Immigration Canada

Government of Canada Introduces the Faster Removal of Foreign Criminals Act

Barack Obama, President of the United States of America, with Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

OTTAWA, ONTARIO, Jun 20, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- The Honourable Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, introduced legislation today to expedite the removal of foreign criminals from Canada and to enhance the safety and security of Canadians.

"The Harper Government is putting a stop to foreign criminals relying on endless appeals in order to delay their removal from Canada during which time they continue to terrorize innocent Canadians," said Kenney "Canadians are generous and welcoming people, but they have no tolerance for criminals and fraudsters abusing our generosity."

The Faster Removal of Foreign Criminals Act focuses on three areas which would:

1. Make it easier for the Government to remove dangerous foreign criminals
from our country;
2. Make it harder for those who may pose a risk to Canada to enter the
country in the first place; and
3. Remove barriers for genuine visitors who want to come to Canada.

Through the Faster Removal of Foreign Criminals Act, the Government is delivering on its commitment to streamline the process to deport convicted criminals by limiting their access to the Immigration and Refugee Board's Immigration Appeal Division. This will reduce the amount of time certain criminals may remain in Canada by up to 14 months, reducing their chances of committing more crime on Canadian soil.

Another change in the proposed legislation would ensure that foreign nationals who are inadmissible on the most serious grounds - security, human or international rights violations, or organized criminality - will no longer be able to delay their removal by applying for a program that is meant for cases deserving of humanitarian and compassionate consideration. This change is consistent with the government's no safe haven policy.

Other amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to protect the safety and security of Canadians include a new Ministerial authority to refuse temporary entry in exceptional cases, and increased penalties for those who try to cheat the system.

In contrast, the legislation will facilitate the temporary entry of low-risk individuals who would have previously been refused entry because one of their family members was deemed inadmissible for non-security reasons, such as health.

"These measures are tough but fair," said Minister Kenney. "We want an immigration system that is open to genuine visitors, while at the same time prevents the entry of foreign criminals and denies them the ability to endlessly abuse our generosity."

These amendments, which would update the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and our immigration program, complement the recent measures in the Protecting Canada's Immigration System Act as well as the Action Plan on Perimeter Security and Economic Competitiveness.

Backgrounders:

- Introducing the Faster Removal of Foreign Criminals Act

- Faster Removal of Foreign Criminals Act: What will it do?

- Top 5 Reasons for Faster Removal of Foreign Criminals Act

Follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/CitImmCanada .

Photo of Minister Kenney will be available later today at: www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/media/photos/high-res/index.asp .

Building a stronger Canada: Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) strengthens Canada's economic, social and cultural prosperity, helping ensure Canadian safety and security while managing one of the largest and most generous immigration programs in the world.

Canada to raise language bar

The English-speaking world. Countries in dark blue have a majority of native speakers. Countries in light blue have English as an official language, de jure or de facto. English is also one of the official languages of the European Union. "Official EU languages". European Commission. 8 May 2009 . . Retrieved 2009-10-16 . (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Requiring new immigrants to speak English or French to a higher level will improve their economic prospects say ministers but others fear the policy will target favoured nationalities.

The Canadian government's plan to raise language fluency requirements for prospective skilled immigrants has some experts concerned that it may tilt migration patterns toward the English-speaking world.

Canada's immigration minister Jason Kenney said earlier this year that some immigration applicants will soon have to demonstrate high levels of English or French fluency to gain entry to Canada. The proposed new requirements would apply to the largest class of immigrants, the federal skilled worker category, which accounts for nearly 100,000 of the roughly 250,000 immigrants who come to Canada every year.

The decision is aimed at improving economic outcomes for immigrants in the country, which have been steadily declining over the last 30 years. Today a new immigrant earns only about 60% of the wages of a similarly educated Canadian-born citizen, compared with nearly 90% three decades ago. Meanwhile a flood of research has shown that language ability is one of the best predictors of rapid integration and economic success.

But Naomi Alboim, a public policy professor at Ontario's Queen's University and a former provincial deputy minister of citizenship, expects the policy will also have other consequences. The most striking will be a significant shift in source countries, she said. Alboim anticipates a decline in the number of migrants from China, for example, and a rise in the number from English-speaking countries.

Such a shift would make Canada's immigrant intake more similar to Australia's. The Australian government raised immigrant language requirements over the last decade and its immigrants have fared better economically than those in Canada. But Australia also receives proportionally larger numbers from English-speaking countries such as the UK, Ireland and New Zealand, who tend to integrate more quickly.

"A focus on language does make eminent sense. But I think we have to be careful about how high we are setting the bar and whether that is going to exclude a whole group of people who can contribute to a very significant degree with a little bit of assistance," Alboim said.

"We don't need to restrict our entire federal skilled worker intake to only those who have a high level of language, because that can develop over time."

Canada adopted a points-based immigration admission system in the 1960s to guard against any discrimination on the basis of race, religion or national origin, which had been shameful features of immigration policy in the past. Although it has awarded a certain number of points for language ability, it will now require that immigrants wishing to work in the professions demonstrate "fluency" on standardised tests. A slightly lower level would be required for those in skilled trades.

While anyone can, in theory, learn a language, English or French fluency is more common in some parts of the world and Canada may be taking a step, intentional or not, towards targeting source countries.

Debbie Douglas, executive director of the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants, fears that the new policy will screen out people from the global south. "We can't discriminate against folks who don't sound like us. That might mean more propping up of language teaching [for new immigrants] but that's a very small price to pay for helping people contribute to building our country," Douglas said.

"We have committed to a multicultural ethos. We've agreed that Canada is a diverse country, that it's one of our strengths, that it makes us stronger socially and economically."

Kenney has said it is hard to predict what impact the new language requirements might have on source countries, as they tend to ebb and flow for a variety of reasons, including global economic conditions as well as selection criteria. His goal is to create a more flexible language grid that will contribute to improving the economic fortunes of those who are selected.

At the moment the federal government does not do much recruiting of immigrants, since it already receives many more applications than it can accept in a year. But provinces, employers and post-secondary institutions can and do target newcomers independently. For regions that struggle to attract immigrants, targeting has become an important way of encouraging population growth.

The premier of Saskatchewan recently flew to Ireland to encourage unemployed Irish young people to embark for the booming prairies. And neighbouring Manitoba takes aim at groups it believes will settle comfortably in the notoriously cold province. Recently Manitoba has turned to Ukraine, a major source country a hundred years ago, to find people to settle rural areas.

While an emphasis on language might produce better economic outcomes for immigrants in the short term, it could also have other effects. Canada may struggle to find enough people with sufficient levels of fluency to maintain its very high immigration levels, for example. A sudden shift in the attainability of immigration may have an impact on Canada's ties to a country such as China and studies have shown that trade ties increase through immigration.

Howard Ramos, a sociologist at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, says statistics show the overwhelming majority of immigrants are able to speak one of Canada's official languages.

"The history of immigration has shown a high degree of language integration over time. So I'm not entirely sure the concern being raised is necessarily warranted," Ramos said.

"The points system was introduced to correct the injustices of focusing on culture and language too heavily. It was a society and a time that was much more ethnocentric. I don't think it's a time we should try and return to."

Ottawa loses legal battle over immigration backlog

fields a question from a community member at the All Candidates Forum at McKenzie Lake Community Centre in Calgary's Southeast on January 14th, 2006. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Nicholas Keung
Immigration Reporter

Ottawa has suffered a major setback in eliminating its immigration backlog after the federal court ruled the government is obliged to process all applications it accepted into the system.

About 900 applicants under the federal skilled workers’ program sued Immigration Minister Jason Kenney for violating the pledge to assess and finalize decisions in a timely fashion.

They asked the court to order the immigration department to process their applications within a reasonable time frame.

In a decision released Thursday, Justice Donald Rennie rejected the minister’s argument that the delay is justified because he has the authority to make policies.

“The minister can set instructions that permit him to return some applications without processing them at all, and thus obviously there is no further duty in respect of those applications,” the judge wrote in a 24-page decision.

“However, for those that are determined eligible for processing, the duty to do so in a reasonably timely manner remains.”

In February 2008, the law was changed to give Kenney authority to issue ministerial instructions regarding which applications would be eligible for processing and to remove the obligation to process each application received.

As a result, the litigants argued, their applications were “warehoused” in a lengthy backlog from five to nine years.

Despite the new measure, the court said Ottawa still failed to finalize a file within the six and 12 months Kenney promised — the first ministerial applications have been outstanding between 24 and 52 months.

Immigration has until Oct. 14 to finalize the application of the case’s lead litigant, an IT project manager in China.

Although the court falls short on making an order for all 900 applicants, Thursday’s decision sets the stage for the prompt processing of the other litigants.

“So long as the applicants are not to blame for the delay, a fair application of Justice Rennie’s ruling would require Ottawa to finalize their applications by October 14,” said their lawyer, Tim Leahy.

The decision is final because the court refused the minister’s request for appeal, added Leahy. The next step is for opposing counsels to determine how to proceed with the remaining cases.

Immigrants who don’t speak English or French end up working in ethnic ‘enclaves:’ report

Citizenship@MaRS (Photo credit: mars_discovery_district)

Peter O'Neil, Postmedia News

OTTAWA — Immigrants who work in ethnic “enclaves” in major cities earn less than other Canadians and have a tougher time adapting to this country’s economy, according to an internal federal government document.

“Studies found that enclaves have a negative impact on the earnings growth for male and female immigrants,” says a report obtained under the Access to Information Act by immigration lawyer Richard Kurland.

The point was included in a federal report prepared in early 2011 to assess minimum language standards for immigrants brought to Canada under the “provincial nominee” (PN) program.

The report focused on concerns within Citizenship and Immigration Canada about the ability of program nominees in some provinces to speak one of Canada’s two official languages.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney recently acted on those concerns, announcing in April that program applicants in semi- and low-skilled jobs will be required to meet minimum language standards in English or French starting July 1.

More than 38,000 workers and their families came to Canada in 2011 under the program, which has become hugely popular with provincial governments seeking to meet severe labour shortages.

The report obtained by Kurland cited research showing that immigrants who can speak English or French adequately have earnings comparable to their Canadian-born counterparts.

But those who don’t speak an official language struggle in the labour force and often end up working in “enclave” immigrant communities in major cities.

The report said the number of immigrants working in a non-official language jumped 14 per cent between 2001 and 2006, involving 611,000 people.

Roughly one in six immigrants “only” used a non-official language and of this group, close to 60 per cent indicated they couldn’t conduct a conversation in English or French.

“While some researchers point to the possibility of such immigrants becoming employed in an ethnically sheltered (enclave) economy, several recent studies have shown that there are many disadvantages to doing this,” according to the report.

Several studies, for instance, showed that jobs in these enclaves are mostly in the lower-paying service industries, and taking those jobs can put the employee in a rut.

“Exposure to one’s group reduces the accumulation of skills specific to the host country’s labour market, decreases the knowledge of the local native language and impedes immigrants’ economic progress,” the report said.

The report also found that workers who speak little or no English or French face greater risks in terms of occupational health and safety, since they tend to be in physically demanding occupations and may be unaware of their rights.

Language proficiency also plays a critical role in the social integration of immigrants and their young children, it said. “It has a direct relationship with newcomers’ ability to settle, adapt and integrate into Canadian society.”

A federal government-funded 2009 research paper by University of British Columbia geography professor Daniel Hiebert, which looked at immigrant enclaves in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, said those areas have higher unemployment levels and that residents are “slightly” more dependent on government transfers.

Who are the richest 1 per cent in Canada? They’re not just CEOs

special edition (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

TAVIA GRANT

The Globe and Mail

For all the hue and cry over Canada’s richest 1 per cent, little is known about just who they are.

Until now. A new picture of that rarified club shows they are overwhelmingly men, older men in particular. They tend to have university degrees, and half of them work more than 50 hours a week. They’re not, by any stretch, all bankers: they are also doctors, dentists, managers and veterinarians, who earn at least $230,000 a year to qualify.

A paper released last week by University of British Columbia economics professors sheds new light on income inequality trends in Canada, who the top earners are and what policies might best address the country’s growing income gap.

They find, broadly speaking, that income distribution has not been this uneven in Canada since “the dark days of the Great Depression.”

“The ratcheting-up of inequality in Canada is real,” the 43-page paper says. “Whatever else it achieved, the Occupy movement shone a light on our growing inequality.”

Income inequality has been hotly debated in the past year, and a raft of recent studies has shown it is widening in most advanced economies. Growing income disparity has been linked with deteriorating outcomes for health-care, crime and long-term economic growth.

In Canada, about 8 per cent of the country's total income was concentrated in the hands of 1 per cent of the population back in the late 1970s. In recent years, that almost doubled to 14 per cent, the UBC paper said, which is based in part on details from the 2006 long-form census.

Reasons for the growing chasm vary. The wage gap between those with a university degree and those with just high school is widening. Younger workers are facing worse earnings prospects than a generation ago. Outsourcing, declining unionization rates and technological change may also be playing a role.

Policies that could narrow the gap include closing tax loopholes, hiking taxes on the richest 1 per cent and increasing refundable tax credits to lower-income Canadians, the authors say. Making the education system more flexible and reducing high school dropout rates could help support the middle class.

Here are some more of the findings from the study, entitled “Canadian Inequality: Recent Development and Policy Options”:

The top 1 per cent of earners amount to 275,000 individuals.
Fifty-two percent of people in the top 1 per cent work at least 50 hours a week, compared to less than 20 per cent for the overall population.
One needs an annual income of at least $230,000 to be part of the top 1 per cent. The average income in this group is $450,000, compared to only $36,000 for the whole Canadian population.
One could safely call this a brotherhood -- 83 per cent of those in the top 1 per cent are men. “So despite the significant gains realized by women over the last few decades, they remain dramatically underrepresented at the very top of the income distribution.”
Young people (under age 35) are also underrepresented in the top income group, though this may just be transitory as most haven't yet reached their peak life-cycle earnings.
Fifty-eight percent of individuals at the top have at least a bachelors’ degree, a greater proportion than the broader population, where 19 per cent of the adult population are university graduates.
Top earners hail from a variety of sectors. Just 10 per cent of people in the top 1 per cent work in the finance and insurance industry (despite garnering most of the public’s wrath). Senior managers and CEOs are over-represented in the top group, but still only account for 14 per cent of top earners. The only other large group of top income earners? Physicians, dentists and veterinarians who comprise almost 10 per cent of top earners, despite representing less than 1 per cent of the workforce.

The paper was jointly written by UBC’s Nicole Fortin, David Green, Thomas Lemieux, Kevin Milligan and Craig Riddell for the Canadian Labour Market and Skills Researcher Network.