Immigration policies make Canada less welcoming, study says
Maytree report critiques Ottawa’s unpredictable immigration policies and enforcement that paints migrants as «cheaters and fraudsters.»
Naomi Alboim, a Queen’s University public policy professor, was co-author of a study that examined changes made to the immigration and refugee systems by the Conservative government between 2008 and 2012.
By: Nicholas Keung Immigration Reporter, Published on Fri Oct 05 2012
Unpredictable policies that change at the stroke of a pen and enforcement that paints migrants as “cheaters and fraudsters” has made Canada less welcoming to newcomers, says a new study.
While Ottawa’s drastic changes to the immigration system may help reduce backlogs and address short-term labour market needs, the Maytree Foundation report raises concerns about how these changes are reshaping Canada’s future as a country for immigrants.
“There is no question that Canada is currently a country of choice for many people from all over the world. That may not be the case in future, especially for highly skilled people of interest to all industrialized and some developing countries,” said the report, to be released Thursday.
“While no single change would make Canada an unattractive destination, the cumulative impact may create the impression that Canada is no longer as welcoming as it was.”
The study — by Queen’s University public policy professor Naomi Alboim and Karen Cohl, a former Ontario assistant deputy minister for citizenship — examined each of the changes made to the immigration and refugee systems by the Conservative government between 2008 and 2012.
Titled “Shaping the Future,” the 96-page report says some of the changes are potentially positive, such as refocusing the federal skilled worker program, an initiative to bring in skilled tradespeople, an appeal process for selected refugee claimants, increased protection for caregivers, and transition to permanent resident status for eligible visa students.
But other changes are “problematic,” including a decision to wipe out immigration application backlogs legislatively; a moratorium on family sponsorships; reliance on temporary foreign workers to meet labour market needs; tightened citizenship requirements; a safe-country list of refugees whose claims would be fast-tracked; and mandatory detention of asylum seekers who arrive en masse.
“It’s the way these changes are made, the speed and breadth of these changes. It’s too much, too fast,” said Alboim, who is also a senior fellow at the Maytree Foundation, which focuses on community integration and diversity issues.
“We haven’t really had the opportunity to understand what they all mean, how they will interact with each other, and what potential impacts these changes will have. We need to make these changes carefully.”
The report is also highly critical of the Conservative government for using undemocratic methods to bring about these changes, for example by embedding them in omnibus and budget bills, and endowing the immigration minister with strong power to set policies with little public or parliamentary oversight.
It didn’t help that Ottawa decided to do away with a mandatory long-form census, a source of useful statistics for tracking immigration outcomes and impacts, Alboim noted.
“I hope this (report) will spur discussions in the public discourse and in the government, so we can have an informed conversation about the kind of future we want for Canada,” she said.
Источник: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2012 … _says.html
И вторая интересная статья:
Would-be immigrants poised to hear about application backlog
Dong Wang has waited six years for a response to his immigrant dream and he will find out from a Canadian court this week if the long wait is in vain.
By: Nicholas Keung Immigration Reporter, Published on Sun Jul 29 2012
Dong Wang has waited almost six years for his immigration dream to be fulfilled. This week, he and 900 other applicants will find out from a Canadian court if their long wait has been in vain.
The 33-year-old native of the Chinese city of Dalian applied to immigrate to Canada in 2006. He has been put through an emotional rollercoaster since he joined a lawsuit last November against Ottawa for warehousing backlogged immigration applications and failing to process them in a timely fashion.
In February, Wang got a letter from Immigration saying his application had been assessed and he and his wife should prepare the necessary documents, take the English language test and get a medical exam.
“We were all excited and full of hope after waiting for so long and so much effort we had made,” said Wang, an executive with an international hotel management group.
The bomb dropped in March when Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced a new law to clear the immigration backlog of 280,000 applicants. Bill C-38 would come into effect June 29.
In April, the couple got a “stop-submit” letter from Immigration. “Please ignore our recent request to submit full application forms and supporting documentation,” it read. “This office will not put your application into process. We will contact you . . . regarding refund of the processing fees.”
Last month, just before Bill C-38 became law, the Federal Court ruled on the case of the 900-plus applicants, saying the government must expedite the processing of the backlogged applications.
But on June 29, Citizenship and Immigration Canada stated that all applications filed before February 2008, when new selection criteria were introduced by Kenney, would be terminated.
“We’re really disappointed and sad,” Wang told the Star from China.
Tim Leahy, lawyer for the 900 litigants, is taking one last shot, asking the court to direct Immigration to assess their cases under humanitarian and compassionate grounds. Justice Robert Barnes is expected to deliver his decision this week.
Litigant Justin Pang, 30, who filed his application from Beijing six years ago, hopes the court will make a fair and sensible decision to get them justice, given the backlog isn’t the making of the applicants but the Canadian government.
“I have done everything I could that they asked me to, but finally they only gave me one letter to deny all the efforts I’ve made,” said the Tsinghua University graduate, an IT manager for a Fortune 500 company in Beijing.
Источник: http://www.thestar.com/news/investigati … cklog.html
