The Parliamentary Secretary for Multiculturalism Asks Iranian-Canadians “Why Are You Here?” | Susan Khazaeli

2015/02/09 Leave a comment

While the commentary goes a bit too far in its arguments that this language creates two classes of citizens, subconsciously it may reflect this belief.

And people come to Canada for both economic objectives and living in a country that respects political and human rights:

A Conservative Toronto MP, Chungsen Leung, recently attended an event organized by the Association of North American Ethnic Journalists and Writers. During the meet-and-greet, Mr. Leung was asked about the increasing difficulties faced by Iranians attempting to obtain a Canadian Visa. Emotions apparently ran high. At one point, in a heated exchange, Mr. Leung asked a member of the audience, “If you like Iran so much then why do you come to Canada?”

He then demanded to know: “Why are you here?” Some audience members were so offended by his comments and his dismissive attitude — which one attendee characterized as “arrogant” — that they decided to leave the event.

Mr. Leung is also the Parliamentary Secretary for Multiculturalism. It kind of sounds like a bad joke, doesn’t it?

According to a CTV report, Mr. Leung’s office claims that the exchange was a “miscommunication.” His email apology expressed regret for the misunderstanding. Perhaps Mr. Leung’s comments were off-the-cuff, but they were, by no means, innocuous.

Even if unintentional, Mr. Leung’s comments were discriminatory and hostile. The subtext of the messaging is: “Why don’t you go back where you came from?” They betray an underlying attitude that many non-white Canadians encounter when expressing views critical of government policy. This attitude becomes even more pronounced when that non-white Canadian comes from a country that, like Iran, is on the outs with Canada.

The Parliamentary Secretary for Multiculturalism Asks Iranian-Canadians “Why Are You Here?” | Susan Khazaeli.

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60 millionaire immigrant investors to be offered permanent residency

2015/01/28 2 Comments

Still distasteful ‘selling of citizenship,’ the only difference is the price. After all, these are not active investors or entrepreneurs, just people with money to put into an arms-length venture capital fund:

The new Immigrant Investor Venture Capital program will open on Jan. 28 to Feb. 11 or until a maximum of 500 applications are received, the government quietly announced before MPs returned to Ottawa this week.

“This pilot program is designed to attract immigrant investors who will significantly benefit the Canadian economy and better integrate into our society, which will contribute to our long-term prosperity and economic growth,” Immigration Minister Chris Alexander said in a written statement.

No more than 60 principal applicants will receive permanent resident visas under the pilot program, even though the government says it will accept up to 500 applications.

Each investor will be required to make a non-guaranteed investment of $2 million over approximately 15 years into a fund managed principally by BDC Capital, the investment arm of the Business Development Bank of Canada.

The government said the fund “will invest in innovative Canadian startups with high growth potential.”

“Proceeds from the IIVC fund will be distributed to the immigrant investors periodically… based on the performance of the investments,” a spokesman for Alexander said in an email to CBC News.

The details of the program along with the selection criteria to apply appear in the latest ministerial instructions published in a government publication over the weekend.

The government is hoping to have better luck with this program than it did with the last one.

“Under the former Immigrant Investor Program (IIP), immigrant investors had to invest $800,000 in Canada’s economy in the form of a repayable loan, without meeting skills and abilities requirements of most of Canada’s economic immigration programs,” the government acknowledged in a public statement before MPs returned to Ottawa this week.

“Research indicated that immigrant investors under the previous program were less likely than other immigrants to stay in Canada over the medium to long term. Also, they contributed relatively little to the Canadian economy, earning very little income and paying very little tax.”

60 millionaire immigrant investors to be offered permanent residency – Politics – CBC News.

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French citizenship, reward or punishment in fight against terror

2015/01/27 1 Comment

France rules citizenship revocation legal:

France’s Conseil Constitutionnel – or Constitutional Council – said that the battle against terrorism permits the courts to strip Ahmed Sahnouni, 44, of his citizenship, prompting his lawyer to denounce the ruling as “discriminatory”.

“It creates two different categories of French people – those who are born here and those who receive French nationality,” Sahnouni’s lawyer Nurettin Meseci said in a telephone interview, adding that his client could face up to 20 years in prison if sent back to Morocco.

However, France’s top legal body said after its ruling that the difference in treatment between French-born and naturalized citizens does not violate France’s principle of equality – on the basis that the gravity of the act outweighs the severity of the punishment.

While Sahnouni is only eighth person to be stripped of his nationality since 1973, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said such a measure would be used again.

Prime Minister Manual Valls also welcomed the move saying, “We should not, in any case, deprive ourselves of lawful means to ensure our values are respected.”

Under France’s civil code, Article 25, officials can revoke a person’s French passport if they commit an egregious offense deemed an “act of terror” within fifteen years of being granted citizenship. However, the law only applies to dual-nationals so it does not render them stateless, which would breach international conventions signed by France.

Still unlikely to be ruled constitutional in Canada given Charter rights and the need to treat Canadian solo and dual nationals equally for the same crime.

French citizenship, reward or punishment in fight against terror – France – RFI.

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Netanyahu’s evil definition of citizenship – Haaretz

2015/01/15 Leave a comment

Strong commentary in Haaretz by  Zvi Bar’el on implications of Netanyahu’s comments encouraging French Jews to immigrate to Israel:

National purity is the brother of racial purity. When a state creates legislation that discriminates against religious or ethnic minorities, when it denies their language official status and ignores “anonymous” attacks on their holy sites, when their individuality is considered a violation of national unity, that country cannot speak out against other countries that treat their diasporas similarly.

The demand that the Jews of France, Germany or the United States be treated as equal citizens loses its validity when the country that demands this has made clear the Arabs aren’t wanted there and should “return to their homelands.” Such a policy undermines the right of Jews around the world to ask for equal treatment as French, American or German citizens.

Just as Israel is a state of its citizens that must view all of them — Jews, Muslims, Christians and Druze — as its reason for existing, Jews in other countries should be considered equal citizens. Each side is entitled to demand equal treatment for its people.

That is the essence of human rights and treaties signed by the countries that have embraced uniform definitions of those rights. French Jews who are fearing for their well-being and flocking to travel agencies should check if the price of refuge in the Jewish state includes forgoing the democratic principles they learned in France.

Netanyahu’s evil definition of citizenship – Opinion Israel News | Haaretz.

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Citizenship judge has jurisdiction to retest applicant – Lexology

2015/01/14 Leave a comment

For those interested, a recent judgement upholding the right of a citizenship judge to require an oral retest of the knowledge requirements. Got it right:

20     In my view, the Citizenship Judge had the jurisdiction to test the applicant’s knowledge of Canada at the oral hearing. The requirements set out in subsection 5(1) of the Citizenship Actare conjunctive: they must all be satisfied in order for the Citizenship Judge to recommend a grant of citizenship to the Minister: Wang v Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration), 2005 FC 719. Further, the statutory requirements are contemporaneous. The statute does not provide that it is sufficient that at one point in time the applicant had an adequate knowledge of Canada; rather, the statute requires that the applicant has an adequate knowledge of Canada:Huang v Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration), 2013 FC 576 and Santos v Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration), 2008 FC 205. Thus, citizenship judges enjoy “a wide measure of discretion” to determine, pursuant to section 14(1) of the Citizenship Act, “whether or not the person who made the application meets the requirements of this Act”, Santos at para 23.

21     This conclusion is also consistent with established jurisprudence. Chief Justice Paul S. Crampton in Huang held that a Citizenship Judge may test an applicant’s knowledge of Canada notwithstanding that the applicant previously passed a written test: Huang at para 35. Although the Citizenship Judge may re-test an applicant, fairness requires that, “at a minimum, applicants be re-tested where there is a valid reason to do so”: Santos at para 26. In this case, the Citizenship Judge had a valid reason to re-test.

22     In this case, the Citizenship Judge had more than ample reason to administer a retest. The answers to the questionnaire provided more than sufficient basis for the decision to retest. The applicant had been absent from Canada for 134 days during the relevant period, and met the residency requirement by a mere 9 days. Her husband had never lived in Canada and lost his permanent residency status in 2012. Curiously, although the citizenship test was conducted on September 22, 2011, the residency questionnaire completed by the applicant, and declared to be true, indicated that on September 17, 2011, the applicant was in Shanghai. Further, in part 11 of the questionnaire eliciting absences from Canada the reason “vacation of 321 days” was noted. This alone was sufficient to trigger a re-examination. An absence from Canada for nearly a full year is not a vacation. The Citizenship Judge concluded:

“You have not lived in Canada since the day of your application for citizenship on July 5, 2010, more than 31/ 2 years ago, and since then you have only visited Canada for less than six weeks in total. Accordingly, a genuine concern arises that you have lost touch with Canada, its institutions, its people, its values and traditions. In order to find that you have met the knowledge requirement of the Act, I must be satisfied that you have preserved this basic understanding of Canada.”

Citizenship judge has jurisdiction to retest applicant – Lexology.

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IVF babies born in India testing Canada’s citizenship laws – Hindustan Times

2015/01/10 1 Comment

One of the latest complexities in citizenship:

At least two cases of children conceived artificially and born overseas are challenging Canada’s hereditary citizenship laws, which stipulate that a child must be genetically related to at least one parent to be considered Canadian. The cases involve children who were conceived via in-vitro fertilization (IVF) using sperm and egg from anonymous donors and are therefore not genetically related to either parent.

In one case involving a British Columbia couple, the embryo was implanted in the woman who hoped to become the mother. In another, the embryo was implanted in a surrogate. Both children were born in India.

The BC case became the subject of repeated court challenges after an immigration officer ruled the child, a girl born in 2009, was not eligible for citizenship through descent because she had no genetic relationship to her Punjabi-origin Canadian father, Malkiat Kandola. He was applying to sponsor his wife as a permanent resident when the child, Nanakmeet, was born.

“For the purposes of determining citizenship by birth outside Canada to a Canadian parent (derivative citizenship), Canadian law relies on evidence of a blood connection (or genetic link) between parent and child which can be proven by DNA testing,” the immigration officer explained in a letter to Kandola.

“This principle … has deep historical roots both in Canada and internationally, and it is evident from the legislative history of the [Act] that Parliament has always intended the term ‘parent’ to refer to genetic parents for derivative citizenship purposes.”

IVF babies born in India testing Canada’s citizenship laws – Hindustan Times.

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Why Americans should think twice about dual citizenship – LA Times

2015/01/08 Leave a comment

Editorial in the LA Times on dual citizenship:

Yet there’s no question that dual citizenship poses practical problems both for those who possess it and for the government. The U.S. State Department discourages U.S. citizens from retaining or applying for citizenship in another country because “dual nationality may limit U.S. government efforts to assist nationals abroad. The country where a dual national is located generally has a stronger claim to that persons allegiance.” The department also warns that “dual citizenship can present a security issue whether to permit access to classified information which affects recruitment, employment and assignments.” In some cases, dual citizenship could disqualify an applicant for a sensitive position with the CIA or the State Department.

The complexities and complications raised by dual citizenship are not enough to justify amending the Constitution to overrule the Supreme Court. But we agree with the State Department that U.S. citizens should think twice about professing allegiance to another country. Moreover, by reinforcing the doubts that some hold about the loyalty of immigrants — some U.S. citizens, for instance, fume when Mexican Americans display the Mexican flag at Cinco de Mayo rallies — the persistence of dual citizenship may make it politically more difficult to secure a path to citizenship for immigrants who came here illegally.

In questioning dual citizenship, we aren’t saying that immigrants must forget their countries of birth or repudiate their language or culture. In large parts of the southwestern United States, U.S. citizens of Mexican descent frequently travel back and forth between the two countries, enriching the cultures and economies of both countries. Rather, we believe that citizenship in this country should be an expression of allegiance to it, enforced not by a pledge but rather by a desire to be part of this country. Dual citizenship may have a place in American society, but the goal should be the cultivation of undivided Americans, proud of their heritage and committed to this nation.

Why Americans should think twice about dual citizenship – LA Times.

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Meet Toronto’s disenfranchised non-citizens

2015/01/07 Leave a comment

Further to my post on the declining number of immigrants taking up citizenship (Ottawa hiking citizenship fees for second time in a year | various), Myer Siemiatycki and Ratna Omidvar on how it plays out in Toronto and the links to poverty and precariousness:

Imagine a city the size of Halifax and then superimpose it onto the map of Toronto. Now imagine a wall surrounding that city state — a wall that divides its residents from the rest of the metropolis.

That’s perhaps the best way to think of the roughly 380,000 residents who live in Toronto who are without Canadian citizenship, says Myer Siemiatycki, professor of politics and the founding director of Ryerson University’s graduate program in immigration and settlement studies. And that number, from the 2006 Census, could be even higher today.

Some estimates suggest the number could be even higher if you include undocumented migrants, whose exact numbers are unknown. Some are foreign temporary workers; some are here on two-year work permits; some are live-in caregivers; many are permanent residents; others are refugee claimants. Some may one day achieve status or citizenship; others will remain underground eking out a living, always looking over their shoulder, perhaps not even able to speak English.

Critics say it’s a lost opportunity for them and for Toronto.

A deep divide separates non-citizens from most of the city’s residents, says Siemiatycki. They work here; pay property taxes; use the TTC. Their children go to school here; some use recreational facilities, community centres and libraries. But they are detached, disengaged, without a voice or a vote. Some are able to get only precarious or low-paying work. Many stay under the radar by working for cash and not paying taxes. Others live in constant fear of being deported. They pay for health care out of pocket.

“Imagine if you did not have papers,” says Ratna Omidvar, executive director of the Global Diversity Exchange at Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University. “Imagine if you could only work for cash. Imagine if you were always in fear that someone would come and get you. Imagine you’re paying a premium for rent … of course they’re disengaged. They can’t not be disengaged.”

Meet Toronto’s disenfranchised non-citizens | Toronto Star.

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Ottawa hiking citizenship fees for second time in a year | various

2015/01/05 1 Comment

Naturalization rateWhenever governments have bad news to convey, they either cloak it up with good news, or try to bury it before a long weekend or holiday.

In this case, raising citizenship fees, the Government has done both: burying the announcement in a press release announce success in addressing the backlog (some 260,000) new Canadian citizens, and issuing the press release just before Christmas.

One has to ask whether this further increase was already planned but, for a political management perspective, the Government decided better to increase fees in a two-step process.

Or was it simply incompetence in that the earlier calculations of citizenship processing costs underestimated the true costs, and over-estimated the savings from the revisions to the Citizenship Act?

My normal preference is to assume incompetence (having seen it in myself) rather than more Machiavellian interpretations.

But in any case, the increase makes Canada significantly more expensive than Australia ($AU 300 or CAD $282). Moreover, comparison to the USA ignores the fact that the US Citizenship and Immigration Service retains any fees for operations (hence the Republican frustration with President Obama’s immigration initiative as they have no funding levers available to counter them), whereas in Canada the $60 million the increase generates would normally go to the consolidated revenue fund and not to CIC to cover additional costs).

More substantively, this and other changes will continue to erode the Canadian model of immigration as a pathway to citizenship. As indicated in the StatsCan chart above, the 85.6 percent naturalization rate trumpeted by many a CIC Minister only applies to previous waves of immigration, with more recent waves having much lower rates (37 percent).

An area of concern and one to monitor, given that it moves us towards more disenfranchised residents who cannot participate in the political and democratic processes:

In February, Citizenship and Immigration Canada already increased the fee from $100 to $300 in order to recover its administrative costs. The upcoming raise means it will now cost applicants five times the money for their citizenship applications within a year. Successful candidates must also pay another $100 rights of citizenship fee to become citizens.

Officials said the fee changes are necessary to pay for the more stringent citizenship process introduced by the government to clear a backlog it created with the “residence questionnaire,” which is used to scrutinize if applicants have physically spent enough time in Canada to qualify for citizenship.

In August, Immigration Minister Chris Alexander also announced a new streamlined decision-making process to cut the backlog, which has since been reduced by 17 per cent. In total, Canada welcomed more than 260,000 new citizens this year.

“With a record number of new Canadians this year, it is clear that our government’s changes to the Citizenship Act are having a real impact,” Alexander said in a statement.

“We are fulfilling our commitment to reducing backlogs and improving processing times.”

Based on citizenship projections from 2014, the fee raise could bring in an additional $60 million to the federal coffers in 2015.

Hard not to think of this as more of a “cash grab,” given that the changes were partially sold on efficiency grounds and that CIC received an influx of $44 million in Budget 2013 to address the backlog.

Ottawa hiking citizenship fees for second time in a year | Toronto Star.

Record number of new citizens welcomed in 2014

Graphic – Changes to Canada’s Citizenship Fees: A Comparative View – Relieving the Burden on Canadian Taxpayers (6 February 2014 press backgrounder).

And the latest article complaining about citizenship processing times:

Want-to-be Canadians frustrated by citizenship processing delays

And the public statement regarding the results of CIC’s analysis of the further increase:

In its analysis, the department said the fee jump may impose additional financial pressures on some people or families.

“While the analysis assumes that there will not be a reduction in overall demand for citizenship as a result of the fee increase, it is acknowledged that some may be required to delay their application as they will need more time to save for the new fee,” the analysis says.

“Overall, in the long-term, this will likely not have a significant impact on the uptake for citizenship.”

No acknowledgement that naturalization rates have dropped from the public – and obsolete – 85.6 percent rate often quoted.

And it would be interesting to see the assumptions behind the analysis that this will not reduce overall demand for citizenship.

Conservatives Hike Citizenship Fees.. Again

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Why 13 new citizens decided to become Canadian

2014/12/12 Leave a comment

Nice profile in the Globe of a number of new citizens at a citizenship ceremony hosted by the Governor General and the Institute for Canadian Citizenship:

‘Canadian citizenship is valued the world over, and with good reason. This is a society that values equality of opportunity and excellence, and that sees diversity as a virtue rather than a weakness. In Canada, inclusiveness is a key value, which means that every Canadian citizen should have the opportunity to help shape this country for the better, regardless of background or ethnicity.’ – Governor-General David Johnston

Why 13 new citizens decided to become Canadian – The Globe and Mail.

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