreign workers program through their Canadian employers.

Ms. Fulton said her group had met with a warm reception so far. “They see this as a partnership more than us coming over and snagging all their workers. They want their workers to find jobs and return when their economy improves.”

Starting over in a new country means new ways to stay healthy

Immigrants are usually healthy when they arrive but soon fall behind. Louisa Taylor reports on efforts to turn around that distressing trend

BY LOUISA TAYLOR, OTTAWA CITIZEN FEBRUARY 27, 2012

Just off Park Avenue in Manhattan, outreach workers in the Mexican consulate give migrants free blood pressure checks and referrals to doctors. At John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, cabbies - most of whom are from South Asia, West Africa and the Caribbean - learn exercise techniques at a health fair in the taxi holding lot. In Ottawa, Chinese seniors gather for exercise and socializing, and the city trains settlement workers to share healthy living messages with new arrivals.

Research suggests that immigrants in many Western countries arrive healthier than the native born population, but their mortality rates rise over time. Innovative programs are trying creative ways to get the prevention message to newcomers.

Josana Tonda is the national coordinator of Ventanillas de Salud, a program that brings medical outreach to more than 50 Mexican consulates in the United States. Mexicans who visit the consulate on East 39th Street in Manhattan can't help but notice a corner of the waiting room filled with posters and pamphlets in Spanish about diabetes, women's health and finding a doctor. Several times a week nurses and outreach workers are there with screening tests, flu vaccines or referrals to clinics.

The Ventanillas de Salud - Windows on Health - program began in two California consulates in 2003 to help Mexican immigrants get access to health care. It now has partnerships with more than 500 local agencies providing services through more than 50 consulates throughout the United States. Discussions are under way about expanding to Canada.

"The majority of our clients are undocumented and uninsured, more men than women, with an average age of 25 to 35," says Tonda. "They are dry cleaners, restaurant workers, house cleaners, and many of them haven't been to a doctor for years except for visits to the ER.

"This is a very mobile population, very hard to reach. But people come here because they need to get documents, so we grab their attention and engage them on a health topic."

Tonda says their research shows the Ventanilla program is reducing emergency room visits by Mexican migrants and increasing the use of preventive services.

"Taking care of yourself is part of being adapted to a place," says Tonda. "We bring them confidence about really connecting to the health-care system."

Tonda says the Mexican government wants to help Mexicans already in the United States put down roots, but there's another motivation as well. "There's always a message of not losing the relationship with communities of origin," says Tonda. "What happens here has an impact there."

Recent immigrants often come from countries where preventive health care was not available, and once they resettle, traditional prevention messages pass them by. As a result, many health agencies have made reaching specific cultural communities a top priority.

In Ontario, the Heart and Stroke Foundation has programs for four: South Asians, First Nations, African and Chinese. Firdaus Ali is the "community mission specialist" in charge of reaching South Asians, whose risk of cardiovascular disease is much higher than the average Caucasian Canadian. Ali organizes health fairs and sends Hindi or Urdu-speaking community ambassadors to Diwali or Eid festivals to talk about tweaking traditional dishes to be heart-healthy. She also works with ethnic media, including Ottawa's Mirch Masala drive-home show on CHIN Radio, to get the word out.

"So far, the knowledge level is there but it hasn't translated into action; that is the biggest challenge," says Ali. "People are aware, 'If I eat a lot of oil or rich meals it will impact my heart.' What is lacking is how we change our lifestyles to be healthy."

In New York, one of the world's most diverse cities, Dr. Francesca Gany was looking for a way to go even further, and she hit on the idea of taxi drivers.

"There are 43,000 cabbies in New York, and most of them are immigrants," says Gany, an immigrant health expert at Memorial-Sloan Kettering Hospital. "Many are driving 12-hour shifts, taking just one day off. When they are so focused on providing money for their families, preventive care falls by the wayside."

Gany's team organized the STEP program, Supporting Taxi Drivers to Exercise through Pedometers, a 12-week program for 74 South Asian taxi drivers. The aim was to lower the drivers' risk of cardiovascular disease by encouraging walk more and change their diets. The program gave the drivers pedometers and sent out weekly phone reminders to walk 12,000 steps a day.

The next phase of the program was STEP On It, a five-day health fair in the holding lot at John F. Kennedy Airport last September. The team set up a tent and offered, among other things, health counselling with on-site doctors, free blood pressure and glucose screenings, stretching classes specific to a driver's aching muscles and a nutrition workshop showing how to make healthier choices on fast food menus. Although many drivers were from Africa and the Caribbean, most were South Asian. Translators were on hand so the team could serve clients in Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, and Urdu.

STEP On IT's co-ordinator, Pavan Gill, says more than 480 drivers used the services over five days, and the team was able to do a 15-minute survey with 400 of them.

"We saw a lot of abnormal blood pressure and glucose tests and were able to refer people for care," says Gill, a Canadian who graduated from the University of Toronto. "We've done follow-ups and it has been really great to see the improvement. The drivers have told us 'You guys saved our lives.'"

Gill believes one of the reasons for the success of Step On It was the focus on providing information and services to immigrants in their environment, in a way that made sense to their lives.

"We said things like, 'Get out of your car and walk the perimeter of the holding lot while you're waiting, park a few blocks away from the restaurant where you're going to pick up food, use the stairs instead of the elevator'." says Gill. "We didn't tell them to get a gym membership, we talked about simple, easy, everyday things."

Settlement workers meet immigrants and refugees soon after their arrival, and help them with housing, jobs, school registration and other services. Health Skills, Health Smart is an Ottawa Public Health program that builds health information into that relationship by giving the settlement workers two-day seminars on nutrition, exercise, shopping, when to see a family doctor, and when to go to hospital.

The program has trained 32 settlement workers at the Catholic Immigration Centre and plans to train another 68 across the city.

"Our staff are now having conversations with people about the importance of Vitamin D, or why going for an annual checkup is important, or why they should use those free blood pressure machines at the pharmacy," says Carl Nicholson, executive director of Catholic Immigration Centre. "They have a much better ability to refer people to the services they need, not to mention our staff get better health practices, too."

Nicholson's agency has an innovative project of its own in the newly renovated basement of its Argyle Street office building, The Wellness Centre for Refugees is a one-stop service for government sponsored refugees, run by staff seconded from Somerset West Community Health Centre.

A team of nurse practitioners, doctors and support staff screen refugees for communicable diseases, provide vaccinations and arrange referrals to primary care physicians. The centre's funding includes $100,000 from the Champlain Local Integrated Health Network, money that Nicholson argues is very well spent.

"We assess the health status of every government-assisted refugee who comes to Ottawa," says Nicholson, adding that the centre sees about 500 clients a year.

"They have a complete workup of their health status and, if we find something wrong with somebody, we set about fixing it. We keep them out of the emergency rooms and we put them through a process of understanding how to keep their health and how to use the health care system."

Other programs focus on the social side of good health, by trying to break down the isolation some immigrants can feel, particularly seniors. Five days a week, the Yet Keen Seniors Day Program hosts 40 to 50 Chinese at the Bronson Centre for exercise, lunch and classes, including calligraphy, Chinese opera, or field trips (they recently went to Gatineau Park to learn how to snowshoe).

"It's a matter of breaking down social isolation," says Yet Keen coordinator Anna Yip. "We focus on healthy and active living as one way to help them stay in their homes and avoid hospitalization."

Another program run out of the Bronson Centre, the Club Casa de Los Abuelos, has similar programming to help Spanish-speaking elders stay active.

"Our world is becoming increasingly diverse and mobile, cities are receiving immigrants that have never had any before," says Gany. "It's not one-size-fits-all. We really have to think about who we're seeing and develop services that meet their needs."

SATURDAY

New Canadians, old assumptions: The challenge to Canada's health care system.

MONDAY

Reaching Out: Bringing health to newcomers.

TUESDAY

Health Delayed: Campaign against the three-month wait for OHIP.

ONLINE

See videos, slide shows, graphics and links to more information at ottawacitizen.com/ unhealthywelcome

ABOUT THIS SERIES

"In my work I often hear about the 'healthy immigrant effect,'" says Taylor. "The idea that newcomers get sicker when they move here seems like an alarming trend in a country built on immigration. This fellowship was my chance to find out what we know about it and what it means for health care."

Unhealthy Welcome runs in the Citizen until Tuesday.

ltaylor@ottawacitizen.com

Twitter.com/louisataylorCIT