He’s accused of defrauding international students. His visa was cancelled. How did this Indian education agent get into Canada?

2023/06/29 Leave a comment

Good question:

As some of the people he’s accused of defrauding faced potential deportation from Canada in March, an Indian education agent was living under the radar in British Columbia, the Star has learned.

Brijesh Mishra was sharing a rental house with five other people in Surrey, B.C., as authorities in India and in Canada tried to hunt him down over his alleged role in a scam involving fake Canadian college admission letters.

Even after his visitor visa had been cancelled for alleged “ghost-consulting,” Mishra managed to enter this country last October, crossing the U.S. border without being detected.

It was while trying to cross the U.S. border yet again this month that Mishra was finally arrested. Two days later, he found himself pleading for his release, and offering to fly himself home.

“I have a card from India, the credit card and debit card from which I was supporting myself,” he told an immigration tribunal, as he argued for his release.

“If I need more money, my wife send it to me with my cards. That is the thing I use,” said the father of a two-and-a-half-year-old in explaining how he had supported himself since first entering this country on Oct. 17 from south of the border without a visa.

A group of international students, said to be in the hundreds, have been flagged for possible deportation, accused of misrepresentation in their study permit applications.

They say they were unaware the college admission letters given to them were doctored, and say they only became aware after they had finished their courses and applied for postgraduate work permits, only to be flagged by border officials. Some cases were flagged during the students’ permanent residence application process.

Mishra has now been charged for offering immigration advice without a licence and with counselling a person to directly or indirectly misrepresent or withhold information from authorities

According to his detention review hearing, Mishra was issued a visa in 2019 but it was cancelled by the Canadian mission in Delhi “due to possible involvement in fraudulent activities involving ghost consultants,” before an alert was put out on him in February 2021.

Only licensed lawyers and consultants registered with the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants can legally offer immigration advice and services at a fee. Those who don’t have those qualifications are called “ghost consultants.”

Mishra was able to enter Canada at the Douglas port of entry at the Washington state border in October. It is unclear why Mishra had been in the U.S. CBSA declined to comment on how Mishra was able to enter Canada without a valid visa, citing the ongoing investigation involving him.

Based on his previous visa application records, authorities emailed him twice after had been in Canada, informing him of his “inadmissibility due to organized criminality” but did not receive a reply.

Border officials began a search for Mishra on April 27 and visited an address in Surrey. After a futile effort to locate him, Canada Border Services Agency issued a warrant for his arrest on May 4.

He was arrested on June 14 when he tried to re-enter Canada via the U.S. land border.

At his detention review two days later, the government alleged Mishra has been involved in “wide-scale immigration fraud” in relation to his roles with Easy Way Immigration and Education and Migration Services Australia.

It said his two co-directors of the company have been arrested and denied bail in India, and argued against Mishra’s release for fear he would not appear for his admissibility hearing or removal.

“He has demonstrated the ability to be quite mobile within Canada as well as to remain undetected by immigration authorities who were actively looking for him,” said Margaret Neville, counsel for the government.

“He has been mobile even throughout where he was staying in the Lower Mainland and … it would be very easy for Mr. Mishra to go underground and remain undetected again.”

Neville accused Mishra of not being forthcoming with CBSA about his arrest history in India when he was intercepted this month and asked about a police investigation in India into a company he was involved in between 2010 and 2013. He initially denied there was a police investigation.

“Have you ever had — like, you never had any other court matter?” the border agent asked.

“No,” Mishra replied.

He also initially denied he knew the lawyer who was supposed to have represented him on that matter, before admitting it was his wife who hired the lawyer and indicating he was aware of the “ongoing issues” in India and the allegations against him.

“Do you read the news at all?” the CBSA officer asked.

“TikTok sometimes. Student deportation in the news, I was never involved,” Mishra responded without being prompted. “This is a fake accusation. It’s fake news.”

In pleading for the man’s release, Mishra’s lawyer said there’s no court record before the tribunal to support the May 2013 arrest of his client. The lawyer said Mishra could not have been in India then because he was working in Australia as shown in the entry and exit stamps in his passports.

Regarding the allegations of Mishra’s involvement in organized criminal activity, his lawyer said the government’s only evidence came from a news report, where it was suggested the man was wanted by local police relating to charges involving several different crimes.

“He is being charged does not mean that Mr. Mishra has been involved in criminal activity himself, that he could have been — all his conduct could have been properly issuing documents, arranging papers for applications with no misrepresentation at all,” the tribunal was told.

“The activity could have been carried out solely by the individual who has already been arrested or the other person that the Indian authorities are purportedly seeking related to this alleged criminality.”

Mishra said he had not seen his young child in India since he came to Canada in October and that their only communication had been through What’sApp video calls, which are not allowed in the detention centre.

He also told the tribunal he would like to be removed from Canada as soon as possible and asked if he could just buy his own flight to leave the country.

After assessing the evidence and submissions, the tribunal upheld Mishra’s detention until the next review on June 23, the same day when he was charged.

Two weeks ago, the group of Indian international students were granted reprieve by Immigration Minister Sean Fraser, who agreed to stop their pending deportations until a task force investigates each case to determine if they were innocent or complicit in gaming Canada’s immigration system.

Source: He’s accused of defrauding international students. His visa was cancelled. How did this Indian education agent get into Canada?

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Canada gets ‘more aggressive,’ launches bid to attract high-tech nomad workers from U.S., abroad

2023/06/29 Leave a comment

Good initiative. One that has a clear productivity/per capita GDP objective, unlike many other recent initiatives. Getting extensive coverage in Indian press as well as in USA:

Ottawa is trying to attract more high-skilled workers by launching a program in mid-July to allow about 10,000 H-1B visa holders in the United States to work in Canada.

The H-1B visa allows companies in the U.S. to employ foreign workers in specialized job categories, such as in the technology sector, which has laid off at least 150,000 workers in 2023 so far, according to data from Crunchbase.

“We have been watching very closely what’s been going on in the United States. Where we have seen a public narrative around layoffs, we have been having private conversations about opportunities,” Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Sean Fraser said at the Collision conference, a tech event in Toronto on June 27.

Approved applicants will receive an open work permit of up to three years.

The minister also said Canada would launch its “digital nomad strategy” to allow people who work for a foreign employer to live in Canada for up to six months.

“(They can) live in this country and should they receive a job offer while they are here, we are going to allow them to continue to stay in Canada,” he said.

Canada has recently taken several steps to tackle its labour shortage, from increasing immigration targets to changing the existing system to bring in more newcomers.

The number of job vacancies in Canada in 2022 averaged 942,000, two-and-a-half times the average of 377,000 in 2016, according to Statistics Canada.

The substantial growth in the number of job vacancies recorded during this period suggests the economy is battling a labour crunch. But Statistics Canada in a report on May 24 said “employers’ difficulties to fill job vacancies requiring high levels of education cannot, in general, be attributed to a national shortage” or local shortage of highly educated job seekers.

The agency said vacancies may arise because of a mismatch between the skills required by employers and the skills possessed by highly educated job seekers. A labour crunch, however, has been observed for jobs requiring a high school diploma or less education since 2021.

Fraser said the country will launch a new pathway for permanent residency for workers in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and make it easier for people to immigrate to Canada under the Start-up Visa program, which allows newcomers to become permanent residents by starting a business that creates jobs for Canadians.

The announcements are part of Canada’s first-ever “Tech Talent Strategy,” the immigration ministry said in a statement.

The information and communications technology sector employed nearly 720,000 workers and accounted for more than 44 per cent of all private research and development spending in Canada in 2021, the ministry said. The sector was also responsible for more than 15 per cent of Canada’s overall gross domestic product growth between 2016 and 2021.

The Business Council of Canada, an association of about 150 companies, including Microsoft Canada Inc. and Google Canada, said the federal government’s new announcements were a step in the right direction.

“Specialized talent is needed not just in the tech sector but across the Canadian economy,” Trevor Neiman, the association’s director of digital economy, said. “The move shows that the government is changing its attitude a bit around retention. They have been more aggressive on the international stage to attract talent.”

In a separate announcement, the Ontario government said it would invest $1.3 million to train 54 women, newcomers and others from underrepresented groups for in-demand careers in the trucking sector. The province said it needs about 6,100 truck drivers to fill job vacancies.

Source: Canada gets ‘more aggressive,’ launches bid to attract high-tech nomad workers from U.S., abroad

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Exploitation of international students a consequence of using sector as economic driver, says advocate

2023/06/28 Leave a comment

Indeed:

Advocates for international students say an ongoing federal investigation into hundreds of fraudulent college acceptance letters is a symptom of larger problems that emerged as federal and provincial governments pushed to turn international education into an economic driver and an alternate pipeline for new immigrants in recent years.

News reports emerged in March that hundreds of Indian international students were facing deportation from Canada after submitting immigration applications that included fake post-secondary acceptance letters. Many had already been studying and working in Canada for several years, and had applied for permanent residency or for postgraduate work permits.

The students and their advocates have said they were the victims of fraud by immigration or education consultants, and Immigration Minister Sean Fraser (Central Nova, N.S.) promised on June 14 to use his discretion to freeze the deportations as federal authorities continued their investigation.

Balraj Kahlon, a public policy professional in British Columbia who co-founded the non-profit organization One Voice Canada, told The Hill Times that education agents taking advantage of international students is “not a new problem.” He described this as one of the knock-on effects of “privatizing a traditionally public service like education.”

One Voice Canada looks to support vulnerable international students. Kahlon released a report in January 2021 about the challenges they face. He said Canadians may not realize how “completely reliant” many Indian international students are on these agents.

“Especially with these colleges, you’re recruiting people right out of high school,” he said, from rural parts of India where students can’t look to family or friends for advice on the post-secondary landscape in Canada. That means the agents “are pretty much their sole source of information,” he said. “They’re also under the assumption that all colleges would be good in Canada. This is a Western country, a G7 country.”

International students must provide letters of acceptance from recognized Canadian post-secondary institutions when applying for student permits, but federal authorities are investigating applications that seemed to game the system through the use of fake letters.

The Canada Border Services Agency laid charges last week against an India-based education and immigration consultant who was detained when trying to enter Canada. CBSA spokesperson Maria Ladouceur said in a June 26 email to The Hill Times that Brijesh Mishra was arrested on June 23 “for his involvement in providing fake Canadian college admission letters to numerous students from Punjab and other states.”

Ladouceur added that Mishra faces five major charges under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, and would have a bail hearing on June 26. Christiane Fox, deputy minister for immigration, told a House committee on June 14 that her department had denied 976 immigration applications generated by one consultant, but the June 26 email did not specify if this was connected to Mishra.

CBC News reported on March 31 that authorities in India had arrested one of Mishra’s associates, a travel agent, for forging student visas.

Immigration minister troubled by stories that suggest exploitation of international students

Fraser told the House Citizenship and Immigration Committee on June 14 that the international student program contributes more than $22-billion annually to Canada’s economy, and that Canada has a responsibility to be honest with these students and “set them up for success.”

He said “the vast majority” of designated learning institutions are “good actors,” but that he has heard many stories that trouble him and suggest “that there are international students being exploited in this country.”

He described hearing about international students being enrolled in programs “that may have 1,000 students but with room in the facility for a few dozen students,” “brand new institutions” with inadequate mental health and housing supports, and students “being promised a pathway to permanent residency that does not exist for them.”

Fraser said he was committed to addressing these concerns, but added that the federal government will have to work with provincial and international partners on issues that are beyond its jurisdiction. He said it was up to the provinces to identify trusted educational institutions and hold them accountable, and that Canada will have to negotiate with other countries to regulate the activities of immigration and education consultants that operate outside Canada.

The federal immigration department published an evaluation of the international student program in 2015 covering the period from 2009 to 2013. This evaluation identified concerns about fraud and misuse of the program, including questions about non-genuine students and non-genuine educational institutes.

Advocates and researchers have previously described a landscape in which the creation of a pathway to permanent residency for international students in specific programs is drawing in applicants in growing numbers, accelerated by post-secondary institutions that rely on this influx of revenue to replace declining provincial funding.

Kahlon spoke to CBC News in March about international students’ efforts to seek redress from private colleges in B.C. for what he called unethical business practices. He told The Hill Times on June 22 about the close relationships that private colleges in Canada have with agents in India who act as recruiters for specific institutions. “The incentive is to maximize the number, because they get a commission for every student they recruit,” he said.

The emphasis on immigration over education, said Kahlon, means “a lot of these students are being funneled into worthless diploma programs” that don’t lead to good jobs in Canada, and make it difficult to meet family expectations that they will then sponsor and support other family members who are looking to immigrate.

“For a lot of these private colleges, I would say, education is just a front. They’re basically making money by moving people across the border,” added Kahlon.

He pointed out that there have also been similar problems over the years with recruitment agencies in India taking advantage of migrant workers looking for opportunities abroad, fed by demand for labour in Europe and the Middle East.

“You’re seeing the same problem now, it’s just happening in the context of education,” said Kahlon.

Fraser mentioned in his testimony at the House Immigration Committee that he would use his discretionary authority to prevent students from being deported until the department completes its fact-finding process.

Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) told The Hill Times in a June 26 email that the department is “actively pursuing a solution for international students who are facing uncertainty due to having been admitted to Canada with fraudulent college admission letters.”

IRCC spokesperson Sofica Lukianenko added that the federal government’s focus is on “identifying those who are responsible for the fraudulent activity and not on penalizing those who may have been victims of fraud.”

The IRCC statement said the department and the CBSA have formed a task force to review files “on a case-by-case basis,” but did not say if there could be further charges laid against other education agents.

Source: Exploitation of international students a consequence of using sector as economic driver, says advocate

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Un peu plus d’humanité pour les travailleurs étrangers

2023/06/28 Leave a comment

Along with reduced dependence on temporary workers and international students? And data on the number of visa overstays like in the USA:

Au cours des derniers jours, deux journalistes du Devoir ont donné un visage humain aux statistiques brutes de l’immigration temporaire et des migrants sans statut. Sarah R. Champagne et Lisa-Marie Gervais ont raconté les récits de Henry, Yony, Rudy, Yasser, Mariana et Mamadou.

Les premiers — des travailleurs étrangers temporaires — se sont blessés au travail et luttent non seulement pour leur rétablissement, mais aussi pour la défense de leurs droits dans un labyrinthe administratif aux allures de cul-de-sac. Les seconds — des sans-statut — sont arrivés chez nous par une voie régularisée, mais sont tombés ensuite dans le bassin des « sans-papiers » ; ils se battent pour survivre, mais dans la clandestinité. Derrière la froideur des chiffres, ce sont leurs vulnérabilités oubliées.

Tout notre système migratoire tourne autour de la notion convoitée de « résidence permanente ». La réforme que vient de mettre en marche la ministre de l’Immigration, Christine Fréchette, se décline autour de ce concept. Il s’agit là, répétons-le, d’une spectaculaire hypocrisie, car sous des cibles maintenant portées à 60 000 « permanents », la voie royale d’entrée au Québec est en fait « temporaire », et son caractère permanent ne se matérialisera jamais pour des milliers de personnes qui pourtant travaillent tous les jours à faire tourner notre économie.

En 2022, il y a eu près de trois fois plus d’immigrants entrés par une voie temporaire que de permanents recensés sur la même période de 11 mois. La véritable voie d’entrée au Québec est temporaire, mais on continue de traiter cette question comme si elle était secondaire, voire marginale. Québec n’a pas inclus la question des travailleurs étrangers temporaires dans sa récente réforme bien que ce fût réclamé à grands cris. Cette main-d’oeuvre scrutée sous le seul axe de son utilité, sans égards à son humanité, comptait pourtant pour près de 40 000 personnes au Québec en 2022.

C’est le triste paradoxe subi par ces dizaines de milliers de personnes jugées essentielles. Elles s’astreignent à un dur labeur depuis de longues années, loin de leur famille, mais elles accèdent rarement au statut convoité de la permanence, qui les sortirait d’un entre-deux accablant.

Puisque leur outil principal est leur corps, on ne s’étonnera pas d’apprendre que le nombre de lésions professionnelles subies par ces travailleurs est en augmentation galopante depuis quelques années, comme en font foi les données colligées par la Commission des normes, de l’équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CNESST). Les histoires relatées par nos reporters montrent les limites douloureuses du statut de temporaire lorsque les travailleurs sont blessés ou malades : même s’ils ont accès à des soins de santé en bonne et due forme pendant qu’ils travaillent, ces services tiennent par le fil de l’emploi. Lorsque l’emploi se termine ou est interrompu, faute d’être en mesure d’offrir la prestation de travail, l’employé doit normalement quitter le Québec. Mais certaines incapacités ne le permettent tout simplement pas : un accident de travail qui demande une longue réadaptation ou un cancer qui nécessite un traitement, par exemple.

Ces précieux travailleurs se retrouvent souvent seuls dans l’épreuve, sans moyens pour permettre à leur famille restée dans leur pays d’origine de venir ne serait-ce que les visiter après une opération. Puisqu’ils ne peuvent plus travailler, ils perdent aussi le logis venant avec l’emploi qui leur garantit un statut. Dans certains cas, le pouvoir discrétionnaire du ministre de la Santé, qui peut étirer une couverture d’assurance maladie pour motifs humanitaires, viendra sauver la mise. Mais ces batailles administratives parfois sans issue viennent souligner le caractère inacceptable du traitement qu’on inflige à des gens qu’on dit indispensables : on préfère oublier leurs vulnérabilités, comme s’ils étaient des travailleurs de seconde zone. Voilà ce que le Québec leur offre en guise de remerciements.

Dans ces sombres conditions, ne nous étonnons pas que certains glissent dans la dernière des zones, celle de la clandestinité, en devenant des sans-papiers. C’est l’ultime repli — et le plus douloureux, car il force à une vie de cachette et d’illégalité.

Le Canada, dont on dit qu’il abriterait entre 80 000 et 500 000 sans-papiers, s’est engagé il y a 18 mois à lancer un programme de régularisation, qui pourrait en quelque sorte permettre de remettre les compteurs à zéro, comme ce fut fait déjà en 1973. La quantité de migrants sans statut est toutefois beaucoup plus importante qu’il y a 50 ans, ce qui pourrait compliquer la tâche des élus au moment de définir les critères du programme, qu’on attend toujours.

Le statu quo n’est pas possible. Tant le Canada que le Québec doivent composer avec cette population temporaire sans cesse croissante : eux seuls détiennent les clés qui permettront d’ouvrir la voie à des statuts dotés d’un peu plus d’humanité.

Source: Un peu plus d’humanité pour les travailleurs étrangers

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The cure for Canada’s housing crisis? Boost immigration

2023/06/27 Leave a comment

Needless to say, I disagree with the logic and the false parallel with the situation over a century ago.

The problem with asserting the issue is the lack of a “can do” attitude is that while the government can turn up the needle on permanent and temporary migration, housing, healthcare and infrastructure have longer timelines.

While it is helpful that the Century Initiative and others are acknowledging these challenges, the reality is that little progress is being made and thus the calls for restraint:

There is a new fashion among the commentariat of questioning whether Canada has the capacity to accommodate greater immigration, particularly in housing and health care. The underlying defeatism of this position – the belief that we’ve achieved all we can – would leave Clifford Sifton depressed and ashamed.

In 1896, prime minister Wilfrid Laurier tasked this enterprising, 35-year-old Manitoban to “populate” the Prairies with European farmers, following years of net emigration from Canada. Laurier envisioned an agricultural powerhouse to provide an abundant, reliable food supply for our nascent country while solidifying Canada’s claim to the region.

Sifton met this challenge with a radically simple plan: find immigrants with experience farming similarly harsh terrain – people made of “the toughest fibre” – and lure them to Canada with free land.

After considering various candidates, he settled on Eastern Europeans, who had farmed inhospitable steppes like ours for generations. Sifton dispatched agents across Europe circulating ads in Polish, Czech and Ukrainian, promising “160 acres of free land in Canada,” and paid them generous commissions.

We need not condone that Indigenous nations were illegally displaced from this land to appreciate the sheer audacity of Sifton’s achievement. Within five years, he doubled the Prairie population. Within 10 years, annual immigration to Canada increased 840 per cent. And 125 years later, the farms these immigrants established feed not just Canada, but much of the world.

Contrast Sifton’s can-do optimism to the despondent attitude of pundits today, who are unsure how we might handle immigration levels that, at around 1 per cent of the population, are half the rate they were in Sifton’s era.

There are growing calls to constrict immigration until the housing crisis is “resolved” – imprecise though that is. We would be wise to recall what Sifton knew. Immigrants are not the cause of Canada’s failings. Actually, they’re a big part of the answer.

Immigrants don’t simply occupy existing housing. Fact is, they built most of our current housing stock and could build even more. Each worker occupies one home (less, if they share) and builds dozens more for everyone else – an irrefutable net gain.

Yet even when we grasp this seemingly obvious fact, our response falls short. Ontario recently announced that it will almost double the number of skilled workers it welcomes each year, to 18,000 by 2025. Yet even this seemingly ambitious plan is not designed to succeed. If current trends continue, about 6,000 of those will be construction workers. Yet Ontario Labour Minister Monte McNaughton has saidthat in “construction alone we’ll need 100,000 skilled workers over the next decade.”

Six thousand is not an appropriate target; 60,000 is closer to the mark.

A recent federal plan to specifically prioritize construction workers for immigration applications is similarly enlightened yet tepid. It comes with no targets. Were we genuinely committed to solving the housing crisis, we would aggressively recruit the people who can do so, and in huge numbers.

Where would they live upon arrival? Are we really so bereft of purpose and creativity? In Sifton’s day, newcomers lived in government-operated immigration halls until they found their feet. Hardly glamorous, but sufficient. Calgary is pioneering the conversion of vacant office space to residential use. Given the severity of the housing emergency, we should also consider unconventional options, including convention centres and military facilities. It just makes sense to house those whose labour could house us all.

As with housing, newcomers are not the cause of Canada’s health care failures. But they could be an answer. For example, Ontario reportedly needs 24,000 more nurses. That’s just 5 per cent of the 465,000 permanent residents Canada will welcome in 2023. Strategic immigration could eliminate this shortage in mere months.

Some might call these proposals naive: simplistic attempts to impose a 19th-century frontier mindset onto today’s stifling, maximally bureaucratized reality.

These are the weak excuses of the undetermined. We need not inhabit Sifton’s era to honour his ethos: a confident belief that we can overcome existential threats to Canada’s viability. We cannot (and should not) give the most in-demand newcomers stolen Indigenous land, but we can offer other perks, like expanded and expedited family reunification privileges. Intransigent provinces? Withhold transfer payments. Intransigent medical guilds? Show the public who is keeping much-needed help from reaching the front lines of care. These are emergencies. We should act accordingly. Do whatever it takes.

Housing and health care failings pose existential threats to Canada. The only shortage more acute than that of skilled people to provide these vital services is the shortage of audacity to believe that we are capable of solving these problems: the confident ambition to make big dreams come true.

Irfhan Rawji is managing partner of Relay Ventures. Daniel Bernhard is CEO of the Institute for Canadian Citizenship.

Source: The cure for Canada’s housing crisis? Boost immigration

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International students face tougher job prospects than domestic peers, B.C. research suggests

2023/06/27 Leave a comment

First reported in New Canadian Media, a more detailed account of the study and reasonable recommendations:

A survey of more than a thousand international students in British Columbia has found the vast majority see their student visas as a pathway to Canadian residency and citizenship, but instead, find limited employment opportunities and little government support to reach their dream.

The three-year project, led by Jenny Francis, a geography faculty member at Langara College in Vancouver, found that while postsecondary institutions like hers heavily recruit international students because of the hefty tuition fees they pay, there is little attention paid to whether they are suited to moving on to fulfilling Canadian careers in their field. Instead, the students end up working in low-paying jobs, facing high living costs and struggling to excel in their studies.

The current system is working well for employers, middle- and upper-income Canadians, postsecondary institutions and the federal government, according to Dr. Francis. “How do we make it work better for international students?” she asked, in a document that includes her main findings.

The number of international students admitted to Canadian postsecondary institutions has soared in recent years, partly as a response to stagnating government funding. International tuition fees are typically four times higher than those for Canadian students.

Statistics Canada reported last year that colleges across Canada saw an increase in international students of 154 per cent between 2015-2016 and 2019-2020. The increase was lower at universities: 39.6 per cent. In Dr. Francis’s study, the majority of respondents – 52 per cent – came from South Asia, the top source of international students to Canada since 2017.

Dr. Francis said she wanted to learn from international students what their experiences were. As part of her study, her team sent a 60-question survey to 7,000 students attending Langara College as well as the College of New Caledonia in Prince George, B.C., with 1,282 students agreeing to participate. The full study results will be published later this year, but Dr. Francis shared her preliminary findings with The Globe and Mail.

The research found the vast majority of those students intend to stay in Canada.

However, Statistics Canada figures show only 30 per cent of those with bachelors’ degrees became permanent residents within 10 years of obtaining their first study permit. The rates were slightly higher for those with master’s degrees at 50 per cent, and doctoral degrees at 60 per cent.

She said that nobody with whom she has shared the Statistics Canada information has ever heard of these numbers. ”Not instructors, not students. Everybody is surprised,” Dr. Francis said in an interview.

Among the provinces, British Columbia has by far the lowest rate of international students transitioning to permanent residency, both five years and 10 years after their first study permits.

“I do feel students are sold a dream,” Dr. Francis said.

Part of the problem is that Canada only expects between 30 and 50 per cent of them to stay, depending on their level of education. But a far higher percentage of students expect they will, she said.

“So there’s a mismatch. Almost all students intend to stay.”

Dr. Francis’s study mirrors findings from Sandra Schinnerl, a post-doctoral fellow at UBC’s Centre for Migration Studies. Her research showed around 60 per cent of international students desire to stay in Canada after graduation, but that the average economic outcomes of these graduates are below that of their domestic peers.

She said the number of international students who make it through the process to stay in Canada permanently hasn’t changed between 2001 and 2022. That transition rate has been stable at about 30 per cent.

“And so has the message changed?” she asked, questioning whether immigration consultants and postsecondary institutions have oversold the Canadian experience.

“Nothing’s really changed from a policy perspective. But you are having an increasing number of very disappointed international students.”

Dr. Francis’s findings show approximately 80 per cent of the survey respondents were working and had one job. Most were earning minimum wage with just under 10 per cent earning more than $20 an hour. Much of their earnings went toward housing.

The federal government lifted the 20-hours-a-week work limit for international students last year, but the move prompted concerns from some instructors, Dr. Francis’s findings show.

“The problem is that many students work full-time or more and as a result they miss class, arrive late or tired, fall asleep in class, can’t concentrate,” Dr. Francis said. “Some students are not really students – they are hopeful immigrants who are using study as their path to PR,” referring to permanent residency.

Her study suggests many students struggle to find a job either in their field or in the region where they are living. At the same time, she said students reported fraud and exploitation by employers.

For example, Dr. Francis said respondents who had completed a two-year diploma program and who had obtained a postgraduate work permit needed a managerial position to qualify for permanent residence status. But management work for someone at that level, sometimes without solid English language skills, is frequently out of reach.

Survey respondents said employers would put them in those positions and pay them accordingly, but the student would be required to refund that money back to the employer. In the end, they earned less than minimum wage, she said.

Immigration lawyer Prabhpreet Sangha, who participated in Dr. Francis’s project, said she’s seen cases where students are misguided and misled: They are told they can work without being aware they are violating the conditions of their permit if they do not study. Sometimes they are advised to apply for refugee status if things go off the rail at school or work, which is very wrong, she added.

“They’re lied to a lot, and they’ll pay the wrong money for the wrong thing,” said Ms. Sangha.

Harmanpreet Kaur had paid $11,000 for five courses she’s taking in her last semester at Langara. She and her friend Rajbir Kaur, both from India, are studying and working full-time.

Besides her own earnings, Harmanpreet also receives financial support from her brother. “If a student is alone here – no support from their family – then it’s so hard to survive,” she said.

Rajbir said balancing work and study isn’t easy. It means there’s no leisure time, no weekends, no vacations.

Both of them, now working at food courts, said their current working experience won’t help them acquire permanent resident status, unless they are promoted to a managerial or supervisory role.

“I was dreaming that life is so easy over here. But when I arrived here, life’s being difficult, totally different,” said Harmanpreet.

Given that the intentions of a large proportion of international students is to stay in Canada, Dr. Francis and Dr. Schinnerl believe that higher education institutions should help them navigate the job environment in this country.

Dr. Francis is also calling for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada to give those with postgraduate work permits access to settlement services, such as language training. Additionally, she is recommending the province create a regionalization strategy to better match labour market needs with programs of study and provide greater oversight of employment relationships.

At the college level, Dr. Francis said schools should be more selective in the students they recruit, including ensuring they are academically prepared to succeed at postsecondary studies and, later, in the Canadian labour market.

In response to questions from The Globe, the department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship said it is undertaking a review of the International Student Program with the aim of offering students better protection against unethical recruitment.

The goal is to modernize the program in order to better select and retain students who meet Canada’s economic and socio-cultural goals. These include targets for francophone and regional immigration, a statement from the department said.

A spokesman for B.C.’s Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills said the minister, Selina Robinson, was unavailable for an interview. The ministry said it is in communication with Ottawa on matters involving international students.

Mark Dawson, manager of public affairs at Langara, said the college’s international student services team has grown significantly in recent years, and that all international students have access to the school’s co-op and career centre, which offers opportunities to explore jobs, provides current labour market information, and connects students to career pathways.

UBC spokesperson Matthew Ramsey said the university is aware of the employment challenges facing international students and is in the process of launching pilot programs focusing on career supports for international students as well as information about applying for permanent residency. He said a new program at UBC’s Okanagan campus is designed to address navigating the job market and gaining Canadian work experience.

The idea “is to respond directly to student survey feedback and the research related to barriers they face,” he said.

Source: International students face tougher job prospects than domestic peers, B.C. research suggests

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Le français comme condition d’immigration : la nouvelle réforme de la CAQ

2023/06/26 Leave a comment

Useful overview (English below):

Le gouvernement québécois a récemment présenté ses nouvelles orientations en matière d’immigration. Le message est clair : la langue devient une condition sine qua non pour s’installer de façon permanente au Québec.

Ce resserrement des règles aura des impacts importants sur les futurs immigrants, mais aussi sur ceux vivant déjà au Québec. Il marque aussi la consolidation de l’approche prônée par la CAQ en matière d’immigration permanente : d’abord assurer la protection du français, avant la croissance démographique ou économique liée à l’immigration. D’ailleurs, si le Québec devait accueillir plus d’immigrants, ce sera uniquement en raison de la croissance du nombre d’immigrants économiques francophones.

La nouvelle approche inclut une réforme du programme de sélection des travailleurs qualifiés, une refonte du Programme de l’expérience Québécoise (PEQ), des changements aux conditions du programme de regroupement familial, à celui des investisseurs et à celui des travailleurs autonomes.

De plus grandes exigences pour les immigrants économiques

Bien que la connaissance de la langue ait toujours été centrale dans les orientations du Québec en matière d’immigration (qui furent mises en œuvre par le biais des pouvoirs dévolus à la province dans le cadre de l’Accord Canada-Québec de 1991), l’approche prônée par la CAQ augmente les exigences linguistiques pour tous les programmes d’immigration économique.

Un nouveau Programme de sélection des travailleurs qualifiés (PSTQ) sera mis en place. Alors que dans le programme actuel, la connaissance du français pouvait augmenter les scores globaux des candidats à l’immigration dans grille de sélection, le PSTQ fait de la connaissance du français une condition nécessaire à l’immigration.

Pour les volets 1 à 3 du programme, la connaissance minimale exigée sera modulée en fonction du niveau de qualification requise. Les travailleurs visant un poste de gestion ou qui demande généralement une formation postsecondaire devront posséder une compétence en français de niveau 7 (intermédiaire avancé) à l’oral et 5 à l’écrit, sur une échelle qui en compte 12. Les autres emplois seront soumis à un niveau 5 à l’oral, soit le début de l’échelle intermédiaire. Le gouvernement s’est donné une petite marge de manœuvre pour le volet 4 « talents d’exception ». Pour cette petite partie du programme qui vise des compétences « exceptionnelles », aucune connaissance du français n’est exigée pour l’instant.

Le PSTQ crée aussi une obligation linguistique pour les conjoints des demandeurs principaux à l’immigration au Québec, soit un niveau minimum de 4 à l’oral, le dernier échelon pour une compétence de base. La vaste majorité des candidats à l’immigration permanente devront donc avoir une connaissance intermédiaire du français.

Un nouveau PEQ

En parallèle, le PEQ (Programme de l’expérience québécoise) renaît de ses cendres. Le PEQ est une passerelle vers la résidence permanente pour les immigrants temporaires, à travers deux volets : les diplômés du Québec et les travailleurs étrangers temporaires. En 2020, le gouvernement de la CAQ avait limité dans la controverse l’accès à ce programme très populaire auprès des étudiants internationaux ayant acquis un diplôme d’une institution québécoise et une expérience de travail conséquente dans la province.

Dans la nouvelle mouture du PEQ, l’exigence d’emploi disparaît du volet des diplômés, mais la langue devient centrale : seuls les programmes d’études en français seront admissibles. Le programme reste ouvert aux travailleurs temporaires et devient accessible à de nouvelles professions, autrefois exclues du PEQ, par exemple les camionneurs ou les préposés aux bénéficiaires. Pour les deux volets (diplômés et travailleurs temporaires), un niveau 7 ou plus est exigé à l’oral. Les conjoints, eux, devront encore avoir un français oral de niveau 4, comme c’était le cas depuis juillet 2021.

La version 2023 du PEQ est donc, dans les faits, limitée aux personnes avec des connaissances avancées du français et ayant interagi fortement avec des institutions francophones dans le cadre de leur expérience préalable au Québec.

Les gens d’affaires et les regroupements familiaux

Une même tendance est annoncée pour les gens d’affaires : les programmes dédiés aux investisseurs et aux travailleurs autonomes exigeront dorénavant un français oral de niveau 7.

Les nouvelles orientations affectent aussi le parrainage dans le cadre des regroupements familiaux. Cela reflète les revendications du gouvernement actuel, qui a exigé le transfert de pouvoirs d’Ottawa afin de pouvoir soumettre les réunifications familiales à des critères linguistiques. À défaut de ces pouvoirs supplémentaires, la réforme ajoute une composante linguistique aux exigences des personnes garantes – les parrains –, en plus des conditions financières. Le gouvernement souhaite maintenant qu’un plan d’accueil et d’intégration soit soumis au ministère de l’Immigration, de la Francisation et de l’Intégration par la personne garante, dans lequel elle « s’engagera notamment à soutenir l’apprentissage du français par les personnes parrainées ».

Vers une nouvelle ère en immigration au Québec ?

Bien que ces changements restent encore à être mis en œuvre, le message envoyé par la CAQ, alors que Québec s’apprête à revoir ses seuils d’immigration, est clair : il faut parler français pour immigrer de façon permanente au Québec. À cet égard, il convient d’apporter une nuance importante. Depuis 1991, la province met en place des programmes d’immigration visant à s’assurer qu’une part importante des immigrants connaissent et utilisent le français au moment d’être reçus. À titre indicatif, la proportion de personnes immigrantes déclarant connaître le français au moment de leur admission se situait à près de 70 %en 2021.

Les nouvelles orientations intensifient donc l’approche historique du Québec en plus de renforcer les privilèges accordés aux francophones et francotropes dans la sélection. Elles créent aussi des exigences administratives supplémentaires pour les candidats à l’immigration et ceux qui les soutiennent.

Ces changements auront des conséquences marquées sur l’origine des immigrants que le Québec va accueillir, en donnant des avantages encore plus importants aux bassins de la francophonie, tels que la France, la Belgique, le Maroc, la Tunisie, le Sénégal ou le Bénin. Pour les personnes déjà installées au Québec dans le cadre d’un processus d’immigration temporaire pour des études ou pour le travail – et souvent issus de pays non-francophones, comme la Chine, l’Inde, les Philippines, ou l’Iran – la réforme envoie aussi le signal que l’accès à la résidence permanente ne pourra se faire que par un apprentissage soutenu du français.

Ces nouvelles réalités pourraient donc non seulement changer le visage de l’immigration permanente, mais aussi celui de l’immigration temporaire.

Source: Le français comme condition d’immigration : la nouvelle réforme de la CAQ

French as a condition of immigration: the CAQ’s new reform

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Ottawa to rectify issue with massively revised temporary foreign workers data

2023/06/26 Leave a comment

Good quick response. And kudos to the Globe for uncovering the change. Hopefully the lesson learned is that any significant change must be openly and transparently communicated, preferably with advance consultations:

The federal government says it will publish a full accounting of temporary foreign work permit holders in Canada after The Globe and Mail discovered that more than two decades of data had been altered without explanation.

More than one million people held work permits through the International Mobility Program at the end of last year, according to figures that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada published in February.

However, the federal immigration department recently made significant downward revisions to those numbers, indicating there are now around 675,000 permit holders. The figures for all previous years, dating back to 2000, had also been reduced.

Several immigration researchers told The Globe that IRCC removed work permit holders whose primary reason for being in Canada may not be related to the labour market, such as students and refugee claimants.

The department said the revised numbers were not properly labelled. “When this new data set was published, the incorrect title/description was mistakenly published to accompany it,” spokesperson Matthew Krupovich said in a statement.

IRCC said it intends to publish figures on both the narrower and broader groups of work permit holders, but did not indicate when that will happen.

Some economists were frustrated with how IRCC handled the data revision and expressed concern that lowering the numbers would obscure how many temporary foreign workers are in the country.

“The data is just a mess,” said Mikal Skuterud, a professor of labour economics at the University of Waterloo.

By not counting international students with work permits, for example, “one would understate the growth of the IMP,” Feng Hou, principal researcher at Statistics Canada, said by e-mail.

The International Mobility Program accounts for a large share of temporary foreign workers in the country. Within the program are several categories of permit holders, including postgraduate workers and spouses of skilled workers.

Canada’s population is growing rapidly, in large part because of the influx of temporary residents, including workers and students. Many of those people are accruing postsecondary degrees and Canadian work experience in hopes of getting permanent residency.

The use of temporary foreign labour by Canadian employers has soared in recent years. The trend has been criticized by many economists for helping companies minimize their labour costs, among other reasons.

Source: Ottawa to rectify issue with massively revised temporary foreign workers data

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Germany to ease immigration law to attract skilled workers

2023/06/24 Leave a comment

Of note:

From healthcare to IT, carpenters to technicians, Germany’s “help wanted” sign is blinking red. At a German industry event in mid-June, Chancellor Olaf Scholz promised business leaders that change was coming, and with less red tape.

Germany needs 400,000 foreign workers to make up the shortfall every year, according to the Federal Employment Office. And when the baby boomers retire en masse, the problem will only get worse.

Lawmakers from the parties in government — the center-left Social Democrats, the Greens, and the neoliberal Free Democrats — have worked out the final details of a skilled labor immigration law.

The bill heads for a vote this Friday (23.6.) in the Bundestag, Germany’s federal parliament.

Three options

The bill, initially drawn up by the labor and interior ministries, seeks to open up new opportunities for people from countries outside the European Union.

They could come to Germany either thanks to qualifications and degrees that regulators here will recognize in a faster and more streamlined process; or based on their work experience; or through a point system for job seekers with potential but without an existing employment contract.

Blue Card

Germany introduced what is known as the EU Blue Card, for highly qualified specialists, a decade ago. Now, it will also become easier to get, thanks to a lower income requirement.

In the future, they will need to make an annual minimum salary of €43,800 ($48,000), according to the news agency Reuters. And for IT specialists professional experience can take the place of a university degree.

Incoming workers will also be less restricted in their line of work. Until now, it has been difficult to change industries, based on the existing visa rules.

The ‘opportunity card’

With a point system under a new “opportunity card,” foreigners who don’t yet have a job lined up will be permitted to come to Germany and given a year to find employment. A prerequisite is holding a vocational qualification or university degree.

Points will be awarded for example for German and/or English language skills, existing ties to Germany, and the potential of accompanying life partners or spouses on the German labor market. The new reforms also seek to make it easier for prospective employers to bring their dependents with them.

An opportunity card permits casual work for up to 20 hours a week while looking for a qualified job, and probationary employment is also permitted.

Those who are awaiting asylum approval, and got their application in by March 29, 2023, have the appropriate qualifications, and a job offer and will also be permitted to join the labor market. This would also allow them to enter vocational training.

A similar change holds for those here on a tourist visa. They will not be required to first leave the country, before returning in an employment context.

Fewer hurdles in the recognition of degrees

A major obstacle to immigration has long been the requirement to have degrees recognized in Germany. This is a long, bureaucratic, and often frustrating process.

In the future, skilled immigrants will no longer have to have their degrees recognized in Germany if they can show they have at least two years of professional experience and a degree that is state-recognized in their country of origin.

However, this is only aimed at skilled workers above a certain salary threshold.

The Skilled Workers Act also provides for a new arrangement: Someone who already has a job offer can already come to Germany and start working while their degree is still being recognized.

Skeptics don’t expect improvement

Not everyone is happy with the proposed changes, which first came up for debate in March. Some in the opposition see a problem that legislation alone can’t fix.

“When thousands of skilled workers willing to immigrate are waiting for months for a visa or a recognition of skills, there finally needs to be enough staff, for example, at consulates — not new point system,” Hermann Gröhe, a lawmaker with the conservative CDU-CSU block, said.

Others are mindful of shortcomings in Germany’s digital infrastructure, which hamper visa processing and put off potential foreign labor.

“If a computer scientist from Pakistan or India has to wait months to get an appointment at the consulate for a visa, the doubt that sets in will have him choosing another destination country,” Gerd Landsberg, the managing director of the German Association of Cities and Municipalities, told the regional newspaper, Rheinische Post. He pointed out that all industrialized countries are competing for skilled work

In a recent interview with the Berlin daily, Tagesspiegel, the director of Berlin’s immigration office, Engelhard Mazanke, said his office alone already has a three-month backlog and needs at least 50 additional staff to process the influx of thousands of foreign workers and their families. He pointed out that they will come on top of refugees from Ukraine, Middle Eastern, and African countries, along with the regular flow of students and other kinds of migrants from around the world.

Meanwhile, a reform of the citizenship law is on the cards, too. To give immigrants an incentive to integrate and stick around for the long term.

Source: Germany to ease immigration law to attract skilled workers

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Ottawa makes massive data change on temporary foreign worker numbers 

2023/06/23 2 Comments

Hopefully the government will be fully transparent on how this happened and what changes are being made. This can further undermine general confidence in government management and administration given how fundamental accurate data to government programs:

The federal government has revised more than two decades of immigration data, saying that “technical difficulties” led to bloated figures for a subset of temporary foreign workers.

Slightly more than one million people held work permits through the International Mobility Program at the end of last year, an increase of 48 per cent from 2021, according to figures that were published by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada in February.

But recently, IRCC updated those numbers – and they are significantly different. Now, the federal government says that roughly 675,000 people held IMP work permits at the end of 2022, a decline of about 340,000 from the earlier dataset. The figures for all previous years, dating back to 2000, were also reduced.

Globe and Mail journalists recently discovered the revisions. The federal immigration department did not publish the new figures with an explanation for why they had changed so much.

IRCC spokesperson Matthew Krupovich said in a statement that the department experienced “technical difficulties” when producing the figures. The current numbers, he said, are “accurate.”

The Globe and Mail asked IRCC for a deeper explanation of these issues, but has yet to receive a response.

“It’s extremely frustrating,” said Mikal Skuterud, a professor of economics at the University of Waterloo, who uses these numbers in his research. “At a minimum, when you’re working with government data, you want to trust that they’re accurate.”

Canada’s population is growing at the fastest rate in decades, in large part because of temporary migration, including students and workers. The country grew by more than one million people in 2022, and just last week, the population surpassed 40 million.

The International Mobility Program plays a large role in population growth, accounting for the majority of temporary work permit holders. Within IMP, there are several streams of migration, including post-graduate workers and spouses of skilled workers.

The presence of temporary foreign workers has grown dramatically over the past two decades. Based on the updated numbers, the volume of IMP permits has grown by 1,434 per cent since 2000.

Canada’s growing reliance on temporary foreign labour has drawn criticism on several grounds, including that it shields employers from making more competitive wage offers to domestic workers or investing in new technologies.

Canada is increasingly moving to a two-step immigration process that sees people come here first as students or workers, who vie for the opportunity of securing permanent residency.

The federal government is ramping up targets for the admission of permanent residents to 500,000 annually by 2025.

Source: Ottawa makes massive data change on temporary foreign worker numbers

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