What are Canadians’ perceptions on race relations? Here’s what a national survey found

2025/03/15 Leave a comment

Always useful to have tracking over time. Encouraing:

Canadians are more optimistic about race relations than they were three years ago, despite a world that’s increasingly defined by inter-group conflict and social divisiveness, says a national survey on racism, race relations and discrimination.

The survey shows that those who view race relations as generally good outnumber those who think otherwise by a three-to-one ratio — with many believing that people from different groups get along with one another and have equal opportunity to succeed, said the report by Environics Institute and the Canadian Race Relations Foundation.

The 2024 survey found that most Canadians acknowledge the reality of racism, prejudice and hate, recognizing these issues both from personal experience and through their understanding of broader societal trends.

Keith Neuman, senior associate at Environics and the report’s lead author, said that compared to racialized people surveyed in 2021, the experiences of those surveyed this time didn’t worsen, and their perceptions of race relations improved slightly. “That, I think, is a point of optimism,” he said.

The survey comes at a time when Canada’s immigration policy is at a crossroads, with anti-immigrant sentiment rising, most recently directed at South Asians here as international students and foreign workers, scapegoated for the housing crisis and socioeconomic challenges. The ongoing war between Hamas and Israel has also led to tensions in Canada. 

This was the third wave of a national survey that started in 2019 to monitor the attitudes, perceptions and experiences of race relations among Canadians. The second survey in 2021 was in the wake of the racial reckoning from the Black Lives Matter Movement and surge of anti-Asian racism amid the pandemic….

Source: What are Canadians’ perceptions on race relations? Here’s what a national survey found

Filed under Multiculturalism, Polling, Racism Tagged with ,

USA Immigration ‘gold card’: What is it, and how could it impact our immigration system? 

2025/03/15 Leave a comment

Of note:

The Bush Institute is a proponent of increasing legal immigration pathways to the U.S., including raising or eliminating per-country caps on green cards. Will the gold card help? 

While the devil is in the details, right now it seems as if the gold card could be a new legal pathway for potential immigrants. But it could also make it harder to qualify for the existing EB-5 program, making a current legal pathway more difficult.  

There are two major policy issues with this proposal. First, while investment and job creation are great, this program doesn’t bring in the workers the U.S. economy needs to fill the open jobs it already has. Even if you assume that a company would pay a high fee to keep, attract, or retain a foreign worker, that’s not a sustainable model to fill the nearly 8 million open jobs in the U.S. The current EB-5 program doesn’t either. Job creation is a wonderful policy goal, but we still need millions of workers to fill open positions.  

Second, similar visa programs around the world have been criticized for being easy targets for corrupt individuals looking to buy their way into countries. Any investor visa program, whether the proposed gold card or the current EB-5, will need to have appropriate vetting and safeguards built in to protect against this possibility.  

Source: Immigration ‘gold card’: What is it, and how could it impact our immigration system?

Filed under Birthright Citizenship, Citizenship Tagged with ,

Trump administration asks Supreme Court to partly allow birthright citizenship restrictions

2025/03/14 Leave a comment

Will see if SCOTUS accepts application first or decides to shut it down immediately (SCOTUS has accepted application):

The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to allow restrictions on birthright citizenship to partly take effect while legal fights play out.

In emergency applications filed at the high court on Thursday, the administration asked the justices to narrow court orders entered by district judges in Maryland, Massachusetts and Washington that blocked the order President Donald Trump signed shortly after beginning his second term.

The order currently is blocked nationwide. Three federal appeals courts have rejected the administration’s pleas, including one in Massachusetts on Tuesday. 

The order would deny citizenship to those born after Feb. 19 whose parents are in the country illegally. It also forbids U.S. agencies from issuing any document or accepting any state document recognizing citizenship for such children….

Source: Trump administration asks Supreme Court to partly allow birthright citizenship restrictions

Filed under Birthright Citizenship, Citizenship Tagged with ,

Census 2021 and IRCC Data: Citizenship

2025/03/13 Leave a comment

This deck is based on work I did for the Institute for Canadian Citizenship, using Census and operational data to contrast citizens and non-citizens by demographic (eg. CoB, age, gender) and socioeconomic (e.g. income, labour force participation, education).

Citizenship Census 2021 & IRCC Data Presentation – ShortDownload

Filed under Citizenship

Website sells Canadian birthright for $35K to foreign moms 

2025/03/11 Leave a comment

One of the problems of alternative media and TikTok influencers is their lack of capacity and knowledge.

The number of suspected birth tourists (non-resident self-pay) has been published annually (by me) and the British Columbia data is no longer the highest given the large drop pandemic and post-pandemic of Chinese birth tourists at Richmond General and other British Columbia hospitals (see Birth tourism has doubled since the pandemic lull):

A suspicious website is advertising would-be mothers from around the world the opportunity to have anchor babies in Canada, ensuring their children become naturalized citizens.

The Russian-language website “CanadaMama consulting” is advertising their services at fees ranging up to $35,000 for migrant women interested in baby-tourism. The website promises a “safe birth” and a “life full of opportunities.” 

Potential clients are being lured by the prospect of free education, healthcare, employment opportunities and international travel for their children. The website’s default language is set to Russian, but also has built in English, Ukrainian, Chinese and Spanish translations.  

Canadian TikTok influencer Mario Zelaya was the first to bring attention to the website.

Among the services offered to those interested include property rentals, immigration consultation, visa support, medical service advisory and even newborn photography. 

Akin to airline companies, the website has multiple package options ranging from economy, to optimal to comfort, with additional services such as food delivery, hospital tours, shopping advice and interpretation services offered to those willing to pay extra.

CanadaMama also claims to operate “under contract” and work alongside Canadian hospitals – an unverified claim. 

The company claims to have operated for more than five years, carrying out dozens of successful births

Unconditional birthright citizenship in Canada is attracting many birth tourists, especially in British Columbia–where some hospitals have reported non-citizens making up a quarter of their maternity ward patients.

A Calgary-based obstetrician gynaecologist, Dr. Colin Birch, said in a CBC interview that birth tourism had the biggest impact on cities that had international airports, with trends slowing down after air travel was shut down during the pandemic. …

Source: Website sells Canadian birthright for $35K to foreign moms

Filed under Birthright Citizenship, Citizenship Tagged with

Trump’s ‘Gold Card’ Visa Idea Not a Hit With Voters

2025/03/06 Leave a comment

Can recognize a scam when they see one, at least in this particular immigration space:

President Donald Trump’s suggestion to replace an existing visa program for foreign investors with a $5 million “gold card” visa hasn’t won majority support.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 41% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of Trump’s “gold card” visa plan, including 22% who Strongly Approve. Forty-seven percent (47%) disapprove, including 33% who Strongly Disapprove. Another 13% are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Source: Trump’s ‘Gold Card’ Visa Idea Not a Hit With Voters

Filed under Citizenship, citizenship-by-investment Tagged with ,

The Citizenship of Elon Musk and his Brood

2025/02/27 Leave a comment

Recently, petition e-5353 (Citizenship and immigration) was launched, advocating revocation of Elon Musk’s Canadian citizenship. The petition struck a chord with many Canadians (over 300,000 signatures as of February 26). 

While there are no legal grounds for revoking his citizenship under current legislation or under the previous revocation provisions of the Harper government, Musk and his families provide an interesting illustration of how citizenship by descent works in practice for three countries: Canada, USA and South Africa.

Musk was born in South Africa, obtained Canadian citizenship through descent by his Canadian mother, and become an American citizen after living and working in the USA. Three of the mothers of his children are Canadian-born, the most recent mother is US-born. All of his children were born in the USA.

The previous first generation cut-off for Canadian citizenship meant than none of Musk’s children would have been Canadian citizens were it not for the fact that the first three mothers were born in Canada and thus able to transmit their citizenship. However their children (second generation) would not be able to do so. 

The proposed revision of the Citizenship Act in Bill C-71, likely to be revived in some form, would allow these children to obtain Canadian citizenship provided they met the residency requirement of 1,095 days in Canada, within a time limit of five years or without a time limit as C-71 proposed.. 

It is likely that all of his children would have been entitled to South African citizenship, provided that Musk did not renounce his South African citizenship and registered the birth with South African authorities. However, there is no indication that Musk has registered their births in South Africa.  

With respect to American citizenship, some media commentary has made a linkage between Musk’s offspring and the Trump administration’s executive order to curtail birthright citizenship, just as some have highlighted that Musk may have worked illegally for a brief period in the USA (Musk has denied). However, it is hard to see how Trump’s executive order, even in the unlikely event courts rule in its favour, would impact on Musk’s offspring given his American citizenship.

Filed under Citizenship, Dual Citizenship Tagged with

ICYMI: Nearly 5,000 People Renounced U.S. Citizenship in 2024

2025/02/25 Leave a comment

Of note. Will be interesting to see if any change under the current Trump administration:

In 2024, nearly 5,000 individuals officially renounced their U.S. citizenship, as reported in a notice from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) published in the Federal Register. The notice details renunciations recorded throughout the year, with data categorized quarterly.

The breakdown reveals significant fluctuations in the number of renunciations. From October 1 to December 31, over 600 people gave up their U.S. citizenship. This followed a sharp rise in the third quarter, where more than 2,150 individuals renounced between July 1 and September 30. Earlier in the year, from April 1 to June 30, over 1,700 individuals renounced their citizenship, while the first quarter saw around 350 renunciations from January 1 to March 31.

Before 2009, the number of US renunciations was under 750 per year. In 2009, there were 742, followed by 1,534 in 2010. The number rose to 1,781 in 2011 and then dropped to 932 in 2012. However, in 2013, nearly 3,000 people chose to renounce their US citizenship. In 2014, the number increased to 3,415, and by 2015, it reached 4,279. In 2016, 5,409 people gave up their US citizenship. The trend continued with 5,132 renunciations in 2017, 3,974 in 2018, and 2,071 in 2019. In 2020, the number spiked to 6,705, followed by 2,426 in 2021 and 2,816 in 2022. The total for 2023 was over 5,000.

One of the primary reasons people choose to renounce U.S. citizenship is the country’s tax system, which mandates citizens to report and pay taxes on their global income, regardless of their residence abroad. Expatriates often find complying with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and other regulations overwhelming.

As a result, many opt to renounce their citizenship to simplify their financial obligations. Additionally, some countries do not allow dual citizenship , requiring individuals to choose between U.S. nationality and the citizenship of their country of residence. Other reasons for renunciation include personal, political, or bureaucratic factors.

Source: Nearly 5,000 People Renounced U.S. Citizenship in 2024

Filed under Citizenship Tagged with ,

Korea: Court denies dual citizenship application, citing ‘birth tourism’

2025/02/25 Leave a comment

Of note:
A Seoul court has supported the rejection of an application for dual US-South Korean citizenship because their parent’s residence in the US was for the purpose of their child gaining US citizenship.The Seoul Administrative Court said Monday that it had ruled in favor of the Seoul Southern Immigration Office, which rejected the plaintiff’s February 2024 application to retain the citizenships of both countries.

South Korea’s Nationality Act states that a child of a citizen obtains citizenship at birth, and the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution grants citizenship to anyone born inside its territories. This means that someone born in the US to parents who are Korean citizens — as in case of the plaintiff — is granted dual citizenships at birth.

Dual citizens at birth are usually allowed to retain the nationality of South Korea and another country by pledging to the government not to exercise the rights of foreign citizenship before the age of 22, or within two years of completing their mandatary military service in the case of men. This is to prevent dual citizens from dodging duties mandated for South Koreans, such military service.

But the immigration office refused to allow dual citizenship to the plaintiff, saying that the plaintiff’s mother is thought to have lived in the US only for the explicit purpose of obtaining US citizenship for her child — sometimes referred to as “birth tourism.” The Nationality Act states that in cases where the parent is “deemed to have resided in a foreign country for the purpose of having the person acquire the nationality of the foreign country,” the child can retain his or her South Korean citizenship only after renouncing the other nationality.

The plaintiff’s mother went to the US in 2003 just before giving birth to the plaintiff, staying in the country for a month and a half. She went back to the US in 2011 and lived for four months since then.

“There are substantial grounds to believe (that the plaintiff’s mother) gave birth in a foreign country, with the intent to have the child gain the citizenship there,” the court said in its verdict.

The plaintiff denied that the mother’s stay in the US was for the purpose of ensuring her child had US citizenship, saying that she lived for four years in the country overall.

The Article 17-3 of the Enforcement Decree of the Nationality Act does state that a person who lived for two or more years in a country and gave birth there cannot be considered as having conducted birth tourism. But the court said this clause applies to parents who stayed for two consecutive years at the time of the birth of the child.

“The Nationality Act of this country had applied strict single nationality principle, and has only allowed dual citizenship on a limited number of cases since 2010. If the court interprets the article (Article 17-3) as the plaintiff claims, we cannot achieve the act’s goal of preventing birth tourism,” the court went on to say.

Source: Court denies dual citizenship application, citing ‘birth tourism’

Filed under Birth Tourism, Citizenship Tagged with ,

Petition asking PM to revoke Elon Musk’s Canadian citizenship garners support

2025/02/24 Leave a comment

Although this has a good feel, largely virtue signalling as no grounds for revocation. Avoiding Musk companies such as Tesla, Starlink makes more sense. Twitter/X harder one given that it still has usefulness in sharing information and opinions among both serious persons and the Trump/Musk followers.

That being said, I signed:

Thousands of people have electronically signed a parliamentary petition calling for revocation of Elon Musk’s Canadian citizenship over his role in the Trump administration, which is pointedly threatening Canada’s sovereignty.

The petition, making its way through the House of Commons process, was initiated by Qualia Reed, a Nanaimo, B.C., author.

New Democrat MP Charlie Angus, an outspoken critic of Musk, is sponsoring the petition, which had more than 34,000 signatures from across Canada as of Saturday evening.

Musk is a native of South Africa but he has Canadian citizenship through his Regina-born mother.

The petition says Musk, a billionaire businessman and adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, has engaged in activities that go against the national interest of Canada.

Trump has threatened to impose widespread tariffs on Canadian products and has openly mused about Canada becoming the 51st state, drawing the ire of millions of Canadians.

The petition asks Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to revoke Musk’s citizenship and Canadian passport.

An electronic petition must have 500 or more signatures to receive certification for presentation to the House of Commons, opening the door to a formal government response.

The House is Commons is slated to resume sitting March 24, but many expect a general election to be called before MPs return.

Source: Petition asking PM to revoke Elon Musk’s Canadian citizenship garners support

Filed under Citizenship, Revocation Tagged with ,

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