CANADIANS ABROAD: Overview of Recent Research and Implications for Public Policy

2024/04/29 Leave a comment

This report, commissioned by Senator Woo, essentially argues for more services and support for Canadian expatriates. While it contains some useful comparisons of provincial health care coverage and non-coverage, as well as provincial election regulations, it is disappointingly light on measures of connection to Canada, whether passport issued to Canadians abroad (no recent public stats apparently) or non-resident taxation (less than 32,000 in 2021).

In terms of the specific recommendations below, my thoughts are as follows:

  • Always good to have better and more comprehensive data, along with academic research. For the latter, important to have range of perspectives, from this stating the case for more services (as the report does) to more critical voices.
  • On the various recommendations for centralized information for “all information relevant to the Canadian diaspora,” this understates the complexity of compiling and maintaining such a data that incorporates federal and provincial information. The argument for the need appears more theoretical than based upon public opinion research.
  • As to the needs for a strategy, hard to argue against that but the challenge, as we seen in so many areas, strategies without serious implementation are more photo ops and virtue signalling than meaningful.
  • With respect to consular service, one needs to start at first principles in terms of the obligations and limits to consular service to manage expectations and costs. In general, Canada has been generous in recent crises in terms of family members and permanent residents, even in cases of long-term expatriates with minimal to no current connection to Canada
  • More nutty are the arguments regarding healthcare coverage, mental health awareness, and the medical care at home and abroad sections, especially given the strains our healthcare system in Canada is facing. Expats planning to return to Canada are responsible for reinstating coverage and the various provincial websites are easy to find and understand. Is it really a Canadian government responsibility to help expats deal with mental health issues among diaspora communities? There is some merit in studying the impact of the return of expats to Canada on healthcare given that they have for the most part not paid Canadian and provincial taxes but the issue of Canadians seeking medical services abroad is a completely separate issue as these are paid by individuals, not taxpayers.
  • On tax policy, unclear what exactly is the issue and what are they trying to advocate. Canadian taxation is based on residence and most expats don’t pay Canadian non-resident taxes although some who maintain property in Canada do pay property tax.
  • Expat voting is a classic case where the policy arguments are divorced from reality. The report makes the specious comparison between overall voting rates between Canadian and non-residents but not the more telling on that only 55,000 non-resident voters registered, a drop in the bucket compared to the overall number of around three million adult expats. The same concerns regarding the cost of maintaining an updating a database on federal and provincial voting regulations apply. And suggesting electronic voting from abroad when we do not have it in Canada, not to mention the potential cost and security risks, even more hard to justify.
  • The last three recommendations – economic development engagement, chambers of commerce, and cultivating the diaspora – already happen to some extent in every embassy that I had worked in. No doubt, could be improved and strengthened.

Overall, the author has an overly optimistic take on the interest and willingness of long-term Canadian expatriates to advance Canadian interests. The vast majority are living their lives in their country of residence, contributing to that country’s economy and society, with relatively few highly engaged in advancing Canadian interests. Those are largely known to embassies and consulates and Canadian interest groups. Again, more could be done but given limited resources and little hard evidence to demonstrate effectiveness, the case is weak.

Source: CANADIANS ABROAD: Overview of Recent Research and Implications for Public Policy

Filed under Citizenship Tagged with , , ,

Golden Visa Programs, Once a Boon, Lose Their Luster

2024/04/23 Leave a comment

Long overdue:

Faced with growing pressure to address its housing crunch, Spain said this month that it would scrap its golden visas, the latest in a wider withdrawal from the program by governments around Europe.

Half a dozen eurozone countries offered the visas at the height of Europe’s debt crisis in 2012 to help plug gaping budget deficits. Countries that needed international bailouts — Spain, Ireland, Portugal and Greece among them — were especially desperate for cash to repay creditors, and saw a path to bring in investors while reviving their moribund real estate markets.

The golden visa program brought Spain billions of euros in investments. But property prices paid by rich foreigners are well beyond the earning power of locals.

Countries reaped a windfall: Spain alone has issued 14,576 visas linked to wealthy buyers making real estate investments of more than €500,000. But the prices that they can afford are squeezing people like Dr. Barba out of a market that had already been highly inflated by the rise of Airbnb and the draw of Wall Street investors.

“Access to housing needs to be a right instead of a speculative business,” Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s prime minister, said in a speech this month as he announced the end of the country’s golden visa program. “Major cities are facing highly stressed markets, and it’s almost impossible to find decent housing for those who already live, work and pay their taxes.”

The visas make it easy for people outside the European Union to buy the right to temporary residency, sometimes without having to live in the country. Investors from China, Russia and the Middle East flocked to buy real estate through them.

In recent years, British nationals have followed suit in the wake of Brexit, snapping up homes in Greece, Portugal and Spain, joined by an increasing number of Americans looking to enjoy a lifestyle they can’t afford in major U.S. cities.

But golden visa programs are now being phased out or shut down around Europe as governments seek to undo the damage to the housing market. And after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, E.U. officials urged governments to end them, warning they could be used for money laundering, tax evasion and even organized crime….

Source: Golden Visa Programs, Once a Boon, Lose Their Luster

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

Government submits proposal to Parliament on stricter requirements for acquiring Finnish citizenship

2024/04/20 Leave a comment

Of note:

The Government has proposed an amendment to the Citizenship Act that would extend the period of residence required for Finnish citizenship from the current five years to eight years. In addition, only time lived in Finland under a residence permit would be taken into account when calculating the period of residence. The proposal to amend the Citizenship Act was submitted to Parliament in a government session on 18 April.

One of the objectives set in the Government Programme is to tighten the requirements for acquiring Finnish citizenship and encourage immigrants to integrate into Finnish society. The reform will be implemented in stages through three legislative projects.

The first project will extend the required period of residence in Finland, which is one prerequisite for being granted citizenship based on an application. The second and third projects will tighten the requirements related to integrity and livelihood and introduce a citizenship test. The government proposals for the latter projects will be submitted to Parliament in autumn 2024 and spring 2025, respectively.

In line with the proposal now submitted to Parliament, people applying for citizenship would have to reside in Finland for eight years instead of the current five years. This way, the authorities could assess the applicants’ suitability for citizenship over a longer period of time.

The amendments would also concern applicants for international protection, who would no longer have a derogation concerning the period of residence requirement. In other words, once the amendment is in force, it will no longer be possible to derogate from the requirement on grounds of international protection. However, citizenship applications made by beneficiaries of international protection would continue to be considered urgently, with the decision on granting citizenship made no later than one year after the applicant submitted their application.

With the amendment, the residence requirement for children aged 15 or over, spouses of Finnish citizens, stateless persons and applicants meeting the language proficiency requirement would be extended to five years from the current four. The two-year residence requirement for Nordic citizens and spouses of persons working at Finnish missions abroad would remain unchanged.

Changes in determining the period of residence for asylum seekers

With the amendment, only periods of residence with a residence permit would be taken into account when determining an applicant’s period of residence. This means that the time taken to process an asylum application would no longer count towards the period of residence. For beneficiaries of international protection in Finland, the approved period of residence would begin when they are issued a residence permit.

In addition, any stays in Finland without a residence permit would no longer be taken into account, in full or in part, under any circumstances when determining the period of residence. Similarly, the applicant’s age, state of health or other comparable reason would no longer be grounds for approving a period of residence without a residence permit.

The reform would also shorten the periods of absence that could be included in the continuous period of residence. During the entire continuous period of residence, applicants could stay abroad for one year in total, and no more than three months of this period could take place during the year preceding naturalisation. The goal is to ensure that applicants receiving Finnish citizenship are actually living in Finland.

In 2022, altogether 9,509 people were granted citizenship based on an application. The extension of the residence requirement for citizenship would potentially apply to nearly 10,000 people each year.

Source: Government submits proposal to Parliament on stricter requirements for acquiring Finnish citizenship

Filed under Citizenship Tagged with

“In Demand Yet Unprocessed: Endemic Immigration Backlogs” – Citizenship Government response

2024/04/19 Leave a comment

The section of the government response to CIMM’s study of backlogs, citizenship ceremonies and oath. My understanding, however, is that in practice applicants are assigned the ceremony type automatically (virtual being the default) but can request an in-person if they prefer. Last time I checked based upon public IRCC data, about 90 percent of applicants had virtual ceremonies.

And of course, IRCC’s “seeking to increase the percentage of clients that complete the Oath in-person in 2024-2025” is meaningless unless its open data operational data includes the numbers of new citizens by virtual and in-person ceremonies:

7. That IRCC make clear to all individuals that it is their choice to choose the citizenship ceremonies process best suited to their needs; and that while in-person ceremonies should be the default option, virtual ceremonies should also be allowed; and further, that any self-administered oath of citizenship be subject to robust integrity measures. Agree in Principle

The Government agrees in principle with the recommendation that the Department make it clear to clients that they may choose the citizenship ceremony format best suited to their needs, and that any self-administered oath of citizenship be subject to robust integrity measures. Canada welcomed a record number of 364,166 new citizens in 2022-2023, compared to approximately 248,000 in 2019-2020 (pre-pandemic), enabled in part by the implementation of virtual ceremonies (also called video ceremonies) and related efficiencies.

As of July 2022, IRCC resumed holding in-person ceremonies while maintaining virtual ceremonies, as a stream of service delivery that provides efficiency, timely service, and flexibility to clients as they can accommodate more clients from coast to coast to coast, including those in rural and remote regions. Clients are invited by the Department to either an in-person or virtual ceremony, based on operational considerations, but can request a change of format (e.g. from virtual ceremony to an in-person ceremony or vice-versa) and the Department makes best efforts to accommodate client preference.

Virtual ceremonies have contributed to a significant reduction in grant inventories, while modernization initiatives, such as online electronic applications for most grant of citizenship applications and electronic citizenship certificates, have reduced and continue to reduce processing times with a return to service standards projected for spring 2024.

A number of factors, including volumes of clients served and costs would be impacted if in- person ceremonies were set as the default option. Instead, the Department is seeking to increase the percentage of clients that complete the Oath in-person in 2024-2025 as well as clarify that all individuals have the opportunity to request the citizenship ceremony format that best suits their needs, subject to availability.

In addition, the Department continues work to modernize Canada’s Citizenship Program to improve client service, increase processing efficiencies and enhance program integrity. As the Citizenship Program continues to modernize, the Department will reflect on the feedback received from Canadians, and incorporate this into the assessment of options and decisions on a way forward.

Source: “In Demand Yet Unprocessed: Endemic Immigration Backlogs”

Filed under Citizenship Tagged with , , , ,

Budget 2024: Statement on Gender, Diversity, and Inclusion, varia

2024/04/18 Leave a comment

Definitely worth a look, for the richness of the data as well the insights into the government’s diversity and inclusion priorities and how it stitches the narrative together with political and Canadian public priorities.

Intro has the key messages:

  • “Early Learning and Child Care, which is supporting better economic outcomes for women, by making it possible for more women to participate in the workforce, while securing access to quality child care and learning, thus contributing to positive childhood development and the future well-being of children.
  • The interim Canada Dental Benefit has helped hundreds of thousands of children get the oral health care they need, and once fully implemented in 2025, the new Canadian Dental Care Plan will improve the long-term health of 9 million Canadians, who may have previously been unable to visit an oral health professional due to the cost.
  • The National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence provides targeted action to protect Canadians who experience or are at risk of experiencing violence because of their sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, or perceived gender.
  • The Federal 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan advances the rights and equality for Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and other sexually and gender diverse people in Canada.
  • The Implementation of the National Action Plan to End the Tragedy of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls is providing targeted, culturally-appropriate supports to Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people, while working to address the root causes of the violence they face.

In Budget 2024, the government is making investments to close the divide between generations. For younger Canadians, the government is taking new action to reduce tax advantages that benefit the wealthy, is investing to build more homes, faster, is strengthening Canada’s social safety net, and is boosting productivity and innovation to grow an economy with better-paying opportunities.

These efforts will improve the lives of all younger Canadians, and their impacts will be greatest for lower-income and marginalized younger Canadians, who will benefit from new pathways to unlock a fair chance at building a good middle class life.

This starts with a focus on housing. Resolving Canada’s housing crisis is critical for every generation and the most vulnerable Canadians. The government is building more community housing to make rent more affordable for lower-income Canadians, including through:

  • The $618.2 million Federal Community Housing Initiative;
  • The $15 billion Affordable Housing Fund, including a $1 billion top-up in Budget 2024;
  • The $1.5 billion Co-Operative Housing Development Program; and,
  • The $4.4 billion Housing Accelerator Fund, including a $400 million top-up in

These investments provide Canadians and younger generations with opportunity ––finding an affordable home to buy or rent; having access to recreational spaces, amenities, and schools to raise families.

Having a place to call home creates a broad range of benefits. When survivors of domestic partner violence can find affordable housing, this creates a safe home base for their children to break cycles of violence and poverty. When Indigenous people can find affordable housing that meets their specific needs that means they can access culturalsupports to help heal from the legacy of colonialism. When persons with disabilities are able to find low-barrier or barrier-free housing, this enables them to utilize the entirety of their homes.

To ensure that young people and future generations benefit from continued actions for sustained and equitable prosperity for all, this budget makes key investments to guarantee access to safe and affordable housing, help Canadians have a good quality of life while dealing with rising costs, and  provide economic stability through good-paying jobs and opportunities for upskilling.”

Interestingly, no mention of the employment equity task force and its recommendations, although it is mentioned in the Budget.

Immigration aspects are limited to “continued funding for immigration and refugee legal aid” (but the Budget has significant funding for immigration and reflects the government’s pivot away from unlimited temporary workers and international students and post 2015 ending annual increases).

The Budget also has a reference to “Permit the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) to disclose financial intelligence to provincial and territorial civil forfeiture offices to support efforts to seize property linked to unlawful activity; and, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada to strengthen the integrity of Canada’s citizenship process (with little to no detail).”

No surprise, but the 2019 and 2021 election platform commitments to eliminate citizenship fees remain unmet.

The Government’s proposed reduction in the public service by 5,000 public servants over four years (1,250 per year) is meaningless as the 2022-22 EE report shows annual separations more than 10 times that:

One thought that crossed my mind while browsing this close to 40 page document is whether this level of detail and effort would survive a change in government. Unlikely IMO, given the pressure to reduce spending and the CPC general aversion to excessive employment equity reporting and measures.

Source: Budget 2024, Statement on Gender Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion

Filed under Citizenship, Government, Immigration, Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

Minister preemptively shuts down Calgary proposal to let permanent residents vote

2024/04/18 Leave a comment

Right call, given that Canadian citizenship has reasonable requirements (high fees perhaps excepted) and that backlogs largely eliminated:

A Calgary city council motion to extend municipal voting rights to permanent residents has been stopped in its tracks by Alberta’s municipal affairs minister.

The motion is set to be introduced by councillors Walcott, Wong, Dhaliwal, Mian, and Penner on Tuesday.

However, in a post to X on Saturday, Minister Ric McIver said he’ll “save us all some time.”

“Only citizens of Canada can vote in municipal elections. That will not be changing,” he said.

The motion calls for an amendment to the Local Authorities Election Act, which determines who has the right to vote in municipal elections. 

Because municipalities exist due to provincial legislation, the Alberta government would have to decide to amend the Local Authorities Election Act.

The councillors argued in their motion that all levels of government make decisions that affect residents’ daily lives, regardless of their citizenship status. 

“Municipalities are unique, as the only order of government that is not constitutionally defined. The opportunity to extend voting rights to more members of our local communities would represent a significant shift to ensure our local communities are representative of the people who call them home,” reads the motion.

The procedure on Tuesday is to ensure that the motion is written properly, Wong told True North in an interview. The motion will not be debated until the next regular council meeting on Apr. 30.

Wong said he is eager to hear more about the pros and cons of the motion, including its virtues and benefits, and how it aligns with federal and provincial criteria for voting eligibility

“Our responsibility as municipalities extends to all… who call our communities home, who contribute to civic life, who work here, raise families here, and use city services, should have a democratic right to vote in our municipalities,” reads the motion.

Wong said that councillors have been canvassing their constituents, both citizens and permanent residents.  

The perspectives presented have been varying. Some have said that citizenship is a vital voting criterion.

“We’ve also heard people saying, ‘We’re newcomers. We want to be able to be a citizen.’ There are reasons why it’s been delayed, whether it’s in their control or not. But they also feel that they’d like to have a voice in municipal governance because they are users of our services as well as people who pay taxes,” said Wong.

He added that one of the most pressing questions is the many different types of permanent residents there are and what would determine voting eligibility.

“The nuance of that has to be discovered by the province, and the province needs to make the system fair across the province because this is not just a Calgary-based request,” said Wong.

The Calgary councillor was not surprised at McIver’s response, he said. He added that McIver is very involved and understands Alberta and Calgary’s multiculturalism. 

“I know that he wouldn’t dismiss it just because of personal feelings about us. He would weigh the arguments presented by all municipalities,” said Wong.

“All members of council are always amenable to persuasion, and therefore nobody’s cast a vote as of yet. And I think Calgarians need to understand that.”.

True North reached out to McIver for additional comment. His office said he has nothing more to add to his previous post to X. 

Source: Minister preemptively shuts down Calgary proposal to let permanent residents vote

Filed under Citizenship Tagged with , ,

Le français québécois, pas pire qu’un autre

2024/04/15 Leave a comment

More on the controversy over tests from France vs Quebec (although not the most important issue, understand the sensitives):

Et rebelote : des internautes se moquent du parler québécois. Depuis mardi, sur X et sur TikTok, une vidéo du jeune Joël Legendre chantant à l’émission Soirée canadienne à la fin des années 1970 a été commentée par des centaines de personnes. La chanson qu’il interprète est tantôt appelée M’en revenant de Sainte-Hélène ou J’ai vu le loup, le renard, le lièvre. L’enfant d’alors mène de sa voix une foule animée, agissant comme un choeur en écho, qui bat des mains la mesure.

Dans les commentaires, certaines personnes défendent la langue bien de chez nous, pendant que d’autres la dénigrent sans gêne, allant jusqu’à nier que l’on parle vraiment français en ce coin d’Amérique du Nord. « Ma femme francophone (accent parisien parfait) rit chaque fois que les Québécois ouvrent la bouche. Ce n’est pas du français ! » écrit par exemple en anglais un utilisateur de X.

Ces réactions n’étonnent pas les linguistes à qui Le Devoir a parlé.

Si ce genre de diffusion en ligne fait rapidement boule de neige ici, c’est d’abord parce que les Québécois ont l’épiderme sensible sur la question linguistique. On a fait du progrès par rapport à notre insécurité linguistique, mais ce n’est pas fini, dit la linguiste Julie Auger. Elle cite comme exemple des personnes pour qui adopter les expressions propres aux Français est le gage d’une langue « plus correcte », quitte à embrasser leurs tics de langage. Un lecteur du Devoir suggérait notamment l’an dernier de remplacer le mot « faque » par « du coup » — ce qu’elle a trouvé « très ironique », se souvient-elle, puisque l’expression est moquée en France.

Quant à ceux qui voudraient ridiculiser la langue d’ici, leurs messages démontrent une idée préconçue et figée du français, disent ces linguistes qui s’affairent à la déconstruire.

« Pourquoi ne pas porter un autre regard sur la langue et en célébrer la diversité et l’adaptabilité ? » demande d’emblée celle qui est aussi professeure titulaire à l’Université de Montréal. « Je ne sais pas pourquoi les humains tiennent à se diviser en catégories et à dévaloriser les autres. »

Variations sur un même thème

Déjà, le français hexagonal, qu’on prend souvent pour le « bon français », est récent. « On a parlé français ici, en Nouvelle-France, avant que la France dans son entièreté parle français. » À l’époque de la colonie française, au XVIIe siècle, ce n’est qu’autour de Paris et chez la noblesse qu’on parle le français, alors que le bourguignon domine en Bourgogne et le picard à Lille, donne-t-elle en exemple.

Il n’y a donc pas de langue unitaire et immuable, au contraire. « Ce qui est considéré comme le “bon français” varie énormément dans l’Histoire. […] On peut ne pas aimer tous les changements de la langue, mais si elle ne change pas, elle meurt », dit la spécialiste. Elle a d’ailleurs participé à un ouvrage collectif intitulé Le français va très bien, merci, qui cherchait à renverser cette vision voulant que le français se meure à cause d’Internet ou de l’influence de l’anglais.

« On revient toujours à cette question. On n’aurait pas le droit de parler une variété de français qui est différent et qui reflète notre histoire ? » analyse quant à lui Wim Remysen, professeur de linguistique à l’Université de Sherbrooke. Ce sont de « vieux discours dépassés » qui font complètement abstraction du phénomène de variation d’une langue, variations qui existent dans toutes les langues à travers le monde. « On ne demanderait pas à un Américain de parler le même anglais qu’un Britannique, ce n’est pas compliqué ! » ajoute-t-il.

Déjà, au XIXe siècle, il y a eu ce genre de débat autour du French Canadian patois, note-t-il. C’est toujours cette idée qu’il y a quelque chose qui ne va pas avec le français parlé au Québec qui ressurgit, une idée qui a souvent servi à affaiblir ou à minimiser les revendications pour faire valoir nos droits linguistiques, note M. Remysen. « On a tort de vouloir stigmatiser ces particularités. Au contraire, c’est quelque chose qui fait partie de qui nous sommes. »

La langue française ferait particulièrement la belle part aux puristes, selon ces deux professeurs. « Dans le cas du français, c’est un discours particulièrement dominant parce qu’il a toujours eu une hypercentralisation de la norme », dit M. Remysen. Dans le cas de l’anglais et de l’espagnol, les anciennes colonies sont devenues plus importantes que la métropole, et « ce poids démographique a facilité un certain affranchissement ».

Une question de registres

Au moment même où le premier ministre français, Gabriel Attal, est en visite officielle au Québec et sort sa rhétorique d’apparat, les deux experts appellent aussi à cesser de comparer « des pommes avec des oranges ».

Le réflexe de croire que « les Français ont plus de vocabulaire » vient souvent du fait que l’on compare les différents registres. « On pense au français des Têtes à claques, mais il faut aussi penser au français de Céline Galipeau. On a tendance à réduire […], mais le français québécois, c’est aussi cet éventail de formes », dit Mme Auger. « Il y a toujours eu une langue familière, la langue de tous les jours, et une langue standard. C’est notamment le rôle de l’école d’amener les enfants à maîtriser le mieux possible cette variété qui donne accès à toutes les professions. »

Il est bon de pouvoir communiquer avec les francophones ailleurs en francophonie et d’avoir accès à la littérature ; l’important est donc aussi de savoir passer d’un registre à l’autre en fonction de ses besoins et de la situation, note la linguiste.

Des internautes comme Stéphane Venne ne sont pas d’accord, et ils comptent bien le faire savoir. Il a partagé son point de vue sur les réseaux sociaux en tant que « simple citoyen », mais aussi en tant qu’auteur-compositeur qui a fait de la langue son matériau artistique. Il appelait ainsi à distinguer l’accent, la « dimension acoustique », de celle de la « compétence langagière », qui comprendrait la syntaxe, le vocabulaire et l’élocution.

Pour lui, les critiques à l’égard d’un accent — qu’il soit marseillais, normand, parisien ou québécois — sont « tout à fait ridicules ». Ce qui est « plus fondamental » est la maîtrise de la langue elle-même, poursuit-il au téléphone avec Le Devoir. « Si vous avez 60 mots à votre vocabulaire et qu’une autre collectivité en a 600, il y a un déficit », croit-il. Les Québécois parlent donc mal, selon lui ? « On n’a pas des siècles de culture et d’éducation. On est une jeune collectivité française qui a de l’avenir », se défend l’artiste. « La capacité des gens ordinaires en France, le sport du langage qu’ils maîtrisent, est de loin supérieure », affirme-t-il néanmoins.

Aucune étude ne montre cependant que la variation entre la langue familière et la langue soignée soit plus grande au Québec qu’en France. « On est plutôt dans le domaine des clichés et des stéréotypes », conclut M. Remysen, qui invite à célébrer notre langue variée.

Source: Le français québécois, pas pire qu’un autre

Filed under Language Tagged with , ,

Canadian Immigration Tracker: February 2024 Update

2024/04/15 Leave a comment

Overall monthly decreases in most programs.

The percentage of temporary residents fell to a more normal 57 percent (average for 2023 was 50 percent).

Asylum claimants increased slightly and since September 2023 are averaging about 16,000 per month. Impact of Mexican visa requirement should be seen in next month’s data although visitor visa data now showing visas issued to Mexicans (only 7 in February).

March web data shows no increase in study permit interests from February while applications increased slightly. Permits decreased however and expect next few months will show full impact of caps.

Citizenship program continues to naturalize an average of 35,000 persons since May 2023, between 80-90 percent in virtual ceremonies.

Slide 3 has the overall numbers and change

Filed under Citizenship, Immigration Tagged with

Conservative immigration policy should focus on the goal of citizenship: Tory critic

2024/04/13 Leave a comment

Still fairly general but nevertheless interesting and relatively non-controversial. However, the possible transfer of additional immigration powers to Quebec, and further devolution to other provinces such as Alberta, bears watching. Will also be interesting to see how strong a line a Conservative government will take with respect to temporary workers given business community pressures:

Conservative immigration policy should be focused on the ultimate goal of citizenship, the party’s critic on the file said Thursday while moderating a panel in Ottawa.

Tom Kmiec criticized the sharp increase in temporary residents in Canada, as a large number of potential immigrants compete for few permanent resident opportunities. 

“We don’t want people just to come here, work here for a few years, and then leave,” Kmiec said in an interview after the panel at the Canada Strong and Free Network conference.

“You can see the numbers are getting worse and worse and worse.”

The panel members explored politically conservative solutions to Canada’s ballooning population growth, which the Liberal government admits is becoming unsustainable. 

Canada should focus on integrating people into Canada on permanent basis, Kmiec said.

That means moving beyond immigration targets and filling labour gaps to an approach that focuses on making newcomers part of “the Canadian family,” he said.

Immigration Minister Marc Miller promised in March that Ottawa would put a “soft cap” on the number of temporary residents allowed to come to Canada. Those targets are expected to be set in September. 

Miller also levelled out the number of new permanent residents expected to come to Canada in 2026, putting at least a temporary halt to year-after-year increases to immigration levels. 

But the fix will require focusing on the experiences people have when they come to Canada, including reducing massive processing backlogs, Kmiec said. 

“Immigration is not accounting,” he said.

There has not been enough emphasis on citizenship in recent years in Canada, Aaron Wudrick, the director of the the Macdonald-Laurier Institute’s domestic policy program, told the panel. 

The system has largely become an economic exercise, he said. 

The Liberals have come under increased scrutiny over the last year for some of the consequences of the rapidly increasing number of temporary residents, including the impact on the availability and affordability of housing. 

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has suggested the possibility of tying immigration levels to new housing starts in response. 

That would likely mean lowering immigration levels, at least temporarily, Wudrick said, but doing so will have consequences.

“A lot of businesses in this country have a difficult time filling low-wage work, the solution has been to import cheap labour,” he said. 

When that low-cost labour is no longer available, prices are likely to go up, he said. 

“There’s not a magic bullet, where we’re just going to cut the numbers and suddenly all these problems are going to go away.”

Quebec Conservative Leader Eric Duhaime, who also appeared on the panel, advocated for giving provinces more control of the immigration in their jurisdictions.

Quebec already sets its own immigration targets, and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has argued her province should have the same power.

The federal Conservative policy on that will likely be part of the party’s next election platform, Kmiec said.

“That’s something being actively debated, I think, within the (conservative) movement more broadly,” he said. 

Source: Conservative immigration policy should focus on the goal of citizenship: Tory critic

Filed under Citizenship, Immigration Tagged with , ,

For his Canadian citizenship, Quebec resident had to pass a Parisian French test. He wonders why

2024/04/08 Leave a comment

Of all the issues facing immigration and citizenship policy, this has to be one of the least important. And of course, Canadian citizenship French testing is for all of Canada, not just Quebec:

When Rev. Christian Schreiner first looked into taking a mandatory French language test to obtain his Canadian citizenship, he was shocked to find out his exam would be sent to France for final evaluation.

Schreiner, dean of the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Quebec City, started his application when he heard that his country of birth, Germany, had approved legislation to end a ban on holding dual citizenship.

The longtime permanent resident of Canada had been waiting for this moment for 16 years.

When Schreiner logged onto Immigration, Refugees Citizenship Canada to start the process of pursuing a language exam and clicked on the link for the Test d’évaluation de français, TEF Canada, he was brought to a website run by a Parisian organization, the Paris Île-de-France Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

“I thought I had maybe clicked on the wrong link, so I went back but everything checks out. So that is the one that is authorized,” said Schreiner.

Schreiner completed his French exam on March 15 at Edu-inter — a French immersion school in Quebec City — where an employee informed him during the oral evaluation section that he wouldn’t be the one evaluating Schreiner’s performance.

“He had an iPad and he recorded the whole thing,” said Schreiner.

“I asked him: ‘what is that for?’ He said … ‘I’m only doing the test with you, but I’m not evaluating anything. I can only send this in and then basically it gets sent to Paris and they decide whether or not your French is sufficient.'”

Although Schreiner passed the exam, completing one of several steps toward gaining his citizenship, he’s now speaking out about how the exam is based on French from France and he is questioning why Canada has to outsource evaluations abroad.

“I think this is still kind of a leftover, like a colonial leftover,” said Schreiner.

“If I want to become a Canadian citizen, it’s France that decides whether or not I’m good enough. There’s something wrong there.”

Meeting French or English language requirement

CCI Paris Île-de-France (CCIP-IDF), the organization with the Paris office, says it represents the interests of more than 840,000 French companies.

According to its website, the TEF was officially certified by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) in 2004 as the “only test officially approved by Canadian authorities.”

The location of the evaluation does not have any impact on the applicant, said the Ministry of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, in an emailed statement.

“All language proficiency assessment tests approved for Canadian immigration purposes are administered by third-party organizations independent of IRCC,” read the statement.

“Organizations must demonstrate that they meet the criteria … including matching test results to the Canadian language benchmarks.”

Developing test for ‘Quebec context’

In its statement, the department said the TEF test was put in place by the Quebec government for new French-speakers moving or immigrating to the province. They said while the TEF is not a federal requirement for citizenship, it is one of several “acceptable proofs” that can be submitted to the government to apply for citizenship and meet the language requirement — as immigrants need to prove their abilities in either English or French.

Besides French diplomas previously submitted for immigration purposes, the ministry says on its website that it won’t accept any other third-party test results other than those listed for citizenship, even if they’re similar to the approved exams.

The office of Christine Fréchette, minister of immigration, francisation and integration, said she addressed this issue when the Opposition raised it in 2023 and “work is underway to develop a test adapted to the Quebec context.”

Rethinking the language test

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the outsourcing of the test,” said Taylor Ireland, president and owner of ACA-Formation Linguistique, a French language school in Quebec City.

“But there’s more than enough organizations in Canada that could develop a test.”

He says while there are benefits to having private organizations test candidates because of accessibility, it is feasible to develop other options.

“It would take some time to do … There’s always a tendency to go back to a test that’s already known,” said Ireland.

“But we have more than enough capacity and knowledge in order to have our own Canadian-made test.”

Ireland says generally, there are not going to be huge differences between an international French or French from France compared to the French spoken in Quebec, but there might be slight “regionalisms.”

The Quebec government says it wants 80 per cent of non-Quebec university students to learn French. But how feasible is that?

He says this is not the first time questions relating to the French exam have been raised.

“To have the test itself be designed and then corrected by a company in France is somewhat confusing,” said Ireland.

Following his exam in March, Schreiner says he looked into the English testing options to see if the evaluation was similar to the French equivalent.

“I wanted to know, had I done the English test, would they send it to London, England? No, they don’t. They send it to the offices in Toronto,” said Schreiner. “Why can’t Canada evaluate whether or not people speak French?”

Prometric, a test administration company headquartered in the U.S., develops and delivers along with other organizations the Canadian English Language Proficiency Index Program (CELPIP) Test, one of three options used for immigration and citizenship. The CELPIP offices are located in Toronto, according to its website.

Test from France had its challenges, says Schreiner

Schreiner says the test itself had its challenges. In one part, he had to listen to 40 different sound bites.

The audio, which was in a French-from-France accent, became more and more challenging near the end of the exam, said Schreiner. He said the topic of the radio interview he had to listen was climate change and the extinction of species.

“It was really more vocabulary. There were words that I did not know and quite a few of them, which is something that doesn’t happen that often to me here in Quebec,” said Schreiner.

Schreiner, whose father was a French teacher, speaks French at home with his kids and wife — who is Québécoise.

Although he passed the exam, he says he should be considered an “ideal guinea pig” — someone who shouldn’t really struggle with an exam that is meant to test “basic competence.”

Christophe Fernandez, director general of the Edu-Inter language school where Schreiner took his test, confirmed in a statement that the centre is one of several in the province officially allowed to offer the test.

He confirmed the team does not give the final scores but does do some evaluations. Fernandez says the Paris office collects and double-checks the examinations to give a final grade.

Source: For his Canadian citizenship, Quebec resident had to pass a Parisian French test. He wonders why

Filed under Citizenship, Language Tagged with , ,

← Older posts

Newer posts →