Refugees should be sent home even if they have jobs, says Danish immigration official | The Independent

2017/12/20 Leave a comment

Another example of xenophobia and “othering,” despite labour shortages:

A Danish MP has called for all refugees, even those with jobs, to be deported from the country once their home nations are deemed “safe”.

Marcus Knuth, an immigration spokesman for the governing Liberal (Venstre) party, said all people who have been granted asylum in Denmark should be made to go back to their country of origin regardless of whether they had already assimilated into Danish life.

The government, which is minority controlled by the Liberals with support from the Danish People’s Party, Liberal Alliance and the Conservative People’s Party, is currently negotiating what is being called a “paradigm change” in the country’s attitude to asylum.

The rule change is being demanded by the nationalist Danish People’s Party in return for supporting tax cuts. The new rules would see refugees granted temporary asylum, meaning they will be ordered to go back to their home country when the danger had past and are denied the right to family reunification.

These refugees will also be barred from accessing integration services such as language lessons and the “basic integration education programme” – an apprenticeship scheme introduced last year, The Local reported.

A similar scheme was introduced in Germany last year following a backlash against Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open door policy to refugees fearing violence in Iraq and Syria.

Over 1 million refugees arrived in Germany in 2016.

But the new rules are likely to create a big hole in the Danish jobs market as the arrival of refugees has made up for a reported decline in the number of people coming to the country from eastern Europe.

A report by the Danish newspaper Berlingske said that workers from outside the EU made up a larger share of foreign workers than EU citizens for the first time.

Meanwhile the Confederation of Danish Industry has repeatedly stressed the difficulty its members have had in filling its jobs – which it said was largely to do with the falling number of people arriving in the country to work.

Figures released by the body in November showed that the number of EU citizens coming to Denmark to work has fallen by 65 percent in the space of 15 months.

According to their analysis EU citizens took just 11 per cent of newly created jobs in Denmark in 2017 – compared with 87 per cent in 2013.

But Mr Knuth is adamant that “overall refugees are an economic burden for Denmark”.

He said: “The number of refugees on the labour market is fortunately increasing. But at the same time, they do not make up a big part of the jobs market”.

“If refugees can make a contribution, that can only be positive. But that does not change the fact that, as soon as there is peace in their home country, that have to go back”.

via Refugees should be sent home even if they have jobs, says Danish immigration official | The Independent

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The White House Is Seeking a Major Shift of Opinion on Immigration

2017/12/19 Leave a comment

Moving towards the Canadian and Australian models given priority to the economic class with, of course, falsehoods regarding the percentage of immigrants in jailed (less than non-immigrants) and exaggerations regarding links to terror:

The White House is embarking on a major campaign to turn public opinion against the nation’s largely family-based immigration system ahead of an all-out push next year to move toward a more merit-based structure.

The administration was laying the groundwork for such a drive even before an Islamic State-inspired extremist who was born in Bangladesh tried to blow himself up in Midtown Manhattan on Monday. It is assembling data to bolster the argument that the current legal immigration system is not only ill-conceived, but dangerous and damaging to U.S. workers.

“We believe that data drives policy, and this data will help drive votes for comprehensive immigration reform in Congress,” said White House spokesman Hogan Gidley.

White House officials outlined their strategy this week exclusively to The Associated Press, and said the data demonstrates that changes are needed immediately. But their effort will play out in a difficult political climate, as even Republicans in Congress are leery of engaging in a major immigration debate ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.

The issue is expected to be prominently featured in the president’s Jan. 30 State of the Union address. The White House also plans other statements by the president, appearances by Cabinet officials and a push to stress the issue in conservative media.

The administration was beginning its campaign Thursday with a blog post stressing key numbers: Department of Homeland Security data that shows nearly 9.3 million of the roughly 13 million total immigrants to the U.S. from 2005 to 2016 were following family members already in the United States. And just one in 15 immigrants admitted in the last decade by green card entered the country because of their skills.

Other planned releases: a report highlighting the number of immigrants in U.S. jails, assessments of the immigration court backlog and delays in processing asylum cases, and a paper on what the administration says is a nexus between immigration and terrorism.

Critics have questioned the administration’s selective use of sometimes misleading data in the past.

The proposed move away from family-based immigration would represent the most radical change to the U.S. immigration system in 30 years. It would end what critics and the White House refer to as “chain migration,” in which immigrants are allowed to bring a chain of family members to the country, and replace it with a points-based system that favors education and job potential — “merit” measures that have increasingly been embraced by some other countries, including Britain.

Gidley said that for those looking to make the case that the U.S. is ill-served by the current system, “transparency is their best friend.”

“The more people know the real numbers, the more they’ll begin to understand that this is bad for American workers and this is bad for American security. And quite frankly, when these numbers come out in totality, we believe it’s going to be virtually impossible for Congress to ignore,” he said.

The public is sharply divided on the types of changes President Donald Trump is advocating.

A Quinnipiac University poll in August found that 48% of voters opposed a proposal that Trump has backed to cut the number of future legal immigrants in half and give priority to immigrants with job skills rather than those with family ties in this country. 44% of those polled — including 68% of Republicans — supported the idea.

The White House hopes to see Congress begin to take up the issue early in 2018 — though it has yet to begin discussions with congressional leaders over even the broad strokes of a legislative strategy, officials said.

Trump has laid out general principles for what he would like to see in an immigration bill in exchange for giving legal status to more than 700,000 young people brought to the U.S. illegally as children. These include the construction of a border wall, tougher enforcement measures and moving to a more merit-based legal immigration system. In September, Trump gave Congress six months to come up with a legislative fix to allow the young immigrants known as “Dreamers” to stay in the country, creating an early-2018 crisis point he hopes will force Democrats to swallow some of his hardline demands.

Source: The White House Is Seeking a Major Shift of Opinion on Immigration

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A New Troubling Trend for International Students Coming to Canada

2017/12/19 Leave a comment

Anecdote-based but incentive structures are there. Hard to devise cost effective detection and enforcement strategies. Surprisingly, Flora has no specific proposals to curb such abuse:

The desire to emigrate has increased so much among the Punjabi community in India that people are doing everything they can to leave their country and reach foreign shores — even employing such extreme methods as using human traffickers, or wilfully violating immigration laws.

But in recent years, a new trend is emerging. It’s very simple: If a person can’t come to Canada on his own or as an international student, they still come to Canada at the price of an international student’s expense.

This was a big surprise to me. I was waiting on my Brampton street for the school bus to drop off my daughter, when a group of young women walked by.

“Oh study is so expensive here,” said one. Another girl said, “Maybe for you, but I’m not even paying a dime!”

The other girls were surprised. “How is that?” asked the first girl.

As the girl explained, there was a family in India whose son badly wanted to emigrate to Canada. They did everything, but no luck. But this girl was a bright student and easily qualified for a student visa.

“So we made the deal,” she explained. “They pay all my expenses, from airline fare to the college fees, books… right down to my boarding and lodging, and all my living expenses in Canada. In return, we’ll get the boy to Canada by proving that we are married.”

Our people are nothing if not creative. But the simplicity of the scheme took my breath away.

According to Canadian law, if an international student is married, they can bring their spouse over and the spouse can acquire a work permit for the duration of the student’s period of study.  So the young man’s side takes on the financial burden, while the young woman gets her “husband” across and completes her four-year degree.

Assuming the age of the fiance is about 18 to 22 years at the time they arrive, over the next four or five years they become permanent residents. After that they get divorced, at around the age of 23-26 years. They then find their original life partners and settle their life in Canada. Both sides part ways happily and go their separate ways. A good business transaction indeed.

In recent years, the Punjabi community has already made itself famous for fake marriages. Such fake marriages have not completely stopped, but the system has been tightened up.

According to the Canadian Bureau of International Education, in Canada in 2016, there were 353,000 international students in Canada. Among this tally, 34% were from China and 14%  from India. From 2008 to 2015, the number of international students coming to Canada also increased 92%. Data from a 2010 government report tells us that international students brought almost $8 billion of tuition fees into the economy and spurred the creation of 81,000 new jobs.

These figures show Canada needs international students. But it is also true that there is no need for unnecessary attempts to follow the wrong path. Will the Liberal government pay attention to this spurious trend?

One more fallout of such creativity is that the immigration department is unable to tell the difference between true and false marriages. Consequently, genuine cases are affected.

The rise in fake marriages has many Punjabi community organizations concerned about this issue enough to pressure the federal government to make changes in immigration laws to prevent such fraud.

At the end of the day, it’s not the system that’s the problem, it’s us who misuse it by hook or by crook, to fulfill our dreams. And it needs to stop.

via GUEST COLUMN: A new troubling trend for international students coming to Canada | Toronto Sun

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Committee urges federal government to repeal law that bans disabled immigrants

2017/12/15 Leave a comment

It will be interesting to see what issues emerge in implementation consultations with the provinces given that they have to foot the bill. Good however to see some data on the numbers and anticipated funding requirements:

A parliamentary committee has recommended Ottawa repeal a provision in the law that bans people with disabilities and excessive health needs from immigrating to Canada.

In a groundbreaking report on the controversial practice, the standing committee on citizenship and immigration said the excessive medical demand clause goes against the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and is out of touch with Canadian values.

However, those who pose risks to public health and public safety should still be barred from being admitted to Canada, said the committee report, released Wednesday.

“Our immigration laws unjustifiably violate human rights of certain would-be newcomers to Canada and this is inconsistent with the modern values Canadians associate with contemporary human rights protections,” said the committee in a 76-page report.

“Canadians value diversity and inclusiveness and it should be mindful of all the abilities and contributions of its citizens, newcomers and potential immigrants as it moves forward with reviewing the medical inadmissibility.”

The recommendation was applauded by rights groups who have criticized what they call discriminatory treatment against people with disabilities.

“I have seen how the application of this provision has caused a great deal of hardship over the years. This provision has been a barrier to family reunification for many Canadian families,” said Toronto immigration lawyer Lorne Waldman. “It has also prevented many qualified immigrants from settling in Canada.”

Under the medical inadmissibility provision of the immigration law, which does not apply to refugees, medical demand is found to be excessive if it exceeds the average annual health care costs for a Canadian, which is currently estimated at $6,655 a year.

In 2016, there were 21 exemptions issued to overcome medical inadmissibility out of 995 applications deemed inadmissible, according to the Immigration Department. The main conditions included chronic kidney problems, intellectual disability, developmental delays, autism and being HIV-positive.

Advocates for foreign caregivers said some 150 foreign caregivers were denied permanent residence in 2014 alone because a dependant child was deemed medically inadmissible. Temporary foreign worker Mercedes Benitez, for example, was slapped with a medical inadmissibility opinion this year because her 18-year-old son is developmentally delayed.

“Denying permanent residency to entire families was never fair or just, thousands of people have suffered under this law already and hundreds of families are waiting to be reunited. There is no time for delay. It is time to repeal this law,” said Anna Malla of Toronto’s Caregivers Action Centre.

Immigration officials said the total number of medical inadmissibility cases amount to about 0.2 per cent of all applications (or between 900 to 1,000 individuals), representing savings of at least $135 million over five years — or 0.1 per cent of all provincial and territorial health spending in 2015.

Although the law allows exemptions at the discretion of immigration officials, they are determined on a case-by-case basis and applicants must prove the disabled individual would not cause excessive burden on Canadian taxpayers and they have a solid “mitigation plan” to care for the person.

“It is easy for MPs on the committee to say this is a good idea because it is the provinces that pay for the health care,” said Janet Dench of the Canadian Council for Refugees, which supports the repeal. “The recommendation is significant because it’s moving the dial further than what the expectations are.”

Admitting immigrants with excessive medical demands is a polarizing issue and even provinces fail to come to consensus on this issue.

During the public hearings by the standing committee, the Saskatchewan government insisted that the current policy “is the best option for ensuring that Canadians continue to have timely and quality access to health, education and social services.”

Others like Newfoundland and Labrador and Nunavut said the excessive demand provision is “unfair and unjust” considering immigrant applicants’ long-term contributions to Canada.

“Canada’s immigration system needs to ensure that Canada continues to attract the brightest and best newcomers to this country,” said MP Rob Oliphant, chair of the committee. “If (renowned physicist) Stephen Hawking wanted to immigrate to Canada, he would not be allowed under the current provision of the law. This is not what Canadians want.”

The report also recommended Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen continue consultations with provinces regarding the implementations of the repeal. “This is not for permission, but for consultation,” said Oliphant.

Although Hussen has yet to officially respond to the parliamentary report, he has said the law has to be changed because it’s against the government’s policies to move toward “an accessibility agenda.”

via Committee urges federal government to repeal law that bans disabled immigrants | Toronto Star

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Americans revoking travel visas from visitors who plan to claim asylum in Canada

2017/12/15 Leave a comment

Another push factor for asylum seekers:

American authorities say an ongoing operation along their northern border has led them to revoke U.S.-issued travel visas for thousands of people, most of whom were headed to Canada to claim asylum.

Some, according to a U.S. State Department report, are associated with terrorist groups.

The revocations happened as part of what’s called Operation Northern Watch, which focuses on criminal activity such as visa fraud, human smuggling and terrorist threats at the Canada-U.S. border.

Since the operation began in January 2015, authorities have revoked approximately 2,400 visas that were issued from 85 different American diplomatic posts abroad.

“Although some suspects have committed crimes in the United States, the vast majority of the individuals referred through Operation Northern Watch are individuals intending to claim asylum in Canada or have already claimed asylum,” reads the annual report of the State Department’s diplomatic security service (DSS).

“Included in this group were individuals with ties to designated terrorist organizations.”

In an email, a U.S. State Department official told CBC News the DSS is unable to release information about the terrorist groups and any alleged ties people may have had with them.

The DSS also would not specify how many of the revoked visas belonged to people headed to Canada.

“When speaking to law enforcement, some of the identified subjects admitted that they either attempted to claim asylum in Canada or stated that it was their intention to claim asylum in Canada. For others, the diplomatic security service had reason to believe that they planned to claim asylum in Canada,” wrote the official.

The DSS says every prospective traveller to the United States undergoes extensive security screening but that in some cases “derogatory information” surfaces after someone enters the country.

In late October, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale told CBC News how Canadian officials had identified trends where documents identified from certain U.S. embassies and consulates are being misused.

“We have asked them to go back upstream and examine the pattern of these travel documents being issued and how come the people to whom they were issued appear to have had no intention of staying in the United States, but were simply using the documents as vehicles to get into the United States and then make a beeline for the Canadian border,” he said at the time.

Undermines narrative

National security expert Christian Leuprecht said Operation Northern Watch demonstrates how the U.S. understands and is acting on loopholes in its travel visa system.

“At the moment, the Americans realize there’s a Canadian dimension to this,” said Leuprecht, who teaches at Queen’s University and the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ont.

Leuprecht said the annual report also undermines the long-standing narrative that people with ties to terrorist organizations easily enter Canada and head to the United States.

“There’s not really much of a problem in terms of people coming from Canada to the U.S., certainly not since 9/11, because of all the measures we’ve put in place. But we continue to have a challenge with people who are inadmissible and who have ties to illegal organizations, who find their way to the United States and then make their way to Canada,” he explained.

Karine Côté-Boucher, an assistant professor at the University of Montreal criminology school, cautions that terrorist ties aren’t always as scary as they sound.

“What are those ties? To know someone or [be] related to [someone], is sometimes enough to put you on a terrorist watch list. We have kids in Canada who are on no-fly lists right now,” she said.

Côté-Boucher added that just because someone used criminal means to enter Canada, does not mean they intend to do harm.

“Do they have criminal intent? That’s different, right? That’s a different question. There’s nothing in there that suggests to me that people have criminal intent in Canada,” she explained.

Travel visa harmonization

But Leuprecht believes, given the ongoing pattern of human migration, that it’s time for North American leaders to take a co-ordinated approach to travel visas to prevent people from abusing the travel visa system.

After all, he said, Canada and the U.S. already share data on land, sea and air ports of entry.

“We probably need to start sharing data on people who request visas into North America, show that we can jointly assess whether the claims that people are making and the intelligence people are providing are effective, because we can see that people are trying to exploit the travel regime,” he said.

For her part though, Côté-Boucher said she can’t see a good reason to give up sovereignty over who gets to come to Canada. She explained how she feels Canada’s tight border control mechanisms are partly responsible for the rise in irregular border crossings by migrants who are looking for a safe place to live.

“We have introduced so many border control mechanisms in North America right now that we have forced people to go through human smuggling networks, to go through visa fraud,” said Côté-Boucher.

As for Operation Northern Watch, the DSS initiative has already expanded beyond its offices in New York State to Minnesota and Detroit as well as its regional security offices in Ottawa, Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto, where it works with Canadian authorities.

No one from the Canadian departments of Public Safety or Immigration responded to requests for more information about the operation.

via Americans revoking travel visas from visitors who plan to claim asylum in Canada – Politics – CBC News

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Will Robots Take Our Children’s Jobs? – The New York Times

2017/12/14 Leave a comment

Good read by Alex Williams on the occupations most likely to be threatened and the coming disruption:

But artificial intelligence is different, said Martin Ford, the author of “Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future.” Machine learning does not just give us new machines to replace old machines, pushing human workers from one industry to another. Rather, it gives us new machines to replace us, machines that can follow us to virtually any new industry we flee to.

Since Mr. Ford’s book sent me down this rabbit hole in the first place, I reached out to him to see if he was concerned about all this for his own children: Tristan, 22, Colin, 17, and Elaine, 10.

He said the most vulnerable jobs in the robot economy are those involving predictable, repetitive tasks, however much training they require. “A lot of knowledge-based jobs are really routine — sitting in front of a computer and cranking out the same application over and over, whether it is a report or some kind of quantitative analysis,” he said.

Professions that rely on creative thinking enjoy some protection (Mr. Ford’s older son is a graduate student studying biomedical engineering). So do jobs emphasizing empathy and interpersonal communication (his younger son wants to be a psychologist).

Even so, the ability to think creatively may not provide ultimate salvation. Mr. Ford said he was alarmed in May when Google’s AlphaGo software defeated a 19-year-old Chinese master at Go, considered the world’s most complicated board game.

“If you talk to the best Go players, even they can’t explain what they’re doing,” Mr. Ford said. “They’ll describe it as a ‘feeling.’ It’s moving into the realm of intuition. And yet a computer was able to prove that it can beat anyone in the world.”

Looking for a silver lining, I spent an afternoon Googling TED Talks with catchy titles like “Are Droids Taking Our Jobs?”

In one, Albert Wenger, an influential tech investor, promoted the Basic Income Guarantee concept. Also known as Universal Basic Income, this sunny concept holds that a robot-driven economy may someday produce an unlimited bounty of cool stuff while simultaneously releasing us from the drudgery of old-fashioned labor, leaving our government-funded children to enjoy bountiful lives of leisure as interpretive dancers or practitioners of bee-sting therapy, as touted by Gwyneth Paltrow.

The idea is all the rage among Silicon Valley elites, who not only understand technology’s power, but who also love to believe that it will be used for good. In their vision of a post-A.I. world without traditional jobs, everyone will receive a minimum weekly or monthly stipend (welfare for all, basically).

Another talk by David Autor, an economist, argued that reports of the death of work are greatly exaggerated. Almost 50 years after the introduction of the A.T.M., for instance, more humans actually work as bank tellers than ever. The computers simply freed the humans from mind-numbing work like counting out 20-dollar bills to focus on more cognitively demanding tasks like “forging relationships with customers, solving problems and introducing them to new products like credit cards, loans and investments,” he said.

Computers, after all, are really good at some things and, for the moment, terrible at others. Even Anton intuits this. The other day I asked him if he thought robots were smarter or dumber than humans. “Sdumber,” he said after a long pause. Confused, I pushed him. “Smarter and dumber,” he explained with a cheeky smile.

He was joking. But he also happened to be right, according to Andrew McAfee, a management theorist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology whom I interviewed a short while later.

Discussing another of Anton’s career aspirations — songwriter — Dr. McAfee said that computers were already smart enough to come up with a better melody than a lot of humans. “The things our ears find pleasant, we know the rules for that stuff,” he said. “However, I’m going to be really surprised when there is a digital lyricist out there, somebody who can put words to that music that will actually resonate with people and make them think something about the human condition.”

Not everyone, of course, is cut out to be a cyborg-Springsteen. I asked Dr. McAfee what other jobs may exist a decade from now.

“I think health coaches are going to be a big industry of the future,” he said. “Restaurants that have a very good hospitality staff are not about to go away, even though we have more options to order via tablet.

“People who are interested in working with their hands, they’re going to be fine,” he said. “The robot plumber is a long, long way away.”

via Will Robots Take Our Children’s Jobs? – The New York Times

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Morneau advisers urge sweeping changes to cope with looming tech disruption

2017/12/12 2 Comments

Following its earlier report urging an increase of immigration levels to 450,000 per year, the Barton Commission suddenly recognizes technological disruption and its impact on the labour force – [Canada] “can no longer rely on the old formula for economic growth, which emphasized investments in machinery and equipment, and population growth.”

Ironic, to say the least.

The earlier recommendation of increased immigration would have benefited from analysis of the possible impact of technological disruption. Perhaps a revised immigration recommendation is needed?:

Canada is ill-prepared for the effects of widespread technological disruption reshaping the global economy, Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s expert panel of economic advisers are warning in a set of reports scheduled for release this week.

To prevent the country’s economic growth from falling behind that of other nations, the group is recommending a modernization of Canada’s tax and regulatory systems to make them more innovation-friendly.

In addition, it is calling for a $15-billion spending surge to retrain workers so their skills are up to speed in a rapidly shifting labour market.

The recommendations are contained in advance drafts of the latest reports from the 14-member group, formally known as the Advisory Council on Economic Growth, obtained by The Globe and Mail.

“The latest wave of recommendations is geared towards preparing our economy … to capture the opportunities and handle the disruption coming over the next decade,” said council chair Dominic Barton, global managing director of consultancy McKinsey & Co. Mr. Barton was one of several council members who spoke with The Globe about their third set of recommendations to government since the council’s formation in March, 2016.

“The world is going through a period of unprecedented change, which offers many opportunities but also brings significant volatility,” the council writes in one of the documents, received by Mr. Morneau earlier this month. “Canada must be prepared to navigate this change and volatility. It can no longer rely on the old formula for economic growth, which emphasized investments in machinery and equipment, and population growth.”

The new reports come as Mr. Morneau crafts his third budget, for release in early 2018. They likely provide a sense of policy themes under consideration given the government’s close co-operation with the council and quick action on several of its past calls. Proposals that have been adopted include the launch of an infrastructure bank, the creation of a federal entity to promote foreign investment into Canada, and changes to boost immigration levels and hasten the process for high-skilled foreigners to move here. A spokesperson for Mr. Morneau said the minister has had good discussions with the council and will carefully review its suggestions as he prepares the budget.

…The new reports focus on preparing Canadians for an economy rapidly shifting away from the production and sale of physical goods to the commercialization of digital services and intellectual property. That is being accompanied by changes in how work is done, and by whom – or by what. According to a recent McKinsey study, 45 per cent of activities performed by humans could be automated using existing technology. “Already, robots can build your car, take your lunch order, review your legal case history, sell you insurance or examine your X-rays,” reads one council report. The council says at least 10 per cent of the Canadian work force – about two million people – face job losses by 2030 and will struggle to find new jobs “unless they acquire new formal qualifications.”

The council acknowledges that federal and provincial governments are aware of the challenges and do fund training programs. Ottawa promised significant changes in the previous budget to existing agreements to transfer job-training funds to provinces and territories plus an additional $2.7-billion in related spending over six years. Federal Employment Minister Patty Hajdu said in an interview that negotiations to revise the transfers are going well and results could be announced in early 2018. The government previously responded to an earlier growth-council recommendation by setting up a new organization to study and report on Canada’s skills needs.

But council member Ilse Treurnicht, former CEO of Toronto’s MaRS Discovery District said, “much more needs to be done given the wave that’s headed our way. It will take an all-hands effort.” She added that other countries are experimenting with retraining efforts, but “it is still early in the process.”

The growth council calls for a “jolt to the system” with the creation of a “third pillar” alongside the education system and regimes for funding retirement and unemployment insurance. “The focus has to be about providing skills upgrading capabilities and opportunities for people who are in the labor market,” said council member Michael Sabia, CEO of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec.

At the heart of the council’s proposed $15 billion-per-year skills funding boost would be a new $2.5-billion-per-year government fund for training employed adults. The $15-billion amount would be jointly funded by government, industry and individuals. Mr. Sabia said it was “premature” to say how costs would be split. The council also calls for the government’s employment centres to be transformed to provide not only help for the unemployed but also career and training guidance for working adults and employers. “What we’re really saying is … the country has to get on with the discussion that’s required about how are we are going to deal with this issue,” he said.

via Morneau advisers urge sweeping changes to cope with looming tech disruption – The Globe and Mail

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Feds should switch to points system for parent, grandparent visas: Ghazy Mujahid

2017/12/07 Leave a comment

Interesting alternative.

But any new system would also likely result in criticism and questioning the relative weighting of the factors being accorded points, as well as likely longer processing times:

Equally important, the lottery system fails to meet the family-reunification goals to which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alluded during the last election campaign: “Making it easier for families to be together here in Canada makes more than just economic sense. When Canadians have added supports like family involvement in child care, it helps productivity and drives economic growth and it brings in skilled workers we need so badly.”

These objectives can’t be met through an open lottery system. They must take into account differences in relevant capabilities of the sponsored family members and the needs of their sponsors.

For instance, grandparents who have no grandchildren needing child care would not have the same impact on the Canadian economy as those who can contribute to child care of grandchildren that may enable the non-working parent to re-enter the labour force. Giving them an equal chance of being selected is neither fair for the family nor is it in the best interests of Canada.

To fix this drawback, Canada could base the parents and grandparents selection on a points system similar to the one the country pioneered in the mid-1960s for selecting applicants eligible for applying as economic migrants.

Those wishing to apply as economic migrants are given points according to characteristics such as education, age, and language proficiency. Those planning to apply are advised not to if their total score falls below a certain minimum.

Similarly, for the parent/grandparent program, prospective applicants can be given points for relevant individual and family circumstances. In March, the Immigration Committee’s report on family reunification documented the positive and negative impacts of PGP immigration. This assessment could serve as the basis for a points system.

Here are some main characteristics of the sponsored to be taken into account, and the rationale for including them:

  • Age (as a general indicator of active status);
    Proportion of offspring in Canada (will entry really contribute to family reunification?);
  • Number of grandchildren under six years old in Canada (possibilities of contributing to child care);
  • Proficiency in official language (extent of risk of isolation in Canada);
  • Assets and pension transferable to Canada (likelihood of financial independence).

The government should consider setting up a multi-disciplinary expert panel to devise a comprehensive points system. A minimum score should be specified and prospective applicants advised not to apply if their score falls below it. This would reduce the application load.

The highest scoring 10,000 above the specified minimum should then be invited to submit completed applications.

An added advantage would be that if in any year some applicants are not approved for entry, the next highest scorers could be immediately invited to submit applications to fill the gap. This would avoid the long process of those in the waiting list being put through another round of lottery, as was done this year.

via Feds should switch to points system for parent, grandparent visas – The Hill Times – The Hill Times

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Automation Could Displace 800 Million Workers Worldwide By 2030, Study Says : All Tech Considered : NPR

2017/12/04 Leave a comment

Impact on labour force needs and immigration levels needs to be considered (most advocates for immigration increases are silent on the issue):

A coming wave of job automation could force between 400 million and 800 million people worldwide out of a job in the next 13 years, according to a new study.

A report released this week from the research arm of the consulting firm McKinsey & Company forecasts scenarios in which 3 percent to 14 percent of workers around the world — in 75 million to 375 million jobs — will have to acquire new skills and switch occupations by 2030.

“There are few precedents” to the challenge of retraining hundreds of millions of workers in the middle of their careers, the report’s authors say.

The impact will vary between countries, depending on their wealth and types of jobs that currently exist in each. In 60 percent of jobs worldwide, “at least one-third of the constituent activities could be automated,” McKinsey says, which would mean a big change in what people do day-to-day.

McKinsey looked at 46 countries and more than 800 different jobs in its research.

In the year 2030 in countries with “advanced economies,” a greater proportion of workers will need to learn new skills than in developing economies, researchers say. As many as a third of workers in the U.S. and Germany could need to learn new skills. For Japan, the number is almost 50 percent of the workforce, while in China it’s 12 percent.

Will Your Job Be Done By A Machine?

 Jobs that involve predictable, repetitive tasks are more easily automated, “such as operating machinery and preparing fast food,” and data processing, like paralegal work and accounting. However, McKinsey estimates less than 5 percent of jobs can be fully automated.

Jobs that pay “relatively lower wages” and aren’t as predictable are less likely to face full automation, because businesses don’t have as much incentive to spend on the technology. This applies to jobs like gardening, plumbing and child care, according to the authors.

Occupations that pay more but involve managing people and social interactions face less risk of automation due to the inherent difficulty in programming machines to do those types of tasks.

In the short term, automation and new technology could mean “significant” displacement of workers, the report says. But the authors argue that in the long term as technology has changed, “it creates a multitude of new jobs, more than offsetting” the number of those lost.

They note, however, those new jobs don’t always pay as much as the old ones.

A rising middle class in countries like China and India, and with it more consumption, will have a big impact on the direction of economies. “As incomes rise, consumers spend more on all categories,” the report says. “But their spending patterns also shift, creating more jobs in areas such as consumer durables, leisure activities, financial and telecommunication services, housing, health care, and education.”

Many countries are getting older as well — Japan is a notable example. And McKinsey researchers expect aging populations to need more medical care — more doctors, nurses, home health workers and aides — while demand goes down for children’s teachers and doctors.

Tech jobs will be needed as technology advances, like “computer scientists, engineers and IT administrators,” who could see job growth as companies spend more in this area, the report says.

Jobs gained “could more than offset the jobs lost to automation,” the researchers say. But, they say, “it will require businesses and governments to seize opportunities to boost job creation and for labor markets to function well.”

The McKinsey researchers recommend “an initiative on the scale of the Marshall Plan involving sustained investment, new training models, programs to ease worker transitions, income support and collaboration between the public and private sectors” to help economies and employment grow in the future.

via Automation Could Displace 800 Million Workers Worldwide By 2030, Study Says : All Tech Considered : NPR

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Billionaire got Canadian citizenship after renting a Montreal basement

2017/12/01 Leave a comment

I would not be surprised if more cases like this emerge given the abuse of the business immigration program and the imprecise definition of residency, both fixed by the Harper government through the termination of the former and specifying physical presence in its C-24 Citizenship Act changes:

Among the most curious revelations contained in the Paradise Papers is the question of Wafic Said’s Canadian citizenship, and how he obtained it, given his tenuous ties to this country.

Said, a Syrian-born, Monaco-based billionaire, was the broker of the 1985 Al-Yamamah arms deal to sell British warplanes to Saudi Arabia, in which £6 billion in “corrupt commissions” were allegedly paid to members of the Saudi royal family.

The longtime friend of Brian Mulroney also donated $4 million to the soon-to-open Brian Mulroney Institute of Government at St. Francis Xavier University, where he received an honorary degree in 2015 and was announced as a Canadian citizen.

But how did this Saudi-Syrian businessman pick up a third passport?

It’s not clear exactly when, but at some point in the 1990s, Said received Canadian citizenship. To fulfil the three-year residency requirement, public records show that instead of living in a luxury building, as he did in London, U.K., Said rented a basement apartment in Montreal.

“I am a Canadian citizen and am proud to be one,” wrote Said in an email to the Star and CBC/Radio-Canada. “I took appropriate professional advice about my entitlement to Canadian residency and citizenship. I followed this advice to the letter, met the relevant qualifications and was granted citizenship.”

A spokesperson for Said later added: “Mr. Said lived in Canada for three years thus complying with the immigration residency requirements.” He was only “absent” from Canada for a few weeks in 1989 and 1990, the spokesperson wrote.

The first trace of Said in Canada shows up in 1988, when he registered a numbered company in Canada that would later be renamed Safingest Inc. and declared himself president and sole shareholder.

In public filings, Safingest states its business is “indeterminate and imprecise.” Its office shares a Montreal address with the office of his lawyer, Annie Kenane. Said’s personal address is listed as an apartment in a building also owned by Kenane.

And it was not the kind of apartment where one would expect to find a wealthy international businessman. According to public records, for three years, Said appears to have been a billionaire in a basement.

The basement apartment is in a three-storey walk-up in the gritty Montreal neighbourhood of Côte-des-Neiges.

Elaine Gloutnez, who lived on the third floor of the same building from 1987 to 1991, said she had never heard of Wafic Said. When shown a photo of Said and his wife, Gloutnez said she had never seen them at the house.

“He’s not the type that would live here,” she told Radio-Canada. “Here it is simple people, young families, students . . . It’s not luxury housing. We’re not in Westmount here.”

“I’ve been in this area since ’85 and I’ve never seen a billionaire here,” Gloutnez said.

In his statement to the Star and the CBC, Said wrote that the apartment was “rented for me but when I was there with my family it was easier to stay in hotels.”

A representative for Said later added: “Mr. Said paid rent under the terms of the lease for the apartment at Légaré Street and used it often.”

Public filings in the U.K. show Said also stated he was living in the prestigious London neighbourhood of Mayfair at the same time, in 1990 and 1991.

In 1990, Said purchased a penthouse in a more upscale Montreal neighbourhood for $1.5 million. In 1999, he sold it for $825,000.

Said did not clarify when and where he received his Canadian citizenship.

The earliest trace of Said’s Canadian citizenship is a Canadian passport issued in Paris in 1996.

From 1986 to 2014, Canada had an immigrant investor program that granted permanent residency to wealthy foreigners who made large investments in the country. At the end, in order to qualify, an applicant had to have $1.6 million in assets and commit to invest $800,000 in Canada.

The program was shut down by the Harper government in 2014 and replaced with a one-year pilot program that raised the mandatory investment to $2 million. Quebec continues its own program that requires $800,000 is invested.

“Investments enabled me to qualify for permanent residence and then for Canadian citizenship,” Said’s statement reads.

Said said he made a “very successful investment” in a company called Jordan Petroleum Ltd., whose shares were held by Safingest Ltd. His Bermuda-based offshore company, Said Holdings, which counted Brian Mulroney among its board members from 2004-2012, “has continued to invest substantial sums in Canada,” he added.

Andrew Feinstein, the executive director of the group Corruption Watch in the U.K., has investigated Said for many years. He had no idea Said was a Canadian citizen.

“What on earth would he want a Canadian passport for? And how would he be granted one, because I’m not aware of . . . when he would have spent any meaningful time in Canada.”

Immigration lawyer Richard Kurland says the Canadian government can waive normal residency requirements and grant citizenship in “very special” cases.

“The special treatment to issue a national interest Canadian citizenship comes in two flavours,” Kurland said. “It’s direct in the open, the way we give it to the Dalai Lama. Or it’s behind the red curtain in Ottawa.”

“You don’t have to tell parliament you’re doing this. You don’t have to apply the normal way. If they don’t give it to you directly, they will tell you: ‘Just apply. Put it in the system. And our folks in the system will take your case and process it no questions asked.’ That’s how it’s done.”

Canadian citizenship is one of the most sought-after assets for Middle Eastern billionaires, Kurland said.

“Billionaires like two things: There’s the money and the freedom . . . A Canadian passport is the golden ticket,” he said.

“You’re not taxed in Canada because Canada taxes on residence, not on citizenship. And you can travel visa free, no questions asked, in almost every country in the world.”

via Billionaire got Canadian citizenship after renting a Montreal basement | Toronto Star

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