Government ‘hackathon’ to search for ways to use AI to cut asylum backlog

2023/05/02 Leave a comment

For all the legitimate worries about AI and algorithms, many forget that human systems have similar biases and the additional issue of inconsistencies (see Kahneman’s Noise). Given numbers, irresponsible not to develop these tools, but take steps to avoid bias. And I think we need to get off the mindset that every case is unique as many, if not most, have more commonalities than differences:

The Home Office plans to use artificial intelligence to reduce the asylum backlog, and is launching a three-day hackathon in the search for quicker ways to process the 138,052 undecided asylum cases.

The government is convening academics, tech experts, civil servants and business people to form 15 multidisciplinary teams tasked with brainstorming solutions to the backlog. Teams will be invited to compete to find the most innovative solutions, and will present their ideas to a panel of judges. The winners are expected to meet the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, in Downing Street for a prize-giving ceremony.

Inspired by Silicon Valley’s approach to problem-solving, the hackathon will take place in London and Peterborough in May. One possible method of speeding up the processing of asylum claims, discussed in preliminary talks before the event, involves establishing whether AI can be used to transcribe and analyse the Home Office’s huge existing database of thousands of hours of previous asylum interviews, to identify trends.

Source: Government ‘hackathon’ to search for ways to use AI to cut asylum backlog

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David: L’aide fédérale à mourir [immigration impact]

2023/05/02 Leave a comment

Of note. Quebec and rest of Canada’s widely diverging immigration levels, and the ongoing diminution of Quebec’s share of the Canadian population:

Quoi qu’il en ait dit, le ministre de la Langue française, également responsable de la Francophonie canadienne, Jean-François Roberge, n’a pas dû être surpris de constater que le nouveau plan d’action pour les langues officielles du gouvernement Trudeau prévoit de consacrer 137,5 millions de dollars à la communauté anglo-québécoise, mais pratiquement rien à la protection du français au Québec.

Depuis son adoption en 1969, la Loi sur les langues officielles repose sur le principe erroné d’une symétrie entre la situation des francophones hors Québec et celle des anglophones au Québec. Après avoir défendu cette vision hypocrite pendant plus d’un demi-siècle, Ottawa a finalement admis qu’il n’en est rien, mais cela ne change pas grand-chose en pratique.

Même s’ils sont minoritaires au Québec, on persiste à traiter les anglophones comme une espèce menacée, alors qu’ils font partie d’une majorité écrasante au Canada et en Amérique du Nord.

Les députés libéraux anglophones du Québec qui se sont indignés de voir que la nouvelle mouture (C-13) de la loi fait référence à la Charte de la langue française, toujours présentée comme un monument d’iniquité, ont voulu s’assurer que cela demeure ainsi.

Jean-François Roberge, qui ne manque pas d’humour, a expliqué que son gouvernement ne comptait pas sur Ottawa pour sauver le français au Québec. « Par contre, on s’attend à ce qu’il ne nuise pas », a-t-il ajouté.
• • • • •
Il est vrai qu’en acceptant d’harmoniser les dispositions de la Loi sur les langues officielles régissant les entreprises sous autorité fédérale avec celles de la loi 101, le gouvernement Trudeau a fait preuve de bonne volonté.

Les meilleures intentions du monde ne pourraient malheureusement pas inverser une dynamique démographique qui conduit inexorablement à une diminution accélérée de la proportion de francophones dans l’ensemble du pays au Canada, y compris au Québec.

Qu’on le veuille ou non, toute contribution fédérale à la valorisation de l’anglais au Québec ne peut que renforcer l’attraction qu’il exerce chez les immigrants, qu’on a déjà du mal à convaincre de s’intégrer à la majorité francophone.

M. Roberge, qui s’affaire à son propre plan d’action, qui doit être présenté à l’automne, suggère que l’argent destiné aux groupes qui font la promotion de l’anglais soit consacré à la francisation. Cette proposition risque d’être accueillie assez froidement par ceux qui trouvent que la loi 96 est déjà trop exigeante, notamment en ce qui concerne la francisation des entreprises.

Sans grande surprise, le Parti libéral du Québec semble prêt à se porter au secours de la communauté anglophone. Jeudi, à l’Assemblée nationale, il a empêché la mise aux voix d’une motion présentée par le Parti québécois, qui dénonçait l’importance des sommes qui lui sont destinées, par rapport à ce qui est prévu pour la protection du français, alors qu’elle bénéficie d’un réseau d’institutions qui garantissent amplement sa vitalité.
• • • • •
Si le Québec est resté sur sa faim, les communautés francophones hors Québec ont généralement bien accueilli le plan d’action fédéral, notamment les 221 millions qui serviront à stimuler l’immigration francophone.

On ne peut que souhaiter voir arriver des renforts qui les appuieront dans leur lutte pour préserver leur identité, mais une certaine perplexité est de mise. Depuis 20 ans, on a atteint une seule fois l’objectif d’une immigration francophone représentant 4,4 % de l’ensemble des nouveaux arrivants hors Québec.

La Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne (FCFA) estime qu’il faudrait atteindre le chiffre de 12 % dès l’an prochain et de 20 % en 2036 simplement pour revenir au niveau de 2001. Or, le plan d’action ne propose ni objectif précis ni échéancier.

Simplement empêcher la proportion de francophones de continuer à chuter sera encore plus difficile si le gouvernement Trudeau ouvre les vannes de l’immigration pour faire en sorte que le Canada compte 100 millions d’habitants en 2100, comme le suggère l’influent groupe « L’initiative du siècle ».

Le gouvernement Legault annoncera vraisemblablement à la fin de l’été son intention de hausser les seuils d’immigration pour les prochaines années, mais ceux-ci devront inclure une plus grande proportion de francophones.

Il faudra cependant les trouver quelque part, et l’expérience enseigne que ce n’est pas si facile. Ceux qui viendront au Québec n’iront pas grossir les rangs des communautés francophones ailleurs au pays, et vice-versa.

En réalité, face à un mal incurable, le plan d’action fédéral ressemble davantage à un programme d’aide à mourir dans la dignité, dont les Québécois devront bien se demander s’ils veulent vraiment s’en prévaloir.

Source: L’aide fédérale à mourir

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Palme McGuinness: Australia not immune to immigration anxiety, but we have no need to worry

2023/05/01 Leave a comment

Another interesting article from Australia with some similar issues and some similar optimism (although tatters may be too strong a term for Canada but some may not agree). And Canada would benefit from an independent review or commission to review the objectives and their implementation:

Fashion, ideology and political expedience have left Australia’s immigration system in tatters. Now, finally, we have a solid review of the immigration system, embraced by responsible minister Clare O’Neil. There are still details left to be finessed, but implementing the principles of the Martin Parkinson-led review will be the hard reset our visa system needs.

Not before time. Immigration anxiety is escalating around the world as countries struggle to manage the inflows of refugees and economic migrants keen to share the protection and opportunities of liberal democracy. The European Union is bickering over who should take the migrants that keep coming and who should pay. Italy, an immigration inflow frontier, elected a prime minister tasked with firming its borders. Britain brexited the discussion at great cost to its economy. In the US, migrants walking over the border are bussed around to make a political point. Immigration anxiety has moved more elections than climate anxiety.

Australia, protected by its geography, has been spared much of this. But not all. We have many problems of our own making that feed into what the Transatlantic Council on Migration identifies as the key drivers of immigration anxiety.

Our anxiety in this area, the Council finds, is caused by common factors, including some we’re facing in Australia right here, right now.

One of these is a sudden large flow of immigrants – and Australia is expecting at least 650,000 over two years. Another is the perception that new arrivals will compete with the existing population for scarce resources and opportunities – such as housing, medical care, welfare, and jobs. And then there’s the level of trust in the ability of policymakers to control inflows and deliver successful integration policies. Australia has scraped by, though fissures regularly appear on asylum seeker policy and integration. But our infrastructure, housing and services are groaning at a time when immigration is about to spike.

In the circumstances, we needed the Parkinson review a couple of decades ago. But since we have it now, now will have to do.

The review won’t build the new houses, roads or hospitals we already needed yesterday. But it might just be able to help us agree on how we can become a better nation, with the help of the people that business and the care sector need today.

That is perhaps the most important part of this review. It starts out by stating the purpose of our immigration system. Because, as the review panel writes, “clear objectives are part of the story Australians tell about why the country is taking certain action” and “when that story is lost sight of or stops being told, trust and confidence is weakened”.

The purpose laid out in the review might be expressed in modern language, but goes back to the core principles of what makes nations strong and citizens confident of their collective sovereignty.

The first principle is that immigration should build Australia’s prosperity. This should be a no-brainer, but as usual somehow partisan politics from the left and the right got in the way. So let’s say it straight: bringing in clever people adds bodies, yes, but it also raises the national IQ. Smart people generate ideas, create businesses, or win overseas business for Australian companies, which creates more jobs right here onshore. Keeping an eye on national prosperity doesn’t mean forgoing humanitarian intake (sometimes doing the right thing is just the right thing to do), but it means evaluating the overall effect of the combined intake against one very important objective: that we all benefit. This is why recent migrants are sometimes not wild about untargeted new intakes. They want to know that the country they’ve invested themselves in is going to get richer and better.

The next is enabling fair labour markets. This principle has had some less than savoury incarnations, including the White Australia policy, which limited immigration from non-European countries. Along with a large dollop of racism, the purpose of the Restricted Immigration Act of 1901 was to keep out people who would work for lower wages. It is a considerable improvement that we can now say our immigration system is designed to protect people in our society who need lower paid jobs as a step into the labour market and dispense with the racist excuse.

The review also, refreshingly, prioritises “building a community of Australians”. It recognises the importance of giving migrants the ability to set down roots and become Australian. One of the most corrosive ideas in immigration here and abroad has been the notion that a country is acting in its best interests when it treats migrants who want to stay as temporary, or guest workers. If decency doesn’t tell you people who spend their productive years in a country might find that they and their children have built a life there, not just a career, then international experience can.

Guest worker programs, like the Turkish workers Germany brought in after WWII to rebuild bombed out cities, lead to parallel societies. The children of the guest workers still wanted to stay, but spoke poor German and felt no sense of belonging. Guests don’t, to return to the housing shortage, build new accommodation for themselves and their kin. Terms like “assimilation” have gone out of style, but the review emphasises the importance of “democratic resilience and social cohesion” – a nation in which nationality is a bond is stronger and happier.

Finally, and I have to say I like this as much as the other principles which underpin the review, it puts an Orwellian caveat on all the above: break any of these rules rather than be outright barbarous. Some of the migrants we want, want to be temporary. We have to be OK with that too.

A hard reset to principle and purpose is what our immigration system desperately needs. Like all the best policy work, once it’s clearly articulated it seems just to state the bleeding obvious.

Parnell Palme McGuinness is managing director strategy and policy at strategic communications firm Agenda C. The company was engaged to work for a Liberal Party MP during the federal election. She has also worked for the German Greens.

Source: Australia not immune to immigration anxiety, but we have no need to worry

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U.S. asks Canada to reimpose visa requirements for Mexico to stem surge of crossings at northern border

2023/05/01 Leave a comment

Request was bound to happen:

The Biden administration has been asking Ottawa to consider reimposing visa requirements for Mexican nationals visiting Canada, CBC News has learned.

At issue is the sharp increase in illegal crossings from Canada into the United States: Mexicans don’t need a visa to travel to Canada, while the U.S. requires a visa for Mexicans to enter. American border officials say some Mexican nationals are using Canada’s visa-free rule to fly into the country and then cross south illegally into America.

The Conservative government under Stephen Harper created a visa requirement in 2009 for Mexicans to stem the flow of asylum claims from Mexico. The Trudeau government relaxed it in 2016.

Source: U.S. asks Canada to reimpose visa requirements for Mexico to stem surge of crossings at northern border

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Australia: Uncapping work hours forged ‘Ponzi scheme’ in student visas

2023/05/01 Leave a comment

Uncapping student work hours, as the Canadian government recently did, will likely generate further abuse by education agents and immigration consultants:

The Morrison government’s allowing people on student visas to work unlimited hours created a ‘Ponzi scheme’ that was exploited ruthlessly by some education agents, an international education conference was told on 19 April, writes Julie Hare for AFR .

The move also heaped pressure on the Department of Home Affairs, which is trying to process a backlog of one million visas, with the more complicated ones linked to questionable applications being shunted to the back of the queue, said Labor backbencher Julian Hill. Speaking at an international education conference, Hill said it was clear the Morrison government’s decision to uncap work hours was irresponsible because it “distorted student choice and corrupted the market”.

Phil Honeywood, chief executive of the International Education Association of Australia, described the uncapping of work hours as creating a ‘Ponzi scheme’ in student visas. Before the removal of caps, international students were restricted to working 40 hours a fortnight.

Source: Uncapping work hours forged ‘Ponzi scheme’ in student visas

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Is Canada taking the wrong approach to the labour shortage?

2023/04/29 Leave a comment

Good discussion of high vs low wage market needs. However, a discussion of productivity and per capita GDP missing, and the current immigration policies are working against increasing productivity as Skuterud and others have argued:

Does Canada need more immigrants with less education to do low-paying work, when many of their highly educated peers are already toiling in such jobs?

As employers struggle to find workers, a new report is calling into question Canada’s efforts to use immigration to deal with labour shortages.

“The labour shortages we’re seeing are mostly concentrated on the lower-skilled jobs, but we know that there’s already a very large proportion of immigrants with university education working in these jobs,” Statistics Canada researcher Feng Hou, co-author of the joint StatsCan and immigration department report, told the Star.

“It’s important for policymakers and the public to decide if we want to continue to select highly educated new immigrants to work in lower-skilled occupations or increase (the number of) immigrants with lower education levels.

“It’s a choice we have to make.”

The stakes are high and could have a lasting impact on the Canadian labour market — changing the calibre of the future workforce, suppressing wages or discouraging employers from investing in innovation and improving work conditions.

There could also be unexpected societal consequences.

“A significant move away from highly educated immigrants would weaken the tendency for the children of immigrants to attain high education levels, a major success for Canada compared to other countries,” cautions the report.

“In many countries the population generally has a more positive attitude toward highly-skilled immigrants than the lower-skilled. Any change that negatively affects Canadians’ perception of immigration could put a damper on its success.”

Canada raises immigration intake

As of March, Canada’s unemployment rate was at five per cent. Meanwhile, job vacancies have trended down 731,570 across all sectors since last June, despite a slight increase earlier this year.

The growth in unfilled jobs was in transportation and warehousing (+14,500) as well as health care and social assistance (+12,400), while the numbers dropped for professional, scientific and technical services (-6,200; -10.9 per cent), manufacturing (-4,200; -6.0 per cent) and educational services (-3,800; -14.1 per cent).

To tame the tight labour market, the federal government has raised the annual intake of new immigrants, with a goal of bringing in 500,000 a year by 2025, relaxed the rules to usher in foreign workers and passed a new law to prioritize potential immigrants in targeted sectors, including those in lower-skilled jobs previously ineligible for permanent residence.

A one-time program was also launched to grant permanent residence to 90,000 international students and foreign workers in essential jobs in Canada — many in the low-skilled spectrum of the caregiving and food production and distribution sectors — to ease the crunch.

Concerns have been raised regarding the extent to which immigration should be geared toward filling higher or lower-skilled jobs, and whether the country is on the right track.

How are newcomers to Canada faring?

Based on census and the government’s immigration database, the new study examined how newcomers who came under different programs fared and if they were employed in jobs at par with their education and skill levels. Although the analysis was based on 2016 data, Hou believes the findings would be similar today.

Among all immigrants aged 20 to 64, 60 per cent were in higher-skilled jobs and 40 per cent in lower-skilled positions, comparable to the ratio among their Canadian-born peers, at 64 per cent and 36 per cent, respectively.

(Higher-skilled jobs are defined as requiring a minimum of two years of post-secondary education and above; lower-skilled jobs only require some high school education and on-the-job training.)

Although immigrants played a key role in the labour market at all skill levels, accounting for 24 per cent of all employment, they also are more likely than their Canadian-born peers to be at the bottom of the ladder. 

According to the 47-page report, 34 per cent of immigrants selected via the economic category (including principal applicants, spouses and dependants, and in Canada since 1980) were employed in lower-skilled jobs.

Even among longer-term economic immigrants who have been in Canada for more than a decade, 31 per cent were in lower-skilled positions. 

This group of immigrants, selected for their higher education and skills, is a major provider of lower-skilled labour. It accounted for 53 per cent of all adult immigrants, and almost half (46 per cent) of the immigrant labour force in lower-skilled jobs.

Economic immigrants who were chosen under the Provincial Nomination Program, which allows provinces to select their own permanent residents, had the largest share in lower-skilled jobs, at 40 per cent. That compared to 28 per cent among those in the federal skilled worker program and 15 per cent in the Canadian Experience Class.

“Traditionally, economic immigrants in particular have been selected based on a ‘human capital model,’ which orients immigration towards higher educated individuals,” said the report. “However, not all economic immigrants occupy higher-skilled jobs.”

Cyclical factors are driving labour market conditions

The study referred to the many factors contributing to the pandemic-induced labour market conditions: worker fatigue; concerns among workers about COVID-19 infection; strong government financial support to individuals; the decline in immigration levels; and a possible desire to change jobs.

Given most of these drivers were cyclical, it recommended the temporary foreign workers program may be a more reasonable solution to the labour crisis amid current economic uncertainty.

However, critics say the solution is not about bringing in fewer low-skilled immigrants but focusing more on credential recognition in order to make the best use of all immigrants’ skills.

“The business cycle has not led to fewer temporary foreign workers. The use of temporary foreign workers through different immigration streams continues to go up,” said Naomi Alboim, who served senior federal and provincial government roles in immigration and labour.

“They say they hope it will resolve itself when the pandemic abates. But the pandemic is still with us. It’s not necessarily good for our economy just to continue to bring in temporary foreign workers, nor is it good for the temporary foreign workers.”

The report cited the boom and bust of the higher-skilled tech and oil sectors as examples of the temporariness of cyclical labour market, but Alboim said it failed to recognize the “ongoing needs” for lower-skilled workers in areas such as skilled trades and health care that can’t be easily replaced by automation and technology. 

“Even if the high interest rates result in a reduction of economic growth and perhaps less people being required, we know that there are sectors at the lower end where we are going to continue to need people,” said Alboim.

“I’m not saying the majority of people coming into the country should be selected on the basis of lower skills. We should just have a little bit more of a balance so we don’t have a bifurcated immigration system that says, ‘Higher-skilled. Permanent. Lower-skilled. Temporary.’”

‘We do need … a mix’

The success of the economic immigration program comes down to the match between newcomers’ skills and the jobs that need to be filled, said Rupa Banerjee, Canada Research Chair of economic inclusion, employment and entrepreneurship of Canada’s immigrants.

It’s an irony that low-skilled immigrants in many ways actually have employment appropriate to their education and skill levels while their highly educated and skilled peers struggle to get compatible jobs and become disillusioned with the decision to come to Canada.

“What’s really important is to look at this through a more nuanced viewpoint. It’s not as cut and dry or black and white as simply we don’t need as many low-skilled immigrants,” said Banerjee.

“We do need to have a mix of different skill levels coming into Canada, but we still have this problem of job skill mismatch and that continues to be a major challenge that we need to continue to work on.”

Source: Is Canada taking the wrong approach to the labour shortage?

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Australia Seeks to Fix ‘Broken’ Immigration Program After Review

2023/04/28 Leave a comment

Some aspects also broken in Canada but government loathe to admit:

Australia will change its immigration system after a review found the current model is not fit for purpose, Minister for Home Affairs Clare O’Neil said.

The system was overly-complicated and open to exploitation, the review found, failing to target and retain skilled workers and international students vital to boosting the country’s economic productivity.

Australia’s immigration system was “broken,” O’Neil said in Canberra Thursday. “It is failing our businesses, it is failing migrants themselves and most importantly it is failing Australians,” she said.

Australia will increase the income threshold for temporary skilled migration in July 2023 from A$53,900 ($36,000) to A$70,000 ($46,000), to raise the bar on the types of jobs which justified importing labor. In addition, all temporary skilled migrants would be given a pathway to permanent residency from the end of 2023.

Despite the changes, O’Neil said Australia’s overall immigration levels would not increase as a result of the reforms.

The difficulty of attracting skilled migrants comes as Australia attempts to boost its economic growth and productivity in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. With unemployment hovering at 3.5%, there are skilled labor gaps in a range of industries including aged care, health and defense.

More changes are expected in the coming months, O’Neil said, with a full plan to improve the migration system due by the end of 2023. The investor visa class is expected to be reviewed, the minister said, with concerns it has been used in the past to buy a ticket into Australian residency.

Source: Australia Seeks to Fix ‘Broken’ Immigration Program After Review

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Canada developing new immigration policy to attract French-speaking people — especially teachers

2023/04/28 Leave a comment

Of note (last year they met the target for francophone immigration):

The Liberal government says it is developing a new policy on francophone immigration as a way to grow the French language in Canada.

Official Languages Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor says it’s an advantage for Canada to have a bilingual workforce and population.

The policy is part of a five-year action plan for official languages the government released today.

Source: Canada developing new immigration policy to attract French …

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Des immigrants se disent injustement recalés en français par Québec

2023/04/28 Leave a comment

A noter:

Québec accuse de nombreux immigrants d’avoir menti sur leurs compétences linguistiques et les recale lors d’une entrevue orale, en dépit d’une preuve attestant qu’ils ont déjà réussi le niveau requis en français, a appris Le Devoir. Plusieurs d’entre eux peuvent même être « bannis pour cinq ans » du processus de sélection du Québec, dénoncent des avocats.

Ces derniers — et leurs clients — déplorent ce qu’ils qualifient d’acharnement de la part du ministère de l’Immigration, de la Francisation et de l’Intégration (MIFI). « Québec cherche des façons innovantes de torturer des gens, des gens qui ont le malheur d’être convoqués en entrevue pour qu’on évalue leur niveau de français », laisse tomber David Chalk, un avocat en droit de l’immigration, dont certains clients ont été recalés.

Le Devoir s’est entretenu en français, à l’oral et à l’écrit, avec plusieurs candidats à l’immigration n’ayant pas le français comme langue maternelle qui ont été convoqués à une entrevue. Il préserve leur anonymat pour ne pas nuire à leurs démarches.

D’origine chinoise, Chang déplore la façon dont il a été traité par le MIFI, qu’il qualifie d’« arrogant » et d’« irresponsable ».

Le jeune homme a fait une maîtrise dans une université anglophone d’ici et dit être « tombé en amour » avec le Québec. Le Programme de l’expérience québécoise (PEQ) lui permettait de réaliser son rêve d’immigrer, mais il devait apprendre le français et obtenir l’équivalent du fameux « niveau 7 » sur l’Échelle québécoise des niveaux de compétence en français.

Au printemps 2022, après avoir réussi tous les tests de français oraux et écrits agréés par le MIFI, il a demandé le Certificat de sélection du Québec (CSQ), le précieux sésame lui permettant de demander la résidence permanente au gouvernement fédéral. Or, son rêve s’est effondré lorsqu’il a été convoqué quelques mois plus tard à une entrevue de contrôle par le ministère de l’Immigration du Québec. Celui-ci lui a dit avoir des raisons de croire qu’il avait soumis des « documents faux ou trompeurs » pour attester de son niveau de français, ce que nie le principal intéressé.

Au terme de l’entretien, qui « s’est très mal passé », Chang s’est vu octroyer un niveau 4. Dans la lettre du MIFI, on l’informe aussi que sous prétexte qu’il a menti sur ses compétences en français, toute nouvelle demande qu’il voudrait soumettre pourrait ne pas être évaluée, et ce, pour les cinq prochaines années. « J’étais dévasté », a-t-il dit.

Le Devoir a pu consulter la lettre de refus, qui, ironiquement, contenait plusieurs coquilles. Elle détaille, au moyen d’exemples, certains problèmes de français du candidat, notamment en commentant sa prononciation. « On a ridiculisé mon accent », déplore Chang dans un français tout de même compréhensible pour Le Devoir.

Ce jeune homme s’indigne surtout du fait que le MIFI l’accuse d’avoir menti, de ne pas avoir « démontré la véracité de [sa] déclaration sur [sa] connaissance du français oral ». Selon lui, ayant déjà obtenu l’équivalent d’un niveau 7 à un examen de français reconnu par le MIFI, il était normal qu’il affirme détenir ce niveau. « En aucun cas, je n’ai eu l’intention de tromper qui que ce soit dans le processus ! »

Une pratique illégale ?

Pour Me David Chalk, le ministère veut « piéger » les gens. « Cette question n’a aucune raison d’être posée, sauf pour accuser quelqu’un de fausse déclaration. »

Ningsi Mei, une avocate qui dit avoir de plus en plus de clients refusés, estime que l’entretien, auquel participent un agent du MIFI et un enseignant, est subjectif. « C’est un jugement personnel. »

Après avoir été recalés à l’entrevue du MIFI, plusieurs de ses clients ont quitté le Québec, soit pour une autre province soit pour leur pays d’origine. « Ils me disent qu’ils ne se sentent pas les bienvenus ici. Ils croient que le [gouvernement] veut juste limiter le nombre d’immigrants et qu’il ne veut pas de ceux qui ne parlent pas parfaitement le français », a rapporté l’avocate.

Me David Chalk se dit surtout agacé par les présomptions de tromperie qui servent à justifier une convocation en entrevue. « Pourquoi alléguer d’emblée que le candidat est un fraudeur ? »

En 2016, des soupçons de fraude et de production de faux documents avaient mené l’Unité permanente anticorruption à ouvrir une enquête, ont révélé des documents de cour. C’est ce qui avait incité le ministère de l’Immigration du Québec à vérifier de manière plus proactive le niveau de français oral des candidats au PEQ en les convoquant en entrevue.

Or, cette pratique a été contestée devant les tribunaux en 2017. Les avocats avaient fait valoir que les preuves soumises par leurs clients pour attester leur niveau de français dans le cadre du PEQ étaient conformes à la loi, contrairement aux tests de français oral supplémentaires menés par le MIFI.

Un jugement de la Cour supérieure rendu en décembre 2018, confirmé par la Cour d’appel, leur avait donné raison et avait forcé le MIFI à annuler ses décisions de refus de CSQ pour une cinquantaine d’immigrants, surtout originaires de l’Asie.

En août 2018, le Règlement sur l’immigration a été changé, et le ministre peut désormais exiger qu’« une personne démontre une connaissance du français oral au niveau 7 », a affirmé Émilie Vézina, porte-parole du ministère. Quant aux présomptions de fraude qui servent à la convocation des gens en entrevue, on se contente d’expliquer que c’est « en fonction des faits propres à chaque demande ».

D’après les données du MIFI, plus de 2000 personnes se sont soumises à cette entrevue depuis l’automne 2016. Les convocations ont connu une augmentation et sont en voie de rattraper le niveau prépandémique. Quant au taux d’échec, il varie beaucoup, allant de 16 % à 84 % selon les années.

Convoqués même après avoir obtenu un CSQ

Le Devoir a échangé avec plusieurs immigrants qui se sont fait convoquer en entrevue même après avoir obtenu leur Certificat de sélection du Québec.

C’est le cas d’Emily Zhao, une enseignante et danseuse d’origine chinoise qui est arrivée au Canada il y a huit ans. Elle a obtenu son CSQ en juillet 2018 et attend depuis la résidence permanente pour elle et sa famille. Or, en janvier dernier, elle a, à sa grande surprise, reçu une lettre du MIFI la convoquant en entrevue et l’informant de ses intentions d’annuler son CSQ.

 « C’est comme si vous aviez obtenu votre permis de conduire et que, cinq ans plus tard, on vous appelle pour repasser l’examen et annuler votre permis », a dit cette mère de famille, qui a accepté de témoigner à visage découvert.

Citant la décision des tribunaux, Emily Zhao a refusé de se présenter en entrevue, prétendant qu’il n’était pas légal de vérifier à nouveau son niveau de français. La semaine dernière, elle a finalement reçu une lettre de rétractation du MIFI : son CSQ demeurera valide.

Mme Zhao craint d’avoir été placée sur une « liste noire » de personnes ayant obtenu leur CSQ alors que des soupçons de corruption pesaient sur le programme. Elle craint aussi que la remise en question de son certificat ait suspendu le traitement de sa demande de résidence permanente au fédéral, ce qui expliquerait la longue attente.

Selon le MIFI, depuis septembre 2021, 70 personnes ayant déjà obtenu un CSQ ont été convoquées à une entrevue visant à vérifier leur français oral, et près de 60 % ont échoué.

Après s’être vu refuser son CSQ, Chang est rentré en Chine la semaine dernière. Pour lui, c’était comme « tout jeter et partir ». Il croit que son expérience a découragé certains de ses amis. « Ils ont peur d’essayer. Parce qu’ils savent à quel point j’ai essayé d’apprendre le français. »

Source: Des immigrants se disent injustement recalés en français par Québec

Filed under Immigration Tagged with , , , ,

Porter: It’s OK to ask whether immigration is intensifying our housing crisis

2023/04/27 Leave a comment

Reasonable question as many have increasingly been asking. Of course, housing availability and affordability affect everyone, Canadian-born and immigrants:

According to Statistics Canada, Canada’s population grew by 1,050,110 people in 2022. International migration accounted for 95.9 per cent of this growth.

Some have questioned whether Canada’s immigration policy is at odds with its efforts to address the housing crisis. Paul Kershaw of UBC has pointed out that newcomers, through no fault of their own, will amplify demand for housing and drive up home prices. CIBC CEO Victor Dodig recently expressed concern that increasing immigration levels without first increasing housing supply risks triggering Canada’s “largest social crisis” over the next decade.

Others argue that it is too simplistic, even xenophobic, to ask whether high levels of international migration could be intensifying our housing crisis. They argue that the blame for the housing crisis lies with government, which has failed for decades to build sufficient housing to accommodate predictable population growth, and that individual migrants are no more responsible for our housing crisis than they are responsible for overcrowding on public transit.

While this argument has superficial appeal, it suffers from three fallacies.

First, it conflates immigrants — individuals who, by definition, have just moved to Canada, and therefore can’t possibly be responsible for our long-standing housing crisis (indeed, they’re probably victims of it) — with immigration policy, which is set by government and is a proper subject of political debate. Individual immigrants are clearly blameless, but it is legitimate to ask whether our government could be exacerbating the housing crisis through its immigration policy.

Second, it confuses the ultimate cause of our housing crisis with its proximate causes. A multi-decade failure by government to build enough housing for our growing population may be the ultimate cause of the crisis. But that doesn’t mean that high levels of international migration to Canada in 2022 were not a proximate cause of the market conditions that tenants experienced last year, including low vacancy rates and an 18 per cent annual increase in average rent for a vacant unit.

Third, it implies that by asking whether our immigration policy is intensifying the housing crisis, we are effectively blaming immigrant families for the crisis. This is an in terrorem argument that uses fear — fear of making immigrants feel unwelcome, or fear of being labelled xenophobic — to discourage us from honestly examining the effects of our immigration policy and openly debating whether the benefits are worth the costs.

Canada’s population grew by over a million people last year, in the midst of a housing crisis that sees more than 235,000 Canadians experience homelessness annually. It is reasonable to ask whether maintaining such high levels of international migration will lead to mass evictions, displacement, and homelessness for tenants; and, if so, how many tenants we are willing to sacrifice to achieve the benefits of population growth. 

Refusing to ask and answer these questions does a disservice to ourselves and to the migrants who will someday call Canada home.

Source: It’s OK to ask whether immigration is intensifying our housing crisis

Filed under Immigration Tagged with ,

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