News Release — Reducing Backlogs to Achieve a Fast and Flexible Immigration System

The Centre Block on Parliament Hill, containing the houses of the Canadian parliament (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ottawa, September 17, 2012 —The Government of Canada welcomed the findings of a report on immigration backlogs by the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration and tabled its response in Parliament today.

“I think we can all agree that backlogs are unfair to applicants, harmful to Canada’s ability to attract the best and brightest from around the world, and hold back economic and job growth,” said Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney. “I thank the Standing Committee members for their hard work in compiling their report.”

The Committee commented favourably on what the Government has already achieved to date through the Action Plan for Faster Immigration and the Action Plan for Faster Family Reunification. However, the Committee report also made clear that more needs to be done in order to better align application intake with admission levels.

The committee report recognizes that backlogs have occurred because for too long Canada has accepted more applications than it can process and admit in a given year.  Over time, this annual surplus of applications resulted in a backlog of more than a million applicants, and processing delays of eight to ten years in some immigration categories. The report concluded that, in order to avoid future backlogs, it is critical that the Government act to ensure that the annual number of applications better align with the number of admissions.  The report also recommended exploring further options to deal with the problem of existing backlogs, particularly in the federal skilled worker, immigrant investor, and parent and grandparent classes.

The Government agrees with all of the Standing Committee’s report recommendations and has already acted quickly to tackle application backlogs in key areas. Successes include:

• Reducing the pre-2008 Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) backlog by more than 50 percent by 2011 – two years earlier than expected – through the 2008 Action Plan for Faster Immigration and successive Ministerial Instructions limiting application intake.  Most recently, Economic Action Plan 2012 removed around 280,000 applicants from that FSW backlog, which paves the way for a faster and more flexible economic immigration system;
• Managing intake of the Immigrant Investor Program applications starting in July 2011.  Most recently, a temporary pause on new applications was introduced on July 1, 2012 to allow Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) to focus on processing existing applications and reviewing the program’s effectiveness;
• Significantly decreasing the backlog of applications for parents and grandparents since fall 2011, as a result of increased admission targets and a two-year pause on new applications under the Action Plan for Faster Family Reunification.  At the same time, CIC introduced a new “Super Visa,” which allows for visits of up to two years by parents and grandparents, and has proven to be a popular alternative for applicants.

In the last year, the Government has also launched public online consultations on re-designing the parent and grandparent program, and reforming the Immigrant Investor Program.  Policy work on reformed programs is now underway.

“The economy and job growth remain the Government’s number one priority,” said Minister Kenney. “We continue to take the issue of immigration backlogs very seriously, and we will be doing even more in the future to transform our immigration system into one that is fast, fair, flexible, and serves the interests of Canada’s long-term prosperity.”

The Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration tabled its report, entitled “Cutting the Queue: Reducing Canada’s Immigration Backlogs and Wait Times,” in March 2012.

Canada Closing Its Doors To The Roma – OpEd

Young Hungarian Roma dancing. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By: VOR

September 16, 2012


By John Robles

The situation for the Roma in Europe is not improving. Trapped in a cycle of discrimination and poverty where they are not allowed a decent education and therefore cannot obtain decent jobs and in many cases segregated, not allowed proper health care and under constant attacks by ever increasing nationalist groups all over Europe, many turn to crime, prostitution and any other means they can to simply survive. This only reinforces the negative view of the Roma and leads to even more discrimination against them.


Canada
The Hungarian Roma community, which accounts for approximately 7% of Hungary’s population, continues to face discrimination in every aspect of their lives. Since a report issued by Amnesty International in 2009 little has changed for Hungary’s Roma, they still face discrimination and segregation in all areas of life. This includes public education, housing, employment and medical care.

The Roma not only face daily racism and discrimination but they have to contend with violent attacks by nationalist and neo-Nazi groups such as the illegal paramilitary Hungarian National Guard, which was disbanded by the Hungarian government but reformed and continues to grow. It is for the most part an anti-Roman organization whose members have included high level Hungarian officials in the past.

Last month the Hungarian Guard held an inauguration ceremony for 140 new members in a secret location in Dunaföldvár Hungary. Although the police came out in force, with over 300 officers taking part in an operation to shut down the ceremony and arrest members, the group managed to confuse police with decoys and misleading phone calls, and the police raided a location where none of the group’s members were actually present.

The discrimination of the Roma is by far not limited to Hungary, they face discrimination all over Europe but the reason that I am focusing on the Hungarian Roma is because soon they may have no place to go as many who were seeking asylum in Canada are being sent back and the doors for Roma asylum seekers in Canada are about to be all but closed.

With the passing of the Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act, a Canadian piece of legislation that some are calling the “anti-Roma law, the process for the Roma obtaining asylum will be all but impossible and their deportation will be much easier and quicker.

According to Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney, in a report on the cic.gc.ca website; “This legislation will help stop foreign criminals, human smugglers and those with unfounded refugee claims from abusing Canada’s generous immigration system and receiving taxpayer funded health and social benefits. Canada’s immigration and refugee system is one of the most fair and generous in the world and will continue to be so under the new and improved system.”

In reality the law will stop the waves of Roma that had begun to arrive in Canada and were abusing the system, often by returning to Hungary and still receiving benefits from the Canadian government. But the reason they return is not so simple as the government wants to portray. For many of the Roma they have no choice, many arrived in Canada with the hope for a better life but were trapped in conditions that were worse than the ones that they had left another example of the vicious cycle that the Roma are trapped in.

The new law now allows the Canadian Government the option of adding countries to a safe list in order to speed up the processing of refugees and deporting them. If a refugee comes from a country on the list, their claim will be processed in 45 days, not the 1,000 days that the other claimants have.

Such a move may help Canada to implement a universal no-visa policy for the entire European Union, something it currently does not have. For example Hungarians do not require a visa to travel to Canada but Czechs do. Their non-visa status was revoked due to the number of Roma claims for asylum.

According to the Budapest times the Canada Border Services Agency has recently reported that they are worried about the rising level of crime being committed by Hungarian Roma refugees in the country, these crimes mainly include skimming fraud and check fraud with a rising level of cases where checks are stolen and deposited into the bank accounts of refugee claimants who returned to Hungary.

The Budapest Times reported last year that the head of the National Roma Self-Government Flórián Farkas was warned by the Canadian Ambassador in Budapest, that Roma travelling to Canada “face prolonged and complicated procedures and have little chance of their asylum application being successful.”

So for the Roma seeking a better life and to break the cycle discrimination which starts with poor education, poor medical care and poor housing and continues and leads to job discrimination and no chance for quality employment and the betterment of their lives due to the previous reasons, another door appears to have been closed due to the actions of some who have supposedly cheated the system.
Unfortunately for the Roma the vicious cycle they are trapped in may not have an exit.

Source: http://www.eurasiareview.com/16092012-canada-closing-its-doors-to-the-roma-oped/

Related articles

• Is Jason Kenney Really Deserving Of A Honorary Doctorate from University of Haifa
• Ottawa could hold Roma refugees: report
• For the dignity of Roma people in Europe: Roma Pride!
• Federal government mulls detaining Roma refugee claimants
• Hungarian Far Right Calls For Zero Tolerance Against Roma
• Hungarian anti-Roma marches - You are going to die here

New Canadian visa links immigrant entrepreneurs with local investors

Canada hopes to attract high-potential startups to the country by creating a new type of visa for entrepreneurs, and in particular those involved in the technology industry, reports The Globe and Mail.

The country has placed a moratorium on issuing its existing entrepreneur visa class that requires immigrants to hire at least one person living in Canada for one year. It intends to issue a new type of visa where individuals would be accepted if they were in receipt of Canadian venture investment funds.

The moratorium on its existing entrepreneur visa class will see the country clear its backlog of applications by 2014. It is then hoped that the new visa class will see new applicants gain entry in months.

A press secretary for Canada’s Citizenship and Immigration Minister, Jason Kenney, stated,

“The startup visa is an initiative that the government of Canada is exploring to assist in transforming our immigration system into a fast, fair and flexible system that will meet the needs of our economy and help grow our country.”

So, if a Canadian venture capital firm identified a particular startup to invest in, and which intends to establish base in Canada, the Canadian authorities would grant an entrepreneurial visa based on this evidence and the startup could be cleared for entry “within weeks”. The concept behind the new visa class is to “unite Canadian money with foreign brains”.

“This program will link brilliant, job-creating, immigrant entrepreneurs with Canadian investors. We want the world’s best and brightest to come to Canada – to start businesses and to create jobs in Canada.”

In 2011, the Canadian government issued 700 visas under the current entrepreneur class. The the new visa class, expected to be unveiled in greater detail later this year, will issue up to 2,750 visas per year for startup entrepreneurs and their family members.

Canada has the highest sustained level of immigration in the world.

A new type of investor class visa is also intended to be introduced. The right to immigrate would be granted if the investor lent $400,000 – $800,000 to local governments.

Source: The Globe and Mail, Canadian flag image from Bigstock