Daphne Bramham: With Canada failing to meet its immigration promises, B.C. needs more control

2022/07/28 Leave a comment

The British Columbia perspective, similar to that of Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.

One idea that has been suggested by some is the Provincial Nominee Program should be used for regulated professions (e.g., healthcare, some trades) given that regulatory bodies are provincial, not federal.

Definitely worth consideration as the federal government’s progress on foreign credential recognition appears to have been more about process and consultations than concrete action. Making the provinces directly responsible for selection of applicants in regulated professions might simplify accountabilities:

Across B.C., “Help Wanted” signs are ubiquitous. Labour shortages have forced businesses to drastically cut their hours, hospitals and emergency rooms to close, as well as planned and unscheduled cancellations of B.C. Ferries sailings.

Despite grumbled anecdotes about people not wanting to work, B.C. has one of Canada’s highest workforce participation rates.

Bear in mind that last year, B.C. also had the highest number of new arrivals recorded in 60 years — 100,797 people. International migration was the second-highest recorded, while cross-country migration was the highest in nearly 30 years.

Even with that, and despite a seemingly intractable, affordable-housing crisis, the fact is B.C. needs more people to fill essential jobs.

And that is exactly why the provincial government wants Ottawa to give it more control over who comes here, and is asking for more money to help settle all the newcomers.

Last year, only 6,750 people came under the provincial nominee program that allows provinces to select applicants whose skills and training match labour needs. Next year, it wants 8,000 nominees, and 10,000 three years from now.

It made the request ahead of Thursday’s meeting of federal and provincial immigration ministers.

Nathan Cullen is B.C.’s municipal affairs minister and has responsibility for immigration. He describes the program as “more precise” than other immigration programs, noting that B.C.’s priority last year was health-care and long-term care workers.

“(The nominee program) is not a blunt instrument, which is what a federal immigration program is by its nature,” he told Postmedia before leaving for the federal-provincial meeting in New Brunswick.

“We’ve just heard from Ontario and they’ve been making similar requests of the feds to gain a little bit more control over what happens.”

As a former MP, Cullen isn’t certain how much of its “cherished authority” Ottawa is willing to give up. But he hopes to convince Federal Minister Sean Fraser that expanding the nominee program, which has a much faster turnaround time than myriad other immigration streams, will help clear the backlog of applications that is nearing two million files.

The benefit isn’t just a bureaucratic one. With skills matched to jobs, it should also mean that highly skilled newcomers don’t end up driving taxis instead of doing the jobs they are trained for.

Of course, there is a huge caveat that Cullen readily acknowledges. Canada is glacially slow in recognizing internationally obtained credentials — especially for physicians and surgeons. Here, he said it can take up to three times as long as in other G20 countries — “And if you’re slow in this kind of world, it means you just don’t get the person at all.”

The minister plans to raise that at Thursday’s meeting, along with concerns about what might best be described as Canada’s “do-it-yourself” immigration offer to Ukrainians.

Within days of the Russian invasion, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered safe haven and a pathway to citizenship to all Ukrainians who could find their own way here.

“We’re not ready for them, and we need the feds to be,” Cullen said. “(Federal politicians) have had time. There’s no more excuses like, ‘It’s all happening so fast.’ That’s done. They’ve had the time and the program has not been set up properly yet.”

With the usual processes waived, Ukrainians are arriving and often there is no one to meet them. Nobody knows when they are coming, where they are landing, or even how many of the six million who have fled might end up here as Russia intensifies its attacks.

Earlier this year, B.C. shored up settlement societies with nearly $15 million because the number of immigrants and refugees arriving is beyond the capacity that Ottawa has funded them for. And last month, the province set up a hardship fund for Ukrainians offering up to $1,770 a month for a family of four.

Ukrainian-Canadians have also stepped in to fill the gaps since the only federal help Ukrainians get is a two-week housing allowance.

Still, with no contact point with any agency or government, vulnerable women, children and unaccompanied minors are open to exploitation. It’s something that keeps Cullen awake at night.

Already, his officials had to rescue one family who had found rental accommodation on social media. When they arrived, the landlord confiscated their passports and tried to restrict their movements. Fortunately, they had a contact in the Ukrainian community who got in touch with the ministry.

Meanwhile, immigrants are enduring months-long waits in overcrowded hotel rooms in dangerous neighbourhoods because there is nowhere else to go until settlement societies or concerned citizens manage to scrounge something better. Sometimes, it’s from developers waiting for demolition permits.

Cullen insists that recent increases in housing starts and measures his government has taken to get unused housing into the rental pool is starting to make a difference. But he said it is still going to take more time to even out.

Immigrants also need health care and schools for their children. Those, too, are provincial costs.

So far, the federal government has failed to match its immigration promises and targets with the money necessary to properly fulfill them.

Small wonder that the provinces want more control and more money.

“We have to match the story we want to tell about ourselves as being a generous, open country … with the resources and the determination that’s required,” Cullen said.

And right now? That’s not happening.

Source: Daphne Bramham: With Canada failing to meet its immigration promises, B.C. needs more control

Filed under Immigration Tagged with , ,

Bahran: If Canada wants to be strong economically, it needs more immigrants, plain and simple

2022/07/28 Leave a comment

Standard general call for more immigrants without considering the externalities and costs:

Canada is a vast beautiful country with an economy that has a huge potential to grow, provided it has sufficient labour markets. That is why I argue for more immigrants. Canada needs more immigrants if it wants to maintain and improve its standard of living.

The labour shortage that has been aggravated during the pandemic is not over. According to Statistics Canada, there were 915,500 unfilled positions in the fourth quarter of 2021. That’s up by 63 per cent compared to 2020. Jobs are also staying vacant for longer periods. Shortages were large before COVID but made worse during the pandemic.

The obvious reason is: Canada’s population remains small and must grow to meet economic growth needs. It is a reality that Canada’s population growth comes from immigration — addressing labour shortages in key sectors such as health care. Immigrants make up 37 per cent of the country’s pool of pharmacists, 36 per cent of physicians, 39 per cent of dentists, 23 per cent of registered nurses, and 35 per cent of nurse aides and related occupations.

Although, it has the highest population growth of any G7 country, Canada has under 0.5 per cent of the world’s population, with one of the smallest population densities on Earth (about four people per square kilometre). In fact, it is more than an order of magnitude smaller than the world’s average population density which is about 50 people/square km. India, China, and the U.S. have 464, 149 and 121 people/square kilometre respectively. Bear in mind that Canada is the second-largest country, geographically, in the world. Although huge parts are inhabitable, there is a plenty of room for those four/square km to grow manifold times.

The U.S. is the leading economy worldwide, but most economic forecasts predict a great shift in world economic power. Some estimates suggest that by 2050, China’s and India’s economies will surpass that of the U.S., while Indonesia, Brazil and Mexico will surpass Japan, Germany, the U.K., Russia, France and Canada combined. The overwhelming factor in this is population growth.

Many western countries are aging with a rate proportional to their level of advancement. People are living healthier and longer while younger people tend to either not get married or not have large families. This leads to a shrinking workforce and will have a direct impact on economic growth. Japan, for example, is becoming greyer than ever, with about 30 per cent of its population over 65 years of age. Its population actually dropped by some 640,000 in 2021. Italy is not far behind, at 23 per cent, and Germany is third at 21 per cent. They represent the most aging countries in the world and are a direct example to watch to see the effect this will have on economic growth and wellbeing: facing severe shortages in the labour market, and higher social-service costs.

Japan happens to have a near-zero immigration policy and if that continues, soon enough it will face dire consequences. Canada’s over-65 population is not small either. In 2020 it was more than 18 per cent and within eight years is expected to reach 23 per cent. Clearly, current policies are not good enough to address this issue and population growth must be accelerated.

Of course, it is imperative to reconcile population growth with limiting our per capita carbon footprint. Economic growth and wealth production are the key for such reconciliation. Migration is also a historic mechanism for reducing high population growth in low-income countries, through which we can adjust imbalances that help stabilize economic growth everywhere.

Last but not least, in addition to the economic and humanitarian reasons, immigrants make Canada stronger — as they embrace the richness of equity, diversity, and inclusion of our character and values.

Mustafa Bahran is a visiting professor and instructor of physics at Carleton University.

Source: Bahran: If Canada wants to be strong economically, it needs more immigrants, plain and simple

Filed under Immigration Tagged with ,

Aging South Korea turns to immigration

2022/07/27 Leave a comment

Notable shift:

The Ministry of Justice will open a bureau to facilitate immigration as South Korea struggles to cope with falling birth rates and an aging population.

After briefing President Yoon Suk-yeol on Tuesday morning, Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon told reporters that the plans for a central bureau overseeing policies relating to immigration will begin to take shape over the remaining year.

Since taking office in May, Han has said that during his term, he would make it his mission to institute an immigration-friendly system within the government. “Building forward-looking, effective immigration policies is critical for the country’s future,” he said.

The ministry is trying out new programs for attracting and retaining immigrants.

One of them is a “fast-track” path to citizenship and residence for highly-skilled applicants, set to open in October. Another is a “region-specific” visa to encourage foreigners to settle in regions with steeper population declines.

The ministry will also set out initiatives for removing barriers for children of immigrants in accessing education, health care and other social services.

In the same briefing, Han said the ministry plans to crack down on serious, widespread crimes in South Korea, as prosecutors are about to lose their powers to investigate and prosecute most crimes. Once the Democratic Party of Korea-backed laws come into effect in September, prosecutors can no longer be involved in the investigations of the crimes that they prosecute.

He said the ministry will zero in on crimes targeting vulnerable populations such as minors and women. Child maltreatment surveillance will be increased. Power-based sexual violence will be dealt heavier penalties. GPS tracking anklets will be used on those convicted of stalking.

More investigations will be encouraged against corporate and white-collar crimes such as tax evasion, as well as fraud rings perpetuating phishing and cryptocurrency scams, he added.

Han said key goals of the ministry under his leadership would be establishing a judicial system that is adaptive to future challenges; criminal justice collaboration with police and concerned ministries to reduce violence and corruption; and promotion of human rights and a victim-centered approach in the administration of justice.

Source: Aging South Korea turns to immigration

Filed under Citizenship, Immigration Tagged with

Rioux Soucy: Entrave Canada [passport, visa and immigration delays]

2022/07/27 Leave a comment

More on backlogs and delays:

L’administration canadienne est-elle en train de s’écrouler sous le poids de sa propre incurie ? Dans l’ombre de la crise des passeports et des longs reports déplorés par d’infortunés prestataires de l’assurance-emploi, d’autres crises — celles des visas, des permis d’études pour les étudiants étrangers et des permis de travail pour les travailleurs étrangers — font rage. Les chiffres et les témoignages colligés par Le Devoir ces derniers jours montrent que tous les indicateurs sont au rouge. Un rouge très foncé.

L’Orchestre de la francophonie a dû se résoudre à faire le deuil de plusieurs stagiaires estivaux, faute de visas obtenus à temps. Une première depuis que l’académie s’est ouverte au monde, en 2009. Le Festival international Nuits d’Afrique, lui, a vu la porte se refermer au nez de sa tête d’affiche. Ces dernières semaines, le passeport de la vedette pop nigériane Yemi Alade l’aura fait voyager en Grande-Bretagne, en France et en Belgique. Pas ici, on a eu trop peur qu’elle et son orchestre s’enracinent au pays.

Dans le milieu culturel, on est familiarisé avec ce type d’embûches, qui n’ont cessé de se multiplier, notamment pour les festivals, force vive et carte de visite mondiale de la culture d’ici. Immigration, Réfugiés et Citoyenneté Canada (IRCC) compte sur une Unité des événements spéciaux avec laquelle les organisations ont douloureusement appris à travailler. Elle aurait même développé une certaine expertise, blaguent mi-figue, mi-raisin, certains programmateurs.

Mais à l’image de l’administration canadienne, la fameuse Unité connaît « des délais plus longs que d’habitude », admet candidement IRCC. Avec pour effet que de nombreux invités internationaux du congrès mondial en agroforesterie à l’Université Laval, en majorité des Africains, n’ont pas pu faire le voyage jusqu’au Québec. On craint maintenant la même chose pour la venue de centaines de spécialistes africains à une conférence internationale sur le sida qui s’ouvrira vendredi, à Montréal. Un point commun entre ces déconfitures en série ? Les voyageurs recalés viennent en majorité d’Afrique, ou de certaines zones d’Amérique du Sud ou d’Asie.

Pour un pays qui se drape dans les vertus d’un multiculturalisme tous azimuts, cette frilosité étonne. Elle a toutes les allures d’un système discriminatoire. Une compilation du Devoir montre que le Canada met jusqu’à cinq mois pour traiter une demande dans certains pays. Du jamais vu. Les disparités par pays sont énormes, avec des pics évidents au Moyen-Orient et en Afrique. Si on attend son visa entre 10 et 20 jours au Royaume-Uni ou au Suriname, à l’autre bout du spectre, l’Arabie saoudite remporte la palme des pires délais avec 219 jours d’attente. Le Bénin suit avec 177 jours.

IRCC nie tout parti pris : les demandes seraient examinées de « façon uniforme », et avec « les mêmes critères ». Un exercice semblable mené par Le Devoir pour décortiquer les délais auxquels se heurtent les travailleurs étrangers pour l’obtention d’un permis de travail expose pourtant une répartition en tous points semblable à celle des visas, avec des pics vertigineux de plus d’un an dans certaines régions du monde. Sur le terrain, les employeurs s’arrachent les cheveux, au point de faire parfois une croix sur les pays qui affichent les pires bilans. Trop long, trop incertain, trop paupérisant.

Il est consternant de constater combien la machine canadienne est aveugle à ses propres turpitudes. Non, elle ne voit pas le déséquilibre que nos cartes permettent de voir en un clin d’oeil. Pire, elle s’illusionne en publiant des délais estimés de traitement qui n’ont parfois rien à voir avec la réalité. Les voyageurs qui ont attendu leur passeport ont déjà joué dans ce mauvais film. C’est le cas aussi pour des étudiants étrangers en attente d’un permis d’études. IRCC évalue leur traitement à 12 semaines. Le Devoir a montré ce week-end que des dizaines d’étudiants francophones africains admis dans des universités canadiennes attendent plutôt leur précieux sésame depuis de longs mois, certains depuis plus d’un an.

Le gouvernement Trudeau admet que ses services sont surchargés, mais il refuse l’idée qu’ils soient rendus dysfonctionnels. Il préfère se réfugier derrière le commode paravent pandémique. Sclérosante pour toutes les organisations, la COVID-19 a certainement mis du sable dans l’engrenage. Mais cet engrenage, on le savait déjà passablement mal huilé. En 2017, une étude du World Economic Forum plaçait le Canada 120e sur 136 pays en matière de visa, voyant sa politique en la matière comme l’une des plus alambiquées et opaques au monde. En 2019 ? 125e sur 139.

Avec la pandémie, cette étude annuelle a été mise sur pause, mais on peut parier qu’avec les délais que l’on connaît cette année, le Canada n’a pas pu améliorer son score. Le contrôle des frontières est légitime, mais il y a la manière. Ce n’est pas la première fois qu’IRCC se fait rappeler d’être plus transparent et, surtout, plus juste. À force de reporter ce chantier, le Canada joue sa réputation.

Source: Entrave Canada

Filed under Immigration, Passports Tagged with

UK Conservative Leadership: Sunak’s hardline immigration plan includes a cap on refugees and floating detention centres for asylum seekers

2022/07/26 Leave a comment

Of note as the two contenders compete for the anti-immigration vote:

Rishi Sunak has sparked outrage as he set out a hardline plan to deal with immigration if he becomes prime minister. The package features a cap on annual refugee numbers and the withholding of aid from some of the world’s poorest countries if they refuse to take back failed asylum seekers.

The former chancellor, who is trailing Liz Truss in polls of Conservative Party members in the current leadership election, said he would ramp up the controversial plan to operate deportation flights to Rwanda and that he would seek to establish similar schemes with other countries

And he said he would bar anyone arriving by small boat across the Channel from remaining in the UK – despite the fact that the majority of unauthorised arrivals are currently awarded asylum status.

Meanwhile, Ms Truss has also doubled down on support for the controversial plan, calling it the “right” policy and indicating she could extend the scheme further.

“I’m determined to see it through to full implementation, as well as exploring other countries that we can work on similar partnerships with. It’s the right thing to do,” she told the Mail on Sunday.

“I’m also determined to make sure that we have the right level of forces at our border. I’m going to increase the border force to make sure that we have the proper protection in place directly at the border.”

Mr Sunak’s plans were branded “cruel” by aid charity Oxfam, whose head of government relations Sam Nadel said: “If anything, this shows that the heat of campaigning leads to bad policy. If the former chancellor wins this race, he will be more than a party leader, he will be prime minister and a world leader.

“To meet a world in desperate crisis – facing climate change, famine and conflict – with cruel policies such as these would not live up to the role. We need more aid and safe and legal routes to the UK.”

Mr Sunak, who admits he is the underdog in the race to succeed Boris Johnson, declared on Saturday that illegal immigration was one of five national emergencies that would require him to put the UK on a “crisis footing” as soon as he took office.

His “10-point plan to stop illegal immigration” is significantly more hardline than the measures contained in the Nationality and Borders Act that was put into law by Priti Patel earlier this year.

It will put him on course for a clash with the European Court of Human Rights by narrowing the definition of who qualifies for asylum in the UK, as well as giving authorities additional powers to tag, detain and monitor incomers.

And it will put him on a collision course with aid charities by explicitly linking humanitarian support with cooperation on immigration – something Christian Aid has described as “beyond the pale”.

States that fail to take back nationals who have committed offences or been denied the right to stay in the UK – as Eritrea, Iraq and Sudan are currently understood to do – would be denied access to British aid and subjected to retaliatory trade and visa measures.

Mr Sunak – whose own grandparents arrived in the UK from India as legal migrants – would introduce a cap, set annually by parliament, on the number of refugees to be accepted by “safe and legal routes”, while ensuring that others are removed from the country.

Effectively barring the way to remaining in Britain for those entering the country by unauthorised routes, his plan states: “The only route to asylum in the UK will be a safe and legal route.”

A military-led Small Boats Taskforce, backed by investment in surveillance technology, would be given the resources and authority needed to “end small boat beach landings” and oversee the detention and removal of those crossing the Channel in dinghies.

Adapted cruise ships would be used as floating detention camps for migrants deemed to have arrived in the UK illegally, in a bid to rein in the £5m-a-day cost of housing them in hotels.

Mr Sunak would seek an urgent meeting with French president Emmanuel Macron in an effort to “hold the French to account”, with clear targets on stopping boats and “no options off the table”.

He promised to do “whatever it takes” to implement and scale up the agreement with Rwanda, under which the African country is paid to accept asylum seekers without their claims ever having been considered in the UK. And he said he would pursue similar arrangements with other states.

Meanwhile, penalties on businesses using illegal migrant labour would be toughened, and Mr Sunak would set a target of resolving 80 per cent of asylum claims within six months in order to reduce the current backlog of more than 100,000 applications awaiting an initial decision.

Mr Sunak, who supported Brexit, said his “reasonable, fair and proportionate” package would enable him to fulfil the Leave campaign’s promise to “take back control of our borders”.

“Right now the system is chaotic, with law-abiding citizens seeing boats full of illegal immigrants coming from the safe country of France, with our sailors and coastguards seemingly powerless to stop them,” he said. “It must stop, and if I am prime minister I will stop it.”

But Refugee Council CEO Enver Solomon urged both candidates in the Tory leadership race to “take a new direction” and to ditch the Rwanda scheme in favour of safe routes and humanitarian visas.

“Whoever becomes our next prime minister must replace our broken asylum system with a system that is fair, humane and orderly,” said Mr Solomon.

“This is an opportunity to commit to increasing safe routes, such as family reunion and humanitarian visas, so that those at risk of violence and persecution do not have to make dangerous journeys to find safety here. We urge our next prime minister to take a new direction and abandon the cruel Rwanda scheme.”

Pete Moorey, head of campaigns and UK advocacy at Christian Aid, condemned the proposed linkage of migration and aid.

“At a time when conflict and the climate crisis are pushing more people into poverty in East Africa and many other parts of the world, any proposal that further shrinks our financial support is beyond the pale,” he said. “The UK has a historic and moral responsibility to ending extreme poverty. We should be leading the world in tackling the interlocking global crises of hunger, climate, and conflict. That is what leadership looks like.”

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Rishi Sunak as chancellor of the Exchequer, and Liz Truss as foreign secretary, signed off the Rwanda deal – writing off £120m of taxpayers’ money on an unworkable scheme that the government has admitted is unenforceable with a very high risk of fraud.

“They have been responsible for wasting taxpayers’ money, and have served in the cabinet that has totally failed to stop the criminal gangs or sort out the asylum system.

“The Conservatives have been in power for 12 years. It beggars belief that they claim to be the ones to sort things out when they have both failed for so long.”

Source: Sunak’s hardline immigration plan includes a cap on refugees and floating detention centres for asylum seekers

Filed under Immigration, Politics Tagged with , , , ,

Russia moves to shut agency handling immigration to Israel amid Ukraine rift

2022/07/26 Leave a comment

Of note:

Russia has threatened to shut down a major Jewish agency that promotes immigration to Israel amid tensions between the two nations over the invasion of Ukraine.

The Justice Ministry seeks to liquidate the country’s branch of the Jewish Agency for Israel, according to a notice from Moscow’s Basmanny district court, where the case will be heard Thursday.

The court’s website does not say what laws the nonprofit agency had broken, and Russia’s Justice Ministry, which filed for its dissolution on July 15, did not respond to a request for comment.

Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said the dissolution was related to a breach of “compliance with Russian legislation.” He refused to give further details at a news conference Friday.

Acting Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said in a statement Thursday that a delegation with representatives from his office and several other ministries would travel to Russia for talks ahead of the hearing about the agency, which operates in coordination with his government.

Lapid accused Russia of carrying out war crimes in Ukraine when he was foreign minister in April.

Established in 1929, the Jewish Agency, or Sochnut, was instrumental in the formation of the state of Israel in 1948.

It was banned by the Soviet Union, where state-sanctioned antisemitism barred Jews from many jobs and schools. Yuri Kanner, the president of the Russian Jewish Congress, told NBC News on Friday that an office opened in Russia shortly after the Soviet bloc collapsed in 1989.

Since then, it has helped to advance Israel’s Law of Return, which states that any Jewish person, or a person with one or more Jewish grandparents, has the right to settle in Israel and obtain citizenship.Hundreds of thousands of people have relocated from Russia.

“This is an old and reputable institution,” Kanner said, adding that it had never been embroiled in any scandals.

NBC News has asked the agency for comment.

Filed under Immigration Tagged with , ,

IRCC Anti-Racism Strategy 2.0: “Energy, Conviction and Courage” [too preachy for my taste]

2022/07/25 Leave a comment

Apart from the overly preachy tag line, this strategy reflects considerable work and reflection (disclosure I know some of the people involved). Like so many government reports, far too much emphasis on process and general messaging, but the strategy includes 24 specific action items under four pillars: leadership accountability, equitable workplace, policy and program design, and service delivery.

While it may be churlish to note, reading this detailed over 30 page strategy that clearly involved significant resources across the department is in sharp contrast with IRCC’s inability to deliver on its core responsibilities as seen in immigration and citizenship backlogs and the lack of oversight over Service Canada’s failures on passport.

A large department like IRCC should, of course, be able to “walk and chew gum” at the same time, but, as in so many areas, these kinds of initiatives, valid as they are, further distract or make it harder to deliver on core responsibilities.

Concrete measures highlighted in the report are highlighted below.

Starting with representation, the main gap is with respect to executives with the greatest gap being non-Black visible minorities.

In relation to the overall populations (Census 2016) – Indigenous 4.9 percent, visible minorities 22.3 percent of which Blacks represent 3.5 percent – Black representation at all three levels is the strongest. While the population of Black and non-Black visible minorities will likely be about 10 percent higher in the 2021 Census, the revised numbers are unlikely to change the overall picture significantly.

Usefully, the report provides a clear benchmark to measure success: the degree to which IRCC anti-racism initiatives moves the needle on the percentage that feel that “IRCC implements initiatives that promote anti-racism in the workplace.” Current numbers highlight the issue – only 65 percent of Blacks and 76 percent of non-Black visible minorities compared to 83 percent of not visible minorities.

But if the range of initiatives, engagement and comprehensiveness do not move the needle and reduce disparities, one will have to question their effectiveness, the reasons for lack of progress and the reasons why the perception by employees that not much has changed.

Failure to move the needle may also call into question the Clerk’s Call to Action on Anti-Racism, Equity, and Inclusion in the Federal Public Service, as in many ways IRCC was a model department in responding to the call.

And of course, service delivery failures in immigration and citizenship have a greater impact on Black and other visible minorities than than IRCC employees.

Source: Anti-Racism Strategy 2.0

Filed under Immigration, Racism Tagged with ,

How a Canadian lawyer is helping the growing number of ultra-rich looking to exit China

2022/07/25 Leave a comment

Interesting profile of Canadian immigration lawyer David Lesperance who specializes in business immigration.
Remain unconvinced that governments can design investor immigration or citizenship programs for the ultra-rich that provide meaningful benefits to Canada and Canadians as both the previous federal program, Quebec’s current program and programs of other countries largely demonstrate:
When a Chinese-Canadian billionaire faced a closed-door trial last month, four years after being snatched from Hong Kong, the event did not go unnoticed among China’s wealthy entrepreneurs.
It was the latest sign that they could be next as Beijing pushes down on the country’s most affluent business people, says a Canadian lawyer whose unique practice focuses on building back-up plans for “ultra-high-net-worth” individuals.
That nervousness is fueling a growing and urgent interest in leaving mainland China or Hong Kong, says David Lesperance.

The number of very-rich business people based in the region contacting him for help in getting out has tripled in the last couple of years, he says, as President Xi Jinping consolidates power, eliminates opponents and tightens his grip on once-free-wheeling Hong Kong.

And they tend to be wealthier, often worth billions, people who had been entrenched where they were until recently.

“These are clients who realize the chances of getting caught have increased dramatically — to not a will but a when question,” said Lesperance. “That group has now for the first time really contemplated ‘I’m going to have to leave some day. There is definitely a wildfire.’”

“We’ve been very busy since the beginning of the year.”

The resulting flight of “golden geese” could be an economic boon for the countries where they land. Canada is definitely among the mix of possible destinations but governments here should do more to attract the rich fleeing China — and their fortunes, said the lawyer

But luring such migrants is not without controversy. Ottawa’s investor immigrant program was actually cancelled in 2014 because of what the then-Conservative government said were an array of problems. Those immigrants had to fork out a relatively tiny investment, paid less taxes here, on average, than nannies, spent little time in Canada, and often learned neither English or French, critics said.

So far, China has not seen a major exodus of its richest citizens. It’s still home to 626 billionaires, second only to the United States’ 724, according to Forbes.

But Lesperance is not the only advisor noticing a growing trend among China’s wealthy to move at least their money out of the country.

Increasing numbers are parking assets in Singapore via the city state’s “family office” system, according to a survey in March by CNBC. Jenga, one of the firms that handles such transfers, told the news outlet it had seen demand double in just the previous 12 months.

Lesperance seems to come by the work honestly, having been raised in an almost borderless environment himself. A native of Windsor, Ont., his father worked in the auto industry across the river in Detroit and two of his siblings were born in a hospital there, giving them instant dual citizenship

He says his practice — which combines immigration and taxation advice — is divided about equally between clients in China/Hong Kong, the Middle East and the United States. He’s now based in Poland, where he can fit clients from multiple time zones into his daily schedule.

Many of Saudi Arabia’s wealthy are worried about Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman rising to the throne when his father, the king, dies. In the U.S., clients looking to decamp are divided between those who fear Democrats will boost taxes on the wealthy, and others who worry about a sharp shift to the right if the Republicans regain power nationally.

But the case of China highlights the dramatic changes Xi has wrought since coming to power in 2012, and the shifting role of business tycoons in the nominally Communist country.

Anxieties began with the 2019 proposal of an extradition treaty from Hong Kong to China, said Lesperance. It has increased as Beijing tightened the screws on Hong Kong, introducing a widely criticized National Security Law, imprisoning dissidents including media mogul Jimmy Lai and curbing the limited amount of democracy in the city’s government.

And there have been further scares on the mainland. Beijing recently quashed the thriving private-education industry and applied new pressure on the high-tech sector. Jack Ma, billionaire head of the Alibaba technology conglomerate, disappeared for months in 2020 and 2021 after he publicly criticized Chinese regulators, as an IPO for his Ant Group was suddenly axed.

Other moguls have also disappeared mysteriously. Xi’s announcement of a “common prosperity” program to more evenly spread wealth across the Chinese population has further put the very rich under pressure. Many China experts speculate that such campaigns are also about eliminating rivals to the Party’s — and Xi’s — power and control.

And then there is Xiao Jianhua, the Chinese born-and-bred Canadian citizen who was taken from his home in a Hong Kong hotel in 2017, surfacing just recently for a hasty, secretly held trial in China on unclear charges. His family in Toronto is still waiting to hear the verdict.

The case is “often cited” by clients who fear they could similarly run afoul of the government, said Lesperance. His bottom-line advice is that they prepare in advance for just that happening, rather than wait and see if things turn bad.

“You want to prevent the problem and avoid the wildfire, as opposed to trying to put it out after your house is on fire.”

Lesperance tells clients they must focus on moving both “ass and assets” — finding a place for their money and themselves and their family. That means deciding on a new home that works both “at the board table and the breakfast table,” somewhere the children can get a good education and the entrepreneur can keep running his or her business.

Popular destinations include Australia, New Zealand, the U.K., the U.S. and this country.

To get into Canada, those wealthy migrants can set up a subsidiary of their business here and obtain work permits as corporate transfers. Provincial “nominee” programs provide a pathway to permanent residence but they’re a “dog’s breakfast,” said Lesperance.

He recommends Ottawa revive the investor immigrant class, with reforms to address past issues. That could include requiring the person to provide a clear financial benefit to Canada, a system to weed out money launderers and other “undesirables,” strict application of tax laws, and imposing a large fee to cover the cost of processing those and other applications, the lawyer said. With all of it done in a clear, timely way.

“The thing to remember is that Canada is in competition for these Golden Geese and must present an opportunity which is competitive with all the other countries which are also trying to get this group.”

Source: How a Canadian lawyer is helping the growing number of ultra-rich looking to exit China

Filed under citizenship-by-investment, Immigration Tagged with

Tories, advocates call on Ottawa to remove bureaucratic hurdles to resettling Afghans

2022/07/23 Leave a comment

Needed:

Opposition Conservatives are calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government to extend a special immigration program it set up to bring Afghans trying to flee the Taliban to Canada.

Tory MP Jasraj Singh Hallan says Ottawa has failed in its moral obligation to help people who assisted Canada with its military mission in Afghanistan and now face reprisals from the Taliban, which seized control of Kabul last year.

Trudeau’s government had announced plans to resettle 40,000 Afghans and put in place several programs through Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada to help meet the goal.

Among those was a special immigration program to which Afghan nationals could apply if they had assisted members of the Canadian Armed Forces as interpreters or worked at Canada’s embassy.

Ottawa made room for 18,000 Afghans to come to Canada through this program.

According to the federal government’s website, it has received around 15,000 applications, 10,730 of which have been approved.

It reports that 7,205 Afghans have actually arrived through the program.

“It took the government a year to process less than half of the Afghans who applied through these measures,” Hallan said at a news conference Thursday.

He said a recent decision by the Ottawa to wind down the program because nearly all of the application spots are full is “shameful.”

Hallan also questioned why caps were placed on these programs in the first place, including the government’s overall commitment of taking 40,000 Afghans, when there are thousands more in danger.

Speaking in Nova Scotia on Thursday, Trudeau didn’t directly address whether Ottawa would expand the special measures program, but said one of the challenges is that there are hundreds of thousands of Afghans who would like to leave.

Hallan was joined at his news conference by two Afghans who managed to leave and make it to Canada.

Saeeq Shajjan, a lawyer, said colleagues have spent 11 months waiting to hear back from the federal immigration department, a delay he says is unacceptable.

He pointed out the situation is nothing like routine family reunification where a relative is waiting safely in another country to come to Canada.

“You’re talking about people who are at risk right now just because of the services they provided to the Canadian mission in Afghanistan, and it really needs to change now.”

Rahima Paiman, who was among those evacuated to Canada last year, said some Afghans are hiding in third countries, adding that women face particular risk under Taliban rule.

“Those women who did their best in Afghanistan are now in danger. Their very lives are at risk. I’m requesting you to please not stop supporting women in Afghanistan.”

Source: Tories, advocates call on Ottawa to remove bureaucratic hurdles to resettling Afghans

Filed under Immigration, Refugees Tagged with ,

B.C. ending immigration detention arrangement with CBSA, citing human rights

2022/07/23 Leave a comment

Will be interesting too see if Quebec and Nova Scotia follow suit:

British Columbia is ending an agreement with Canada Border Services Agency to hold immigration detainees in provincial correctional centres, saying the arrangement doesn’t align with its stance on human rights.

Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth said in a statement Thursday the province conducted a review that analyzed its contract with the agency, including public safety, and consulted with advocacy groups.

“The review brought to light that aspects of the arrangement do not align with our government’s commitment to upholding human rights standards or our dedication to pursuing social justice and equity for everyone,” he said.

The report said the number of immigration detainees in provincial custody is declining but provincial jails are used to holding “high risk detainees.” It also noted that while CBSA compensates BC Corrections to hold detainees, it does not cover the total cost.

“This is a trend that is likely to continue given the overall reduction in the number of detainees in provincial custody. If the arrangement ended, these are resources that could be used to support BC Corrections’ clients, including individuals in custody with complex needs and behaviours,” it said.

The move comes following calls from the groups Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International for B.C. to terminate its immigration detention contract with the federal government.

The groups released a report in June 2021 saying immigrants with no criminal charges against them are detained in holding centres, federal prisons or provincial jails for “indeterminate amounts of time.” They launched a campaign calling on B.C. to end its contract last October, and later expanded their push to Quebec and Nova Scotia.

“Canada is among the few countries in the global north with no legal limit on the duration of immigration detention, meaning people can be detained for months or years with no end in sight,” the groups said in a joint news release following the announcement. “British Columbia’s decision is a major milestone on the path to ending immigration detention in provincial jails in Canada.”

Ketty Nivyabandi, secretary-general of Amnesty International Canada, said in the statement that she commends B.C. on being the first province to make the decision, calling ita “momentous step.”

“This is a true human rights victory, one which upholds the dignity and rights of people who come to Canada in search of safety or a better life,” she said.

Farnworth said BC Corrections will be providing CBSA with 12 months’ notice as is required under its current contract.

The human rights groups said BC Corrections has told them the province will give the agency official written notice to terminate the contract next week.

Source: B.C. ending immigration detention arrangement with CBSA, citing human rights

Filed under Immigration Tagged with , ,

← Older posts

Newer posts →