Hongkongers lose taste for overseas property elsewhere amid BN(O) offer

2020/07/23 Leave a comment

Interesting given possible impact on Canada for those with BNO passports (those without will, of course, continue to have interest in Canada as the implementation of the law continues):
Interest in overseas property in other countries has plunged among Hongkongers looking to emigrate, after the United Kingdom unveiled its path to citizenship for residents eligible for British National (Overseas) passports, immigration consultants said.

Applications for emigration to Canada and Taiwan, which had recorded the most interest following the introduction of the national security law, were the most affected by the UK’s announcement, said Raymond Chong, managing director at StarPro Immigration Consultancy. The company had received “several hundred enquiries per month” following the passage of the law by Beijing, but “some had withheld” their applications to other countries once the BN(O) option was revealed, Chong said.

“After the BN(O) [policy] was revealed, enquiries for properties outside the UK plummeted by more than half. Enquiries about BN(O) passports and the UK have skyrocketed, rising by four to five times,” he said.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the plan on July 1, paving the way for three million Hong Kong residents who are eligible for BN(O) passports to live and eventually settle in the UK. The BN(O) path is a much cheaper and faster way to emigrate and involves fewer procedures than other immigration programmes, StarPro’s Chong added.

An online survey of 300 Hong Kong residents conducted this month by Midland Immigration Consultancy found that about three in five BN(O) passport holders now had a greater desire to emigrate.

An increase in emigration from Hong Kong is also likely to drive up home prices in the UK, said Jan Hong, senior principal director at Centaline Immigration Consultants. He added that a recent stamp duty relaxation in the UK until the end of March 2021 would also boost the market.

The increase in transactions involving UK property would come at the expense of property deals elsewhere, where prices would see less upwards pressure, said StarPro’s Chong. “Hong Kong funds will shift to the UK,” he said. “But foreign property purchases [by Hongkongers] do not usually account for a large portion of housing transactions in these countries, so the impact will be limited.”

Portugal, a favourite destination among Hong Kong residents looking to invest in property abroad because of its golden visa scheme, has seen fewer enquiries of late. Overseas buyers are believed to have contributed to a surge in housing prices, which, however, fell by about 14 per cent in March because of the coronavirus outbreak, according to the country’s National Statistics Institute. Its property market has recovered gradually over the past three months, according to property data company Confidencial Imobiliario.

And a minority of Hong Kong residents – especially those without BN(O) passports – is still expected to choose Portugal, because they are not required to live there and can get passports through the country’s golden visa scheme. These passports will allow them to remain in Hong Kong, while their children can study in primary and secondary schools in the UK for free after getting Irish residency, thanks to a European Union and UK policy.

Elsewhere, interest in property in Cyprus and Greece has sustained despite the UK’s BN(O) policy. The absence of a requirement to live in Cyprus, another former British colony, and the promise of good weather add to its appeal, said Pantelis Leptos, director of The Leptos Group.

Investors qualify for Cypriot citizenship through the Cyprus Investment Programme, on purchase of property worth €2 million. They can sell the property after five years.

Another option is permanent residency, which is available to investors who purchase property worth €300,000 in Cyprus, and €250,000 in Greece. But owners need to keep the property as long as they want to keep their residency.

Source: Hongkongers lose taste for overseas property elsewhere amid BN(O) offer

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Immigration Policy and the Global Competition for AI Talent

2020/07/20 Leave a comment

Some really interesting cross-country comparisons, highlighting the gap between the current US approach and other countries:

This paper analyzes policies relevant to four categories of immigrants: students in AI-related fields of study, workers in AI-related industries, distinguished AI workers (that is, individuals internationally renowned for their achievements in AI), and AI entrepreneurs. These groups represent the range of backgrounds and experience levels that nations need to compete in AI. We explore trends that, taken together, may be making the U.S. immigration system less attractive to these groups relative to other countries’ systems:

  • Within the last five years, the UK, Canada, France, and Australia have adopted major immigration reforms to attract talent in AI and other technical fields. The United States has not.
  • Despite growing job opportunities, recent graduates and others may be restrained from contributing to the U.S. AI workforce to their full potential—partly due to current caps, backlogs, and sponsorship processes at the expense of the employer for temporary work visas and permanent residency. In contrast, Canada’s new immigration policies quickly bring in skilled migrants and integrate graduates into the workforce. The UK is proposing similar changes to ease and expedite the immigration process for technically skilled migrants.
  • The United States’ per-country quotas on permanent residency—which remain unchanged for decades—have created a significant bottleneck, especially for Indian nationals who make up the 25 percent of Silicon Valley’s technical workforce. The other countries in this analysis forego quotas on permanent residency status and allow immigrants who meet permanent residency requirements to apply.
  • Although data is scarce and important trends are in nascent stages, empirical indicators suggest that some new AI-focused immigration policies in other countries are successful.
  • The United States has long attracted immigrant entrepreneurs with its innovative culture, but does not offer an entrepreneur visa. Entrepreneur visas offered by other countries in this analysis have largely failed due to unrealistic and vague metrics for business success or long processing times. The United States could learn from the mistakes of competitor countries and design its own visa to increase its immigrant entrepreneur population and create jobs for Americans.

The United States historically and presently benefits from a strong baseline of technological innovation through existing institutions. Immigration trends alone are unlikely to eliminate the U.S. advantage in the near term. However, the global landscape is shifting, and restrictive immigration policies threaten to undermine U.S. AI progress in the long term. To ensure America remains competitive for AI talent in the coming years, U.S. policymakers should consider reforms to current immigration statutes, regulations, and agency guidance. Other countries’ immigration reforms suggest three main lessons:

  • Improve temporary visa options for skilled workers. The structure of the H-1B temporary work visa prevents AI talent from contributing to the United States to their full potential. In particular, workers seeking permanent residency while on H-1B status—a process that could take years or decades—would need another sponsorship if they wished to switch positions or employers. Further, the H-1B lottery occurs only once a year, forcing employers to wait until the annual draw on April 1 to learn whether critical employees have been selected. In contrast, Canada has no cap on the number of work permits that can be provided year-round and issues these permits in as little as two weeks.

  • Expand opportunities for permanent residency. Allocating permanent residency status based on decades-old caps and immigrants’ countries of origin, rather than the skills they bring to the United States, has created a bottleneck for highly skilled AI workers who wish to contribute to the U.S. AI workforce in the long term. Specifically, the employment-based green card wait time for Indian nationals, who make up 25 percent of Silicon Valley’s technical work force, is 89 years. There are no formal caps or quotas on permanent residency in the UK, France, Australia, and Canada. Instead, immigrants are eligible to apply once they have lived or worked in the country for a set number of years.

  • Expand opportunities for entrepreneurs. While each of the other four countries in this analysis offers some form of an entrepreneur visa, initial results suggest they have been relatively unsuccessful. The United States should strengthen AI innovation by adopting an entrepreneur visa informed by the flaws of competitor nations to better attract and retain AI entrepreneurs.

Source: Download Full Report

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Canada will have to rely on immigration as global fertility rate plummets: study

2020/07/17 Leave a comment

More on demographic trends, without asking whether there are policy alternatives to increased immigration or accounting for the likely impact of increased automation and AI:

Canada’s current openness to immigration must continue if the country wants to maintain one of the world’s largest economies for the rest of the century, according to a new study projecting global population and economic trends between now and 2100.

The study, which was published Tuesday in The Lancet, primarily focuses on an anticipated decline in the world population as fertility rates fall in the second half of the 21st century.

It forecasts that the global population will peak in 2064 at 9.73 billion people. By 2100 – less than two generations later – that number will be nearly one billion lower, and nearly three-quarters of the 195 nations included in the study will not be producing enough children to maintain their workforces.

“Once global population decline begins, it will probably continue inexorably,” the researchers behind the study wrote.

The study predicts that Canada’s population will peak later in the century, at nearly 45.2 million in 2078, and fall slightly to 44.1 million by 2100.

According to the researchers, a declining population is “potentially good news” for the battle against climate change, but not enough on its own to save the planet from serious environmental effects.

Shrinking populations can also cause economic damage, as fewer people are available to work. One way to offset this is by accepting large numbers of immigrants to make up the difference, as Canada has been doing for decades.

The researchers expect Canada to become an even more prominent immigration hub over the next 80 years, forecasting us to have the world’s highest net migration rate – immigrants minus emigrants – by 2100, ahead of Turkey and Sweden. This would happen despite the current “steady stream” of migrants drying up somewhat, as developing nations improve their education systems and quality of life.

All that immigration would see Canada replacing Russia as the world 10th-largest economy by 2030 and remaining there for the rest of the century, even as Nigeria and Australia bump Brazil and Italy out of the top 10, according to the forecast.

“As long as these immigration policies continue, our reference scenario showed sustained population growth and workforce expansion … with concomitant economic growth,” the researchers wrote.

“The optimal strategy for economic growth, fiscal stability, and geopolitical security is liberal immigration with effective assimilation into these societies.”

In countries where immigration is not used to maintain the workforce and GDP, the researchers wrote, governments may instead look to create incentives for parents to have more children, such as baby bonuses and paid parental leave. They warned that there is also a “very real danger” that “some states might consider adopting policies that restrict female reproductive health rights.”

Not taking any action to maintain the size of the workforce could leave countries in a position where they have to significantly increase taxes or run the risk that health insurance and social security programs could collapse, the researchers said.

The study was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and carried out by researchers at the University of Washington.

NOT SET IN STONE

In addition to their overall projections, the researchers looked at what would happen if the worldsped up or slowed down its progress on meeting the United Nations’ sustainable development goals (SDG) regarding female educational attainment and contraceptive need. “Many countries are not on track” to achieve those goals, they said.

These factors make a significant difference in the forecasts. Slower movement toward those goals would result in a global population of 13.6 billion and still rising in 2100, the researchers found, while the pace required to fully meet the SDGs by 2100 would see the world’s population peak in 2046 and fall to 6.29 billion by the end of the century as fertility rates plummet.

The differences are less stark in Canada, where migration is expected to have a much larger impact than global fertility patterns on population trends. The study forecasts that with slower progress toward SDGs, Canada’s population would peak in 2086 at just over 46.1 million – less than one million more than the projection based on the current pace. Meeting the SDGs by 2100 would have a bigger impact, with the population peaking around 42 million in the mid-2050s and dropping to 37 million by 2100.

The researchers say these large variations show the effect political policies can have on long-term population and economic outcomes.

“Understanding potential patterns in future population levels is crucial for anticipating and planning for changing age structures, resource and health-care needs, and environmental and economic landscapes,” they wrote.

Other highlights from the study’s projections of the world in 2100 include:

  • The five largest countries, by population, will be India, Nigeria, China, the U.S. and Pakistan

  • China will have barely half of its current population, while India’s will be down by roughly 300 million and the American population will be relatively unchanged

  • Japan, Spain, Italy and 20 other nations will lose half or more of their 2017 population

  • Nearly half of the world’s population will be in Africa as the population of the sub-Saharan part of the continent triples

  • Life expectancies will continue to rise, albeit slowly, nearing 89 years in the most advanced countries

  • The mean age of a human, which was 32.6 in 2017, will be at 46.2

  • There will be more than six times as many people over the age of 80 as there were in 2017

  • The number of children under the age of five will be 41 per cent lower than it was in 2017

  • Although China will eclipse the U.S. as the world’s largest economic power by 2035, the U.S. will retake that title in 2098

Source: Canada will have to rely on immigration as global fertility rate plummets: study

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Trump administration rescinds rule barring foreign students from taking all classes online

2020/07/16 Leave a comment

A rare but welcome reversal of the Trump administration’s anti-immigration policies:

Facing eight federal lawsuits and opposition from hundreds of universities, the Trump administration on Tuesday rescinded a rule that would have required international students to transfer or leave the country if their schools held classes entirely online because of the pandemic.

The decision was announced at the start of a hearing in a federal lawsuit in Boston brought by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs said federal immigration authorities agreed to pull the July 6 directive and “return to the status quo.”

A lawyer representing the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said only that the judge’s characterization was correct.

The announcement brings relief to thousands of foreign students who had been at risk of being deported from the country, along with hundreds of universities that were scrambling to reassess their plans for the fall in light of the policy.

Under the policy, international students in the U.S. would have been forbidden from taking all their courses online this fall. New visas would not have been issued to students at schools planning to provide all classes online, which includes Harvard. Students already in the U.S. would have faced deportation if they didn’t transfer schools or leave the country voluntarily.

Immigration officials issued the policy last week, reversing earlier guidance from March 13 telling colleges that limits around online education would be suspended during the pandemic. University leaders believed the rule was part of President Donald Trump’s effort to pressure the nation’s schools and colleges to reopen this fall even as new virus cases rise.

The policy drew sharp backlash from higher education institutions, with more than 200 signing court briefs supporting the challenge by Harvard and MIT. Colleges said the policy would put students’ safety at risk and hurt schools financially. Many schools rely on tuition from international students, and some stood to lose millions of dollars in revenue if the rule had taken hold.

Harvard and MIT were the first to contest the policy, but at least seven other federal suits had been filed by universities and states opposing the rule.

Harvard and MIT argued that immigration officials violated procedural rules by issuing the guidance without justification and without allowing the public to respond. They also argued that the policy contradicted ICE’s March 13 directive telling schools that existing limits on online education would be suspended “for the duration of the emergency.”

The suit noted that Trump’s national emergency declaration has not been rescinded and that virus cases are spiking in some regions.

Immigration officials, however, argued that they told colleges all along that any guidance prompted by the pandemic was subject to change. They said the rule was consistent with existing law barring international students from taking classes entirely online. Federal officials said they were providing leniency by allowing students to keep their visas even if they study online from abroad.

Source: Trump administration rescinds rule barring foreign students from taking all classes online

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Trans woman required to identify as ‘male’ by Immigration Canada: ‘It was agony’

2020/07/14 Leave a comment

As a refugee claimant only, based on their foreign passport. If their claim is accepted, Canadian documents allow for gender identity.

Given the apparent inconsistencies between the IRB and IRCC regarding the policy and its implementation, expect this will change but given the large numbers of temporary residents (students, workers) this would apply to, implementation may be more complex than it would appear:

The last thing Naomi Chen’s wife said to her before she fled Hong Kong was “don’t cry too much — Canada is the place where you can live as who you are.”

But this, it turns out, was untrue for Chen, a trans woman who says she was persecuted in Hong Kong because of her gender.

After arriving in Toronto Chen made a refugee claim and was then told by Canadian immigration officials she must be identified as “male” on her refugee protection claimant document, her only valid piece of identification in Canada.

Global News has agreed to use a pseudonym for Chen because of fears she could be persecuted if sent back to Hong Kong.

“I was stunned. I was crying. I was distressed,” Chen said. “This is not something I expected.”

According to government policy, all information on an asylum seeker’s immigration documents “must reflect what is indicated on their foreign passport.”

This is true even in cases such as Chen’s, where a person receives hormone therapy, has undergone sex reassignment surgery, and where their lived gender no longer conforms with the sex they were assigned at birth.

It’s also true for all temporary resident documents issued by the government, including work and study permits.

“It’s discrimination,” Chen said.

Since coming to Canada, Chen has felt isolated and dreads leaving her apartment because she might be asked to show her ID that says she’s a man, essentially outing her as a trans woman.

She also said being misgendered by the Canadian government makes her feel less valued than other people.

“I’m so afraid to live as a woman here,” she said.

Right to self-identify

The Canadian Human Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on: sex, race, national or ethnic origin, sexual orientation and gender identity.

The Ontario Human Rights Code also prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex or gender identity.

“A person’s self-defined gender identity is one of the most basic aspects of self-determination, dignity and freedom,” reads an Ontario Human Rights Commission policy on preventing discrimination based on gender identity and expression.

“For legal and social purposes, a person whose gender identity is different from their birth-assigned sex should be treated according to their lived gender.”

The federal government allows citizens, permanent residents and refugees whose claims are accepted, meaning they’re allowed to stay in Canada permanently, to change their sex or “gender identifier” on official travel documents, such as a passport or permanent resident card, by completing a one-page form.

Yet for refugee claimants whose cases have not yet been decided — even those whose claims are based solely on alleged persecution due to their status as an intersex or LGBTQ2 person — the only way they can change their documents to reflect their lived gender is if they first change the information on their foreign passport, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s policy.

But this is impossible in Chen’s case because she fled Hong Kong due to the persecution she experienced there, including the alleged theft of her business by family members after she came out as a trans woman.

Chen married a woman in Hong Kong before she transitioned. And because same-sex marriage is illegal in Hong Kong, even if she were able to change her original passport, which she can’t, she fears this would invalidate her marriage.

“It’s simply unconscionable that the Canadian government would knowingly contribute to a process that discriminates against individuals based on their gender identity and gender expression,” said Chen’s lawyer, Ashley Fisch.

Fisch also believes the government’s policy violates Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms by failing to provide “equal treatment under the law” for trans and gender diverse refugee claimants and by perpetuating the types of hardships they’re forced to endure in other countries.

“I just feel sorry for the poor woman,” said Amanda Ryan, outreach committee chair for Gender Mosaic, an Ottawa-based trans support organization.

Ryan believes recent changes to federal human rights law could be a basis for extending the right to self-identify to refugee claimants and temporary residents. She said education — both in and outside government — is key to expanding protections for the trans community.

“When you start talking to people and they start learning about trans issues, there’s an awful lot of sympathy and understanding for us,” Ryan said.

“People that don’t have to deal with a trans person simply don’t have that information. That’s ignorance in the true sense of the word.”

Trans and intersex refugees at greater risk

After arriving in Canada and undergoing initial screening to determine if they are eligible to make an asylum claim, would-be refugees are given their refugee ID, which must conform with their foreign passport.

Claimants must then submit their formal claim to the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB).

The required paperwork asks claimants what sex appears on their foreign passport. However, contrary to Immigration Canada’s policy, claimants are told they can self-identify on IRB documents if their passport does not conform with their lived gender.

IRB adjudicators are instructed to refer to claimants by their preferred pronouns, including in written decisions, even if this does not match their foreign passport. The Board’s guidelines also acknowledge that not recognizing a person’s lived gender can lead to serious consequences.

“Trans and intersex individuals may be particularly vulnerable to systemic discrimination and acts of violence due to their non-conformity with socially accepted norms,” the guidelines say.

Dr. June Lam, a psychiatrist at the adult gender identity clinic at Toronto’s Centre of Addiction and Mental Health, said misgendering trans and gender diverse people can contribute to negative mental health outcomes, including increased suicidal thoughts and actions.

“It’s like we’re recreating the systemic oppression that they’re trying to escape by coming to Canada,” Lam said.

“These barriers really reinforce that even our society views their life, their identity as less valuable.”

While Lam believes Canada is generally a much safer place for LGBTQ2 people than many other countries around the world, he said being forced to use an ID that outs someone as having a different birth-assigned sex than their lived gender puts them at greater risk of physical and psychological harm.

He also cites research that found having a government-issued ID that reflects a person’s lived gender significantly reduces the likelihood of suicidal thoughts and actions among trans and gender diverse people.

“It’s almost like transgender folks have to proove themselves over and over again before our government and our society believes they are who they are,” he said.

Policy sometimes ignored

When Chen was first issued her refugee ID she was told in person by the Canada Border Services Agency that it must conform with her Hong Kong passport, in accordance with government policy.

Chen’s lawyer then sent a letter to the government requesting the ID be reissued with her correct gender, but the request was denied.

“We regret to inform you that refugee claimants are not able to request a change in gender,” a manager from Immigration Canada wrote.

But nearly identical requests have been accepted in the past, said Adrienne Smith, a Toronto immigration lawyer who specializes in LGBTQ2 refugee claims.

Smith knows this because the letter Chen’s lawyer sent the government was based on a template she wrote several years ago. Smith said she’s used this letter on multiple occasions to persuade immigration officials to issue documents in a claimant’s lived gender.

“It just doesn’t make any sense,” Smith said. “A trans refugee claimant shouldn’t need to have a lawyer that understands trans-specific issues in order to get access to a basic right.”

Global News asked the government to explain why refugee claimants’ documents must reflect the information on their foreign passports and whether this policy systemically discriminates against trans and non-binary asylum seekers. The government did not answer either of these questions.

The government also did not say whether it believes that insisting that non- Canadian citizens and temporary residents be issued documents that don’t align with their lived gender violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“Everyone should be free to lead happy and authentic lives in Canada, regardless of how they identify, or who they love,” said Kevin Lemkay, a spokesperson for Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino.

Lemkay said the minister has made reviewing gender identity requirements for government-issued documents a priority. This includes the refugee protection claimant document.

The government has also passed legislation, including changes to the Canadian Human Rights Act, that make it illegal to discriminate based on gender identity and expression, while introducing the “X” gender marker on passports and permanent resident cards.

“We remain steadfast in our dedication to inclusion and equality,” Lemkay said.

Despite being misgendered by the government, Chen is determined to remain in Canada. She believes Canada is a place where she can live a life free from the type of persecution she experienced in Hong Kong.

She also hopes that one day she’ll be reunited with her wife — who was denied an entry visa to Canada because of questions about the purpose of her visit, and who does not have a Hong Kong passport, which would exempt her from visa requirements — and that they’ll be able to live together in a same-sex marriage.

“I came to Canada for the freedom of my soul,” Chen said.

Source: Trans woman required to identify as ‘male’ by Immigration Canada: ‘It was agony’

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Ottawa didn’t enforce rules for employers of migrant farm workers during pandemic

2020/07/14 Leave a comment

Appears to be a significant program implementation fail, particularly with respect to Ontario in contrast to British Columbia:

The federal government allowed some employers of migrant farm workers to submit three-year-old housing inspection reports in order to secure labour during the pandemic, instead of requiring up-to-date evidence of compliance with the temporary foreign worker program.

As well, for a six-week period at the outset of COVID-19, the government stopped conducting housing inspections under the TFW program altogether. When the audits resumed, they were done remotely.

While Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) has received 32 COVID-19-related complaints regarding the program in the agri-food sector since March, not a single farm has so far been found in violation of several key pandemic-related rules. For example, employer-provided accommodations must allow workers to keep a distance of two metres, and employees must be paid for their mandatory quarantine upon arrival in Canada.

The federal government is ultimately in charge of the TFW program. It has the power to conduct pro-active inspections of accommodations, which can include bunkhouses, trailers and sheds. The provinces and local public-health units also have a role to play in oversight, creating a jurisdictional quagmire that has proved detrimental to the well-being of some temporary foreign workers.

In Ontario alone, more than 1,000 migrant farm workers have tested positive for COVID-19, according to a Globe and Mail survey of local public-health units. Health officials have stressed that, for the most part, the workers arrived in Canada healthy and contracted the virus locally. Three men from Mexico have died.

A Globe investigation into the outbreaks published last month exposed the unsafe conditions endured by some migrant workers. Interviews, photos and videos portrayed overcrowded accommodations, broken toilets and cockroach and bed-bug infestations. As well, sheets and cardboard were used as dividers between bunk beds. Workers also recounted not being fully paid for their initial quarantine.

Federal guidance for employers of temporary foreign workers, updated in April, said that if an agri-food operation can’t submit a valid housing inspection report owing to COVID-19, “they must try to provide a satisfactory” report within the previous three years. The employer must later provide proof of compliance before the end of the permit term.

And even if an employer can’t produce a report from the previous three years, the company can still be approved to receive temporary foreign workers “if photos of the accommodation are provided and the employer agrees to submit an updated [report] to ESDC within the duration of the work permit.”

The department said in an e-mail that it would be rare for an employer to submit a three-year-old housing inspection report. In prepandemic times, employers had to provide, on an annual basis, a satisfactory report no older than eight months if they wanted to hire temporary foreign workers. This means that if a business employed migrant workers last year, for example, it would have had a recent report that it could submit.

In an interview with The Globe last month, Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough acknowledged shortcomings in the TFW program and said Ottawa will overhaul it. Ms. Qualtrough said “nothing is off the table,” including changes to the enforcement regime. She also said that the government may create national housing standards that would have to be met for employers to qualify for the program.

Santiago Escobar, a co-ordinator with the Agriculture Workers Alliance, said the group has long sought improvements to what he described as “so-called inspections.” The alliance operates under the United Food and Commercial Workers union and represents migrant employees. “[The oversight regime] is not doing enough,” he said. “All inspections must be done in person, before workers arrive, and again once they’ve moved in.”

Over the past few months, Mr. Escobar said, the alliance has helped process dozens of applications for federal open work permits. This type of authorization, launched last year for vulnerable migrant workers, allows foreign nationals to leave abusive employers and work elsewhere for up to one year. Mr. Escobar said many of the applications included pandemic-related concerns. All of the submissions were approved.

And yet no employers have faced penalties for breaches of federal COVID-19-related rules. The employment department noted, however, that approximately 11 per cent of employers have required “some correction to minor issues” before being deemed compliant.

Of the 32 COVID-19-related complaints regarding the TFW program, the department has launched 11 inspections. Three are complete, with the employer found compliant in all areas. The rest of the complaints are under review. The federal government has the authority to penalize employers found to be non-compliant, including through a fine of up to $1-million and a ban on accessing labour through the program.

From mid-March to the end of April, Ottawa halted its housing inspections; ESDC said this was done to protect the health and safety of migrant workers, employers and government staff. When the inspections resumed, they were done remotely.

York University professor Leah Vosko, a Canada research chair whose work focuses on enforcement of employment standards and the precarious immigration status of migrant workers, said remote inspections are problematic. They don’t always accurately establish whether employers are abiding by the rules, she said, and information can be easily fabricated and manipulated.

In addition to more in-person audits, Prof. Vosko said Ottawa should increase unannounced inspections. “[A worker] being seen as a ‘troublemaker’ can jeopardize current and future employment contracts and lead to repatriation,” she said in an e-mail. “Proactive inspections are therefore needed to address the well-documented exploitative and unsafe conditions migrant farm workers labour under.”

One migrant farm worker told The Globe that when employers are given advance notice of an inspection, they have time to make conditions appear better than they are. “They’re prepared for the inspection, and usually what they do is show the good lunch room or the part of the facilities that are in good shape,” the worker said. The Globe is not identifying the worker because of concerns about future employment.

Prof. Vosko said Ottawa must create a national housing standard for temporary foreign workers. She pointed to a 2018 federally commissioned study on employer-provided accommodations that found a lack of uniformity in housing conditions and oversight.

“Consequently, prior to the pandemic, there were no concrete federal directives around housing capacities, bed size, number of windows and doors, privacy measures, food preparation and storage, [and] sanitation facilities,” she said.

At the provincial level, Ontario Premier Doug Ford has repeatedly cited Ministry of Labour inspections and compliance orders as evidence that his government is taking action to protect migrant farm workers. But ministry inspections cover workplaces, not housing. The ministry said in an e-mail that it conducted 142 field visits in the agri-food sector related to COVID-19 between mid-March and early June. The inspections resulted in 34 COVID-19-related orders to improve conditions.

Scotlynn Group’s farm in Vittoria has been the subject of two formal COVID-19-related complaints to the Ministry of Labour. In May, there was a complaint with regard to “lack of COVID-19 measures,” and in June, there was a second one regarding “quarantine requirements,” according to ministry records provided to The Globe.

Investigations into the complaints are continuing; neither has so far resulted in a compliance order. The ministry is also investigating the June 21 death of Juan Lopez Chaparro, a 55-year-old Scotlynn worker from Mexico who had been admitted to hospital with COVID-19. The ministry declined to comment on the continuing fatality investigation.

Mr. Lopez Chaparro was one of 216 migrant workers at the Scotlynn farm; almost all of them have tested positive for the virus. Without a work force to speak of, the farm abandoned its asparagus harvest in early June.

The president and chief executive of Scotlynn Group – a North American transportation logistics and farming company with one of the largest vegetable operations in Ontario – told The Globe last week that all of the Vittoria workers have since tested negative and have been cleared to return to work. Scott Biddle said the Ministry of Labour told him they would likely be on site for two days to investigate Mr. Lopez Chaparro’s death, but ended up staying for two hours.

Mr. Biddle said officials interviewed him about the farm’s health and safety measures, including as it relates to accommodations for the initial mandatory quarantine. He said he rented hotel rooms for nearly 200 workers; 21 employees were isolated across seven bunkhouses, in line with a public-health occupancy directive that limited the number of workers per bunkhouse to three.

After four pro-active Ministry of Labour inspections and follow-up visits between January of 2010 and June of 2020, Scotlynn’s farming operation has been issued 13 compliance orders, according to ministry records. The orders require, among other measures, that the company prepare a policy for harassment and “assess the risks of workplace violence that may arise from the nature of the workplace, the type of work or the conditions of work.”

In five instances, the compliance order says vaguely, “the employer shall take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances for the protection of a worker.”

Three Scotlynn workers were among those interviewed for The Globe’s recent investigation. The men described overrun living conditions; ill workers living with healthy ones; and no PPE to guard against the virus.

Mr. Biddle said the two formal COVID-19-related complaints submitted to the Ministry of Labour are baseless and were brought by one “rogue” employee. “Every company has had complaints, but we’ve never had a fine,” he said. “We take every precautionary measure possible. We always go above and beyond.”

Source: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-how-ottawas-enforcement-regime-failed-migrant-workers-during-the/

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Canadian universities scramble to maintain flow of international students and the revenue they bring

2020/07/13 Leave a comment

As are other countries, save the USA:

Canadian universities are trying to salvage the incoming class of international students as travel restrictions, quarantine rules and the move to online learning threaten to disrupt what has become a crucial revenue source.

Chauffeur service to a quarantined room, catered meals, daily health checks with a thermometer for every student, even the possibility of chartered flights to get students to Canada – all are on the table as institutions prepare for the fall term.

The financial stakes are significant. In a little more than a decade, the number of international students attending Canadian universities has tripled, to nearly 500,000 in 2019, representing about a quarter of all new university enrolments, according to a recent StatsCan report.

With international students typically paying tuition fees two to five times higher than Canadian students, they now contribute roughly $6-billion a year to Canadian postsecondary institutions – half of all tuition revenue at domestic institutions. As provincial government funding to universities stagnated over the past decade, those fees have paid for rising institutional and labour costs.

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Over all, universities are bracing for a potential drop of 10 to 35 per cent or more in international student fees – on top of revenue already lost to cancelled conferences and shuttered recreation facilities.

Some schools are at greater risk in the short term – particularly those that have taken a lot of international students in recent years. While universities across the country have seen growth in international student enrolment, it has been notably high in parts of Atlantic Canada. Cape Breton University, for example, is nearly two-thirds international, and Saint Mary’s in Halifax is nearly one-third. At Dalhousie, tuition revenue is projected to decline by between $30-million and $50-million this year, primarily because of the loss of international students, who make up 22 per cent of the student body.

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The University of Toronto also relies heavily on international fees – one in four of its students come from abroad – and detailed plans have been drawn up to get them from the airport into university dorms or even hotel rooms so they can quarantine for the mandatory two weeks. The university is willing to book hundreds of hotel rooms, if need be. But it will also prepare special quarantine kits for every incoming student, including a thermometer for daily temperature checks. All their meals and other amenities would be delivered, with students required to speak via video once daily with a health professional. The university said it’s still examining how to provide testing for the virus or its antibodies at the start and end of quarantine.

“It’s a big project, but it’s an incredibly important project, given the talent pipeline that these students represent,” said Ted Sargent, vice-president, international, at U of T.

It’s not clear, however, how all these services – including the hotel rooms and meals – would be paid for. U of T and other schools have been speaking to federal and provincial governments about securing additional funding, but so far, there’s been no agreement. “It’s clearly not going to be a small cost,” said Prof. Sargent, suggesting the province, the federal government and the university could share the added costs of quarantine for incoming students.

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With roughly two months until the start of classes, universities have plenty of logistical hurdles to overcome – not least whether students will even be allowed to enter the country. “It’s still too early to tell what travel and health restrictions will continue through the months ahead,” according to Immigration officials. Currently, only students with a travel permit issued before March 18 are allowed to enter Canada.

It’s not clear how many visas have been issued since then. Processing has been slowed dramatically by the pandemic and universities still don’t know whether those with permits issued after mid-March will be allowed to cross the border for the start of classes. Universities Canada, the agency that represents schools at the federal level, said it has been told the department can process a surge of applications quickly, but time is running out.

Families overseas are also likely trying to determine whether it’s safe to travel and whether there’s any value in paying for a year in Canada with so much lingering uncertainty around how much of the education will be delivered online. Students can begin their studies online in their home countries, but many universities worry students won’t be prepared to pay high tuition fees without the Canadian experience attached. One survey by a British higher-education consultancy this spring showed more than half of international students planning on coming to Canada intended to defer admission for a year.

“We’ve got to find a way of making this work,” said Paul Davidson, president of Universities Canada. “We’ve got to make sure it’s safe and secure and that we don’t have setbacks that would impact on our international reputation. The level of interest on the part of international students in Canada remains very, very strong.”

Although COVID-19 poses a threat to Canada’s gains in the international student sector, Canada could emerge stronger compared with other countries. The United States, for instance, said this week that students attending universities that don’t offer in-person classes will have to return to their home countries, sparking an outcry. It has also made it more difficult for foreign students to obtain work visas after graduation.

The Canadian government, meanwhile, recently announced a key policy adjustment designed to aid international students, ensuring those who begin their studies online from abroad won’t be penalized with shorter postgraduate work permits. That’s a significant factor for those attracted by the prospect of being able to earn Canadian wages to offset the cost of the degree and who hope to use the experience as a springboard to gain permanent residency in Canada.

Nonetheless, one recruitment agent based in India said he has recommended to some students that they consider starting their courses online at home and waiting until winter 2021 to travel to Canada.

Sushil Sukhwani, director of Edwise International India, said he expects to send 30 to 40 per cent fewer students to Canada this year due to the pandemic. In some cases, students are concerned that even if they do get into Canada, classes will be primarily online, meaning they’ll be spending thousands of dollars on accommodations and other amenities when they could be studying from home.

He also said many students worry that with unemployment high in Canada, they won’t be able to find part-time jobs to offset their living expenses. In a survey of several hundred clients, he found a little more than 40 per cent were willing to consider starting their Canadian studies online from India.

“I tell parents that if you are worried about these things, then start with the online option and wait for things to settle down. That way, their costs are lower, and they don’t run the risk of not getting a part-time job,” Mr. Sukhwani said.

At Thompson Rivers University (TRU), international students make up about 17 per cent of the student population. Baihua Chadwick, associate vice-president, international, at TRU, said she anticipates a drop in international enrolment for the fall – but how big is still difficult to say.

“That’s the $10-million question, and maybe a lot more than that,” she said with a laugh.

Her best estimate is that TRU will enroll 30 per cent fewer international students this fall. One of the reasons she foresees a drop is because so many visa applications haven’t been processed by Canadian immigration officials.

“Visa offices were closed, particularly in our major source countries. Now some of them have opened, and we’re seeing visas being issued very slowly, which is a major concern for us,” Ms. Chadwick said.

There is also a sense that Canada’s deteriorating relationship with China, damaged by the fallout from the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, could trigger a drop in students from that country. China has for years been Canada’s top source country for university students, and Ms. Chadwick said she’s seeing fewer of them applying to TRU than in the past.

Already a number of applicants to TRU in China have been rejected by Canadian government officials for reasons that remain unclear, she said, and students who travelled to Canada were even turned back at the border.

“Even if you just have a few students being returned or denied entry, the word spreads like wildfire,” she said. “And so [international recruiters] will be advising their students not to attempt” to travel.

Travel could also be difficult because of the relatively small number of international flights still operating. TRU and other universities have looked into booking their own charter aircraft to get students to Canada. But the price quoted was a hefty $500,000 a flight, Ms. Chadwick said, and for now they’ve decided against it.

Instead, the university plans to greet arriving international students at Vancouver airport, whisk them directly to waiting buses and drive four hours to campus in Kamloops, where the students would quarantine for 14 days.

Haonan Deng, 23, is an international student who plans to attend TRU in the fall. He had intended to return to China after graduating with a degree in business in June, but the depressed economy persuaded him to enroll in a master’s degree program at TRU, even though it will be delivered online.

As a member of the school’s Chinese student association, he’s been in touch with prospective students weighing whether they should travel to Canada in September. He said the main concern he encounters is from students worried that if they stay home and begin their studies online, they could still be rejected by Canada when they apply for a visa once it’s safe to travel. Mr. Deng added that some kind of guarantee from the government – assuring students they’ll eventually be allowed to enter Canada to complete their studies in person – would be welcome.

“They want to know how they will complete their degree,” he said.

Source: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-canadian-universities-scramble-to-maintain-flow-of-international/

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Covid 19 Canadian Immigration Effects: May 2020 Update

2020/07/13 Leave a comment

This deck examines monthly changes due to COVID-19 on permanent resident admissions, temporary resident work permit holders, and study permit holders, broken down by category and program, region and top countries and province (Provincial Nominee Program and study permits).

 

 

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Trump immigration policy sparks anxiety among Canadians studying in U.S.

2020/07/11 Leave a comment

No surprise:

Questions over whether thousands of international students could be deported from the U.S. under a new Trump administration policy are causing consternation among school officials and anxiety among Canadians studying south of the border.

The policy — which triggered a lawsuit from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on Wednesday — stipulates that international students who take a fully virtual course this fall will not be allowed to remain in the country.

Under the new guidelines, international students would still be able to take more online courses than normal, but will have their visa rescinded if they attempt to take a fully online course load.

According to a statement released by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency on Monday, international students will only be able to remain in the country if they are taking a mix of in-person and virtual classes.

While Canadians do not need a visa to study in the U.S., they are still required to produce a similar form, known as an I-20, signed by the school they are attending. That school will now need to offer hybrid courses in order for Canadian students to stay in the country.

Sarah Klassen, an accounting student at Wichita State University, said her school has not yet determined how it will deal with the policy.

But Klassen, 19, notes that being forced to leave the U.S. would likely be a death blow for her studies, as she relies on a bowling scholarship to pay her tuition.

“I’m scared even going down (to the border) now that I might not be able to get back in. There’s so many strict guidelines,” Klassen said over the phone from her family home in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont.

Yvonne Kang, who is earning her law degree at the University of Connecticut, said being forced to move back home to Toronto would involve breaking a newly signed lease on an apartment and cost her thousands of dollars in unnecessary expenses.

Kang, 23, said says she doesn’t understand why ICE is targeting international students when they are such a major contributor to the American economy.

“We pay American landlords, we go grocery shopping in American stores, they charge international students double the tuition (of domestic students),” she said.

The Institute for International Education puts the number at roughly $45 billion in 2018, with more than $1.1 billion of that coming from Canadians. A report from the institute estimated there were 26,170 Canadians studying in the U.S. in 2018-2019.

The new guidelines have provoked backlash from universities across the U.S., with Harvard president Lawrence Bacow saying the order’s “cruelty” is surpassed only by its “recklessness.”

“It appears that it was designed purposefully to place pressure on colleges and universities to open their on-campus classrooms for in-person instruction this fall, without regard to concerns for the health and safety of students, instructors, and others,” Bacow said.

“This comes at a time when the United States has been setting daily records for the number of new (COVID-19) infections, with more than 300,000 new cases reported since July 1.”

Edward Alden, a senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations, a New York-based think tank, said the new policy creates an “onerous” task for students and institutions to undertake.

“Most schools are still trying to figure out what their mix (between online and in-person classes) is going to be,” Alden said.

“Now they’re going to have to scrape together a new program and reissue I-20s — and make it all happen in under a month.”

ICE is enacting the policy through a program that was introduced after 9/11 to handle the screening and verification of international students.

The program designates whether an individual qualifies for the F, M or J-class visas that are required to enter and reside in the U.S. as a student.

Normally, guidelines forbid international students from taking more than one course online per semester, but that restriction was relaxed when the COVID-19 pandemic caused a global lockdown in March.

International students who were outside of the country when the pandemic began and continue to take online courses from abroad will not have their status affected, nor will their visa be rescinded, according to documents from ICE.

But students who are currently living in the U.S. and whose schools are going fully online next semester will have only two options: leave the country or transfer to a different school.

The news from ICE, released on the same day Harvard announced that all of its 2020-2021 fall classes would be online-only, sent ripples of outrage across the country.

Dozens of colleges have said they plan to offer at least some classes in person this fall, but some say it’s too risky.

The University of Southern California last week reversed course on a plan to bring students to campus, saying classes will be hosted primarily or exclusively online.

Source: Trump immigration policy sparks anxiety among Canadians studying in U.S.

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Ontario overestimated cost of services to irregular border crossers, AG finds

2020/07/11 Leave a comment

In contrast to Quebec, which estimated correctly:

Ontario significantly overstated the costs of providing services to asylum seekers coming into Canada from the United States, the province’s auditor general said Wednesday.

In a special report, Bonnie Lysyk said the $200 million estimate given by the governing Progressive Conservatives in 2018 represented the cost of providing services to all refugee claimants, not just so-called “irregular” border crossers.

She said the minister of social services at the time, Lisa MacLeod, was given inaccurate information by civil servants.

“The accuracy of information provided by the ministry to the minister for the public announcement was far off the mark,” Lysyk said in a statement Wednesday.

“Senior government officials need to ensure the accuracy of the information provided to government for public announcements and decision-making.”

MacLeod had formally requested $200 million from Ottawa to cover costs she said were incurred by the province and its municipalities as a result of an influx of asylum seekers arriving from the U.S.

Lysyk said her office found the Ontario government spent roughly $81 million on services for irregular asylum seekers between April 1, 2017 — when the federal government first started tracking their arrival — and July 31, 2018.

More costs were incurred until the border was closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Lysyk said.

She recommended Ontario seek an immigration agreement with the federal government that includes compensation for providing services to refugee claimants, including irregular border crossers.

The current deal does not, and the federal government has given $15.6 million in compensation to Toronto, Ottawa and Peel Region for their expenses during the April 2017 to August 2018 period, she said.

Quebec, which has a separate cost-sharing agreement with Ottawa, incurred $300 million in costs and has received $286 million in compensation, Lysyk said.

When asked about the report Wednesday, Premier Doug Ford said his government did not intentionally mislead the public and was simply relying on the information provided.

Ford blamed the federal government for leaving the province to shoulder the costs of what he called “illegal immigration,” and suggested the auditor general should do another report to examine more recent expenses related to the issue.

“Where’s the money? We need the money,” the premier said. “Every single day, it’s costing us more and more and more.”

Opposition legislators criticized the government for using inflated numbers to make policy decisions.

“The auditor general’s report makes clear that the claims Doug Ford and Lisa MacLeod made about the cost of accommodating asylum seekers in Ontario were pure fiction,” NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said in a statement.

“Shame on them for making stuff up to fan the flames of division instead of uniting us like they should have been.”

Liberal House Leader John Fraser said the Ford government has a record of “continually overstating, overstepping, and exaggerating.”

Ford previously came under fire for saying his government inherited a $15 billion deficit from the Liberals, and later revising that number down by about half, to $7.4 billion.

Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said the debate over the costs of services for irregular border crossers took place at a time when many governments were “playing politics with immigration.”

“The government inflated this number … to provide cover for what in this case is a divisive political agenda, which I think was to question immigration policy in this country. And I think it’s wrong,” he said.

Canada’s Safe Third Country agreement with the U.S. says asylum seekers are required to make their claims in the first “safe” country where they arrive, which means those who try to enter Canada at an official land crossing are sent back to make their claim in the U.S.

The agreement does not cover those who come in through unofficial crossings, known as “irregular” asylum seekers.

The auditor says 36 per cent of refugee claimants in Ontario in recent years entered at unofficial points.

Federal data show 26,415 asylum claims were filed in Ontario in 2019, which could include some filed by irregular border crossers.

The province provides services such as temporary housing, settlement services and language training.

Source: Ontario overestimated cost of services to irregular border crossers, AG finds

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