A tale of two Canadas: Where you grow up affects your income in adulthood – Corak

2017/06/26 Leave a comment


Good in-depth coverage of Miles Corak’s work on intergenerational mobility. Paras on immigration of note:

Many parts of Canada’s income-mobility map are shaped by immigration: People who’ve arrived in Canada in the past 10 to 15 years tend to have lower incomes and higher poverty rates than average Canadians. But what this map shows – and other studies verify – is that their children are rising from the lowest to the highest fifth of the income scale at very high rates.

“It is well established that it is the first generation in Canada – those born abroad – that takes the hit and has the hardest time in establishing themselves in the labour force,” says Don Kerr, a sociologist at King’s University College at the University of Western Ontario. “But clearly we see that their children are eventually doing much better than they did, armed with a Canadian education and Canadian credentials.” This is especially true in southern Ontario, which receive the largest share of Canada’s immigration, and whose very high mobility levels, Dr. Kerr says, can be attributed in good part to the fast rise of newcomers: “Here we are seeing the success of the second generation in Canada.”

Source: A tale of two Canadas: Where you grow up affects your income in adulthood – The Globe and Mail

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IRCC Datasets: What they say about government priorities

2017/06/19 Leave a comment

While preparing a presentation on how immigration, settlement, citizenship and multiculturalism worked together to facilitate integration, I accessed a broad range of the IRCC operational datasets on the government’s Open Data website. Intrigued by what was available and what was not, I reviewed all  227 unique datasets.

IRCC has, to its credit, invested considerable resources in these datasets for both internal and external use, having the fifth largest number of datasets on Open Data (excluding Statistics Canada). Moreover, these datasets are among the most widely used: 11 of the top 25 government datasets downloaded are from IRCC (April 2017).

IRCC demonstrated considerable flexibility and agility in the creation of datasets with respect to the recent wave of Syrian refugees, and the introduction of monthly operational statistics for key programs.

Part of my motivation was to assess the long-standing weaknesses in citizenship datasets, reflecting the relative lower priority of the citizenship program, and make recommendations for improvements.

Not surprisingly, the datasets reflect IRCC’s overall management emphasis on immigration as well as stakeholder demand: permanent and temporary resident datasets are 93.5 percent of the total. The datasets include:

  • Permanent residents (immigrants: economic, family and refugee classes): 110 datasets of 47.6 percent of the total.
  • Temporary residents (Temporary Foreign Worker Program: includes agricultural workers, live-in caregivers and others; International Mobility Program: includes those admitted under international services agreements like NAFTA, those under “Canadian Interests,” primarily under youth work exchange program and spousal employment; international students): 106 datasets or 45.9 percent.
  • Citizenship and passport: Six datasets or 2.6 percent.
  • Settlement services: Nine datasets or 3.9 percent.

IRCC datasets can be divided into four categories: ongoing and published on a regular basis (80.5 percent), archived or historical datasets (16.5 percent) and specialized datasets pertaining to international students (2.2 percent).

The majority are updated annually (54.1 percent), followed by the recent introduction of monthly reports (21.6 percent), quarterly (9.1 percent) and other (15.2 percent). Monthly and quarterly reports focus on operational data: the number of applications, approvals, approval rate and inventory.

Permanent and Temporary Residents

The comprehensive datasets for permanent and temporary residents include information regarding program and category, country of origin (whether processing source area, country of citizenship or country of birth), gender and age. Table 1 summarizes this information with most datasets having several variables (e.g., gender and age).Given the shared federal-provincial jurisdiction for immigration, and the increased and active role of the provinces in selection (i.e., the Provincial Nominee Program), it is no surprise that the majority of permanent resident datasets are broken down by province (52.7 percent), with 31.8 percent at the national level. To assist the planning and programmes of municipalities and service provider organizations for settlement services (integration), ten percent are at the Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) level, with a further 4.5 percent at the Census District (CD) level.

In terms of immigration class, over one-quarter are for refugees (27.3 percent), 21.8 percent for economic class, and 1.8 percent for family class, with 49.1 pertaining to all classes.

For temporary residents, who cannot access settlement services, the majority (60.4 percent) are at the national level, 34 percent at the provincial level, and 4.7 percent at the CMA level.

By program, datasets for international students form 23.6 percent, IMP and TFWP each at 21.8 percent and other ten percent, with 22.7 percent pertaining to all programs.

By and large, these datasets are coherent and consistent, with any variation reflecting program needs and a balance between the overall picture and greater detail (e.g., top 10 for refugees, top 20 for IMP or top 50 for students or all (various) countries of birth or citizenship).

However, as shown in Table 2, the main difference concerns age data, with permanent residents focused more on younger immigrants, compared to temporary residents with a relatively greater focus on older workers. The difference in age cohorts between all permanent residents and those admitted under Express Entry likely has a policy justification. However, it is hard to understand the policy rationale for settlement services using the temporary resident breakdown given that only permanent residents can access these services. IRCC may wish to review whether there is a need for greater consistency and coherence regarding the age cohorts.

Citizenship, Passport and Settlement Services

There are only six datasets for citizenship (including one for passport) and nine for settlement services (three general, six for refugees). This reflects a number of reasons:

  • Citizenship has always been a secondary priority for IRCC at both the political and official levels. The program is under-funded and under-managed, as seen in the large and repeated fluctuations in the number of applications and new citizens, in sharp contrast to the number of new permanent residents which is more tightly managed to deliver on the annual levels plan (Chart 1);
  • The provinces have no role in citizenship and thus no data demands. Immigration stakeholders have limited interest in citizenship as they focus on immigration and refugee issues;
  • Passport is a new program to IRCC (previously was with Global Affairs Canada), with similarly low interest with outside stakeholders beyond basic operational data; and,
  • Service provider organizations (SPOs) and others that are interested is settlement services data have a wide range of useful permanent resident data that assists them in planning and operations. IRCC has responded to the needs of SPOs by providing general refugee settlement datasets as well as specific ones for Syrian refugees.

Table 3 lists these datasets:

Moreover, these are more limited than other datasets. Annual permanent and temporary resident provide ten year data, adequate to assess trends and changes. In contrast, annual citizenship data covers only five years, settlement services data only two years and passport processing data is not even presented on a full-year basis, making it impossible to assess trends and the impact of policy and program changes. Citizenship datasets are even more limited with no gender and age breakdowns.

They are also updated less frequently than other datasets. Monthly datasets for permanent and temporary residents and settlement services include April 2017 at the time of writing (14 June); citizenship only until February 2017, and passport until December 2016.

Concluding observations

As noted, IRCC has invested considerable resources in developing and maintaining these datasets. In doing so, it has naturally enough reinforced its main focus on immigration statistics, responding to overall stakeholder interests, with minimal attention to citizenship.

The datasets appear to have grown organically as program changes created needs for new datasets. There appears to be potential to review the number and type to see if some datasets are no longer needed or duplicative (e.g., the introduction of monthly datasets may make quarterly ones necessary, are csv versions needed in addition to xls?).

Another area for improvement with respect to provincial datasets is to ensure that these all include national totals by program, as there is currently some inconsistency (e.g., Transition from Temporary Resident to Permanent Resident Status – Quarterly IRCC Updates tables versus the “Facts and Figures” series for both permanent and temporary residents).

Other areas for improvement at the Open Data level include, particularly those that are likely within IRCC control:

  • Order the dataset groupings alphabetically as it currently appears random, with related sets not grouped together;
  • Review grouping titles for clarity, particularly “Quarterly Updates” as the vast majority of datasets listed are a mix of annual and quarterly data;
  • Review all data set titles for consistency (e.g., temporary resident facts and figures are numbered, permanent residents are not; set a standard sequence: program/category then geography, then specific variables such as gender, age, education etc.; inclusion or not of ‘Canada’ in title; indicate specific immigration class if appropriate);
  • Advocate with other departments for a wider field for data set descriptions (appears to be only 37 characters) to make these more readable and shorten the wasted space of the titles for other fields (type, format, language, links);
  • Advocate for more than 10 dataset groupings per web page to minimize clicks.

My particular focus, however, is with respect to citizenship.

The lack of attention to citizenship, seen operationally in the wide swings of application and new citizens, requires greater management focus and attention. While IRCC has been very helpful in the provision of special runs, more comprehensive citizenship datasets on Open Data are needed. IRCC should ensure a minimum degree of consistency with permanent and temporary resident datasets that would help flag operational and policy concerns. For citizenship, passport, and settlement services, these would include:

  • 10-year time series data for citizenship and settlement services;
  • 1947-2016 long-term citizenship data (new citizens);
  • gender breakdown for citizenship (not just for adoptions), passport and settlement services (not just for refugees);
  • age breakdown for citizenship and passport, using the permanent resident age groups; and,
  • monthly citizenship applications by country of birth, not just monthly number of new citizens.

Should resources permit, a number of additional citizenship datasets should be considered to provide a more comprehensive understanding of how well the program is working with respect to integration and reinforcing the immigrant-to-citizen transition:

  • Annual data on the number and percentage of immigrants who have taken up citizenship within six years of landing in order to assess the recent naturalization rate, not the overall one that IRCC cites in its performance reports and elsewhere. While a target of 70 percent naturalization within six years of landing is proposed, more analysis might suggest a different target. Having this data collected and reported would inform the establishment of a meaningful performance standard; and,
  • Annual breakdown by immigration class of new citizens and approval rates by gender to assess the impact on each class of citizenship policies.

Given the importance of immigration, settlement, citizenship and multiculturalism to integration of newcomers and their children, good and comprehensive data is central to evidence-based policy making. IRCC has again commendably invested in such data with respect to immigration data but should address the above mentioned gaps in citizenship data to strengthen the management and oversight of the citizenship program.

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Services d’immigration: hausse importante des vérifications policières | Montréal

2017/06/15 Leave a comment

The limits to the “sanctuary city” designations:

Malgré la désignation récente de Montréal à titre de «ville sanctuaire», les contacts des policiers avec les autorités fédérales pour vérifier le statut d’immigration de personnes interceptées pour diverses infractions ont augmenté de façon marquée depuis le début de l’année, et de 67% en moyenne depuis 2014.

Au cours de la même période, les policiers de Toronto ont réduit de 20% leurs vérifications auprès de l’Agence des services frontaliers du Canada (ASFC), tandis qu’elles ont été à peu près stables à Vancouver, révèlent des documents obtenus par La Presse en vertu de la Loi sur l’accès à l’information.

Selon l’assistant-directeur du Service de police de la Ville de Montréal, Daniel Touchette, cette hausse est due à l’amélioration des communications avec l’Agence des services frontaliers du Canada, notamment grâce à l’implantation d’une ligne téléphonique directe, dans le but de mieux combattre la criminalité ayant des ramifications internationales.

Même en cas de délit mineur, comme traverser la rue à un endroit interdit ou prendre le métro sans payer, ces vérifications peuvent entraîner l’arrestation d’un individu, sa détention et parfois son expulsion, si les policiers constatent qu’il se trouve au Canada illégalement. Il sera alors remis aux autorités frontalières.

Des victimes d’actes criminels qui font appel à la police pour être protégées peuvent elles-mêmes être arrêtées si les agents découvrent, en contrôlant leur identité, que leur statut n’est pas en règle, indique Daniel Touchette, confirmant ainsi ce que dénoncent les organismes qui viennent en aide aux sans-papiers.

Quelle protection offre la «ville sanctuaire»?

Cette question est au coeur des débats entourant la décision de Montréal de se donner le statut de «ville sanctuaire», en février dernier. Ce statut est censé permettre aux immigrants sans statut légal d’obtenir n’importe quel service municipal, incluant l’aide des policiers, sans crainte d’être dénoncés aux autorités frontalières.

Les policiers ne devraient jamais s’enquérir du statut d’immigration de qui que ce soit, sauf en cas d’infraction criminelle, selon les organisations qui travaillent avec les personnes sans papiers.

«On ne fait aucune vérification aléatoire de statut d’immigration, répond Daniel Touchette. Mais l’ASFC peut être un outil pour nous permettre de vérifier l’identité d’une personne. Et si on voit un mandat d’arrestation dans la banque de données, on a une obligation légale d’appliquer.»

Pourtant, l’Association canadienne des chefs de police (ACCP) affirme que les policiers ne se préoccupent pas du statut d’immigration, sauf en cas d’infraction criminelle ou autre raison valable. L’ACCP reconnaît que «les victimes, témoins et plaignants cherchent l’assurance que s’ils doivent faire appel aux services policiers, leur statut d’immigration ne sera pas une préoccupation», a-t-elle fait savoir dans une déclaration envoyée par courriel, tout en précisant ne pas avoir de position officielle sur la question des villes sanctuaires.

Source: Services d’immigration: hausse importante des vérifications policières | Isabelle Ducas | Montréal

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ICYMI – Enquête: le Montréal des sans-papiers

2017/06/14 Leave a comment

One of the relatively rare articles that I have seen regarding sans-papiers. And being undocumented, we have no good data on how many there are:

Nous les croisons sans les voir dans les rues de Montréal. Ils font le tri de nos rebuts, récurent les toilettes de nos cliniques médicales, passent l’aspirateur, la nuit, dans les couloirs de nos bureaux. Ils sont des dizaines de milliers, mais ils sont invisibles. Sans eux, l’économie de la ville subirait un dur coup, puisque ces travailleurs de l’ombre occupent les emplois dont personne ne veut. Sans le moindre filet de sécurité. Bienvenue dans le monde occulte des sans-papiers de Montréal.

Les travailleurs invisibles

Alors qu’un flot de demandeurs d’asile, apeurés par le national-populisme de Donald Trump, déferle à la frontière canado-américaine, alors que Denis Coderre déclare Montréal «ville sanctuaire», nous avons voulu mettre en lumière le quotidien des sans-papiers. Nous avons découvert que Montréal est encore loin d’être la terre d’asile proclamée par le maire. À bien des égards, elle est moins hospitalière que des métropoles américaines comme Los Angeles et New York, qui ont depuis longtemps adopté des politiques concrètes pour soutenir les sans-papiers sur leur territoire.

Montréal suivra bientôt les traces de ces villes américaines en offrant divers services et, surtout, en limitant au maximum la collaboration de ses policiers avec les agents d’immigration, a assuré le maire Coderre.

Mais ce n’est encore qu’un projet. Pour le moment, 70% des sans-papiers de la métropole n’arrivent peu ou pas à satisfaire leurs besoins personnels ou ceux de leur famille, révèlent les données préliminaires d’une étude menée par l’Institut de recherche en santé publique de Montréal. Près de la moitié d’entre eux manque carrément de nourriture. Et 40% craignent d’être déportés s’ils tentent d’obtenir des services publics.

Cette crainte pesante, omniprésente, les pousse à tolérer les abus de ceux qui profitent de leur vulnérabilité, en sachant parfaitement qu’ils n’ont pas le loisir de se plaindre.

Source: Enquête: le Montréal des sans-papiers | Isabelle Hachey | Enquêtes

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Canada supports a ‘values’ test. But not the values of the far right. – Terry Glavin

2017/06/09 Leave a comment

Glavin’s take on the Macleans’ poll and what it says about Canadian values:

It is a delicious paradox and it’s wholly counterintuitive. What’s one of the strongest feelings expressed by the otherwise liberal, laid-back and largely contented people revealed by our poll? It’s in the survey respondents’ support for a proposition most closely associated, fairly or not, with Canada’s disgruntled, anti-immigrant, Islamophobic fringe.

A whopping 84 per cent of respondents agreed with the statement, “New immigrants to Canada should be screened to ensure they share Canadian values.” Almost 50 per cent “strongly” agreed. That’s a higher register of strong feeling than the survey elicited in any other policy-related question.

Peculiar to the far-right edges of the Conservative party, the specific proposal to subject prospective immigrants to a “Canadian values” assessment in face-to-face interviews was a major plank in party leadership candidate Kellie Leitch’s campaign. Opposed by several other candidates and derided by Liberals and New Democrats as a dog whistle to bigots, Canadians, it would seem, are for it, with gusto. Only five per cent of survey respondents “strongly” disagreed with the proposition. That’s a slam dunk.

But here’s the paradox: It turns out that the “Canadian values” revealed in our poll are dramatically at odds with the values espoused by the loudest proponents of an immigrant “values” test. In other words, Canada’s rednecks should be careful what they wish for.

Almost all of the 17 primary values questions put to poll respondents elicited enthusiasm in varying degrees for “progressive” values and ambivalence about almost everything else. If it’s “Canadian values” you want embraced by the roughly 300,000 people who emigrate to Canada every year, you’ll have to screen out almost everybody except for liberals.

Source: Canada supports a ‘values’ test. But not the values of the far right. – Macleans.ca

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Indian officer’s denial at Canadian border a mistake, federal government says

2017/06/09 Leave a comment

Mistakes happen. Recognition and correction depends in part about level of person affected and nature of representation:

The federal government is admitting border officials made a mistake when a retired anti-insurgency officer from India was deemed inadmissible to Canada and denied entry.

Days later, after an outcry from Indian officials, the officer was suddenly reissued a visa and flown back to Toronto.

In a statement in May, Canada’s High Commissioner to India, Nadir Patel, expressed “regret” about the incident but would not reveal the rejected visitor’s identity citing privacy protection. Immigration officials subsequently confirmed the person as Tejinder Singh Dhillon.

Dhillon, a retired senior officer with the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), India’s largest paramilitary force under the home affairs ministry, was refused admission in May at the Vancouver airport on the way to his niece’s wedding in Toronto.

Canada border officials explained the refusal by indicating on a form letter that the 67-year-old had served a government that engages or has engaged in terrorism, human rights violations, crime against humanity or genocide.

The incident immediately caused diplomatic ripples between New Delhi and Ottawa, prompting Canadian officials to issue not just a new multiple-entry visa to Dhillon but a plane ticket for his return.

“Such a characterization of a reputed force like the CRPF is completely unacceptable.  We have taken up the matter with the Government of Canada,” a foreign ministry official told Indian media.

Patel said the refusal was a mistake on Ottawa’s part.

“Over the past year, over 300,000 Indian nationals have applied to visit Canada. From time to time, with such a large number of applications, oversights on visa applications can happen which is regrettable,” Patel wrote in a statement.

“Form letters in use by the Government of Canada include generic language taken from Canada’s legislation. In this case, the language does not reflect the Government of Canada’s policy toward India or any particular organization. . . The Central Reserve Police Force plays an important role in upholding law and order in India.”

Anirudh Bhattacharyya, who interviewed Dhillon and reported the story from Toronto for the Hindustan Times, said Dhillon complained Canadian officials treated him in an “unreasonable and indecent manner, accusing him of having either participated or having knowledge of CRPF’s human rights violations.

“It is very upsetting. I have seen many crises, but this is very difficult to bear,” Dhillon told Bhattacharyya in an interview.

Source: Indian officer’s denial at Canadian border a mistake, federal government says | Toronto Star

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Liberals face pressure to crack down on crooked immigration consultants

2017/06/05 Leave a comment

More on the problems of immigration consultants (see earlier Agency that oversees immigration consultants appears to be in turmoil):

The government is facing pressure from MPs of all political stripes to crack down on bogus immigration consultants who prey on people who are desperate to work or live in Canada.

The Commons immigration committee has just wrapped up weeks of hearings on unregistered representatives called “ghost consultants.” MPs are now considering recommendations ranging from overhauling or even scrapping the independent oversight body, to imposing heavier penalties for perpetrators.

Members heard harrowing stories from duped clients who testified behind closed doors. Some were ripped off for thousands of dollars, or brought over with the promise of work only to be dumped at the side of the road or left in a warehouse. In all, they heard from 50 witnesses and read 24 written submissions.

Liberal MP and committee chair Borys Wrzesnewskyj said testimony about crooked and ghost consultants made it clear the status quo can’t continue.

“There is an appetite to fix this. It’s just not acceptable that the present set of circumstances continue,” he told CBC. “It won’t be an easy job. The fact that it’s been studied a number of times and we’re still having to listen to circumstances and their very poignant stories speaks to that.”

Wrzesnewskyj hopes the committee can table its report, which is expected to include recommendations for sweeping reforms, before the House rises for the summer.

Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel believes there is broad consensus that the current system is broken and needs an urgent fix. The “hair-curling” stories heard underscore the need for major reforms.

Blacklist for bad actors

While there are many above-board immigration consultants, their reputation has been stained by reports of unethical representatives preying on vulnerable people.

Along with suggesting a possible blacklist for bad practitioners, Rempel said the government must work to modernize and simplify the complex system so people can navigate it themselves instead of turning to third parties.

“More broadly, the fact that there even needs to be an industry suggests there are a lot of improvements that could be had within the actual department in terms of ease, efficacy of approaching the Canadian immigration system,” she said.

Rempel said testimony about significant governance problems with the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council (ICCRC), which was established in 2011 to oversee registered consultants, raised questions about its ability to fulfil its mandate.

Source: Liberals face pressure to crack down on crooked immigration consultants – Politics – CBC News

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Newcomers grabbing at Canada’s brass ring: Canada Project findings

2017/06/03 Leave a comment

Some of the interesting points regarding newcomers:

One of the key findings from a Canada Project poll is that 44 per cent of immigrants have access to over $10,000 in savings. That far exceeds the 27 per cent of multi-generationals who say they do—and that didn’t surprise the two women. “The anxiety and instability is always there for immigrants,” says Maramba. “So, having access to a chunk of funds that’s easy to access is a priority for us. It’s a ‘protection-from-instability fund’, a ‘just-in-case fund’ if we have to go home on short notice to see mom and dad, or help the family in other ways back home.”

Another key finding from the poll, a partnership led by Maclean’s and includes MoneySense, came when it asked the question: ‘For most transactions, how do you prefer to pay?’ In this case, 67 per cent of those who identified as immigrant respondents replied ‘credit’ whereas only 55 per cent of first generation Canadians did. “This can be explained by the immigrant’s desire to build a strong credit history,” notes Yap. “It’s almost as if we need to catch up with the local-born Canadians who have had their credit cards from the start.”

Many immigrants come from countries where the banking system is quite different from Canada’s. The importance placed on property ownership, both as a hold of value and as a status symbol, is amplified by Asian immigrants who are more likely to own their own home and have property investments—a key reason why as many as 81 per cent of immigrant poll respondents say they feel happily middle class.

Bernice Cheung, a Vice President of Cultural markets and Financial Services at Environics Research in Canada notes another reason for the financial success of immigrants. “Established immigrants, meaning those who have been here 11 years or more—often fare better than native born Canadians,” says Cheung.

“I’d say it’s likely because education and the strong work ethic are strongly valued, and better incomes often come with better educations and hard work.” Cheung, who conducts the 2017 Financial Services Among New Canadians Study, also mentions the Tiger Mom phenomenon, defined as a very strict, very disciplined, high-expectations family upbringing. “Especially for those coming from Asian countries, the desire to achieve is very highly placed,” she says.

…Certified financial planner Heather Franklin has seen the same disciplined approach to getting ahead amongst her own immigrant clients. “It’s important to them to do well, whereas for Canadians born here, it’s more about keeping up appearances and ‘keeping up with the Jones.’ Immigrants value hard work, a home and security—not all the bells and whistles.”

These days, immigrants have a lot of help getting them started in building wealth and financial success in their new country and most Canadian banks have newcomer packages. “Set up a chequing account in the first few weeks of your arrival,” advises Cheung to immigrant newcomers. “After all, before you can apply for a credit card, mortgage or personal loan, and before you can start building up your Canadian credit history, you need an account.” Often these newcomer banking packages mean they won’t charge monthly account fees for the first six-to-12 months and they’ll give immigrants discounts on other financial products like safety deposit boxes or auto insurance.

….As well, Newcomers should consider attending seminars hosted by banks on taxation, credit cards, Tax-Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs), Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs) as well as other tax deferring vehicles. “It’s also helpful to have a financial advisor set up a financial plan, starting with learning to use a TFSA,” says Cheung. Maramba agrees, adding that she found it beneficial to visit a fee-for-service financial advisor who gave good financial advice and didn’t simply take her money for selling her investments.

The Canada Project

In the bigger economic picture, Canadians should be very happy with social policy issues that see Canada welcoming about 300,000 immigrants a year. “Without immigration there is no growth,” says Cheung. “Without immigrants, Canadians will become a rapidly aging country, and the economy will decline. A healthy immigration policy is key to a healthy economy and more prosperity for everyone.”

Source: Newcomers grabbing at Canada’s brass ring – Macleans.ca

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A Bargain Price on American Citizenship – Diplomatic Courier

2017/06/03 Leave a comment

Another good analysis of the US EB-5 immigrant investor program:

Of all the innovations and new products that have breached the competitive global market, U.S. citizenship is now one of them. As part of a sales pitch presented at an investment conference in Beijing, Nicole Kushner Meyer (sister of Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and a top White House adviser) offered American citizenship in return for a $500,000 investment.

The only scandal about this is that the offer is completely legal. How? Through the EB-5 visa program. According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website, this 25-year-old EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program grants immigrants a path to a green card if they invest $1 million into a project that creates 10 or more U.S. full-time jobs. However, the minimum investment price drops to $500,000 if the development is “within a high-unemployment area or rural area in the United States.”

After two years, a foreign investor with an EB-5 visa can prove he or she put $500,000 into a developing or high unemployment area and created ten American jobs. Once that proof is confirmed, the investor is finally issued a Green Card, meaning permanent residency status that transforms into citizenship after five years. Fast and easy, if you have the money.

While Nicole Kushner Meyer’s dropping of her brother’s name and political ties have stirred up an ethical debate, the United States is not the only nation to advertise residency via an EB-5-esque immigration program. So you want to be a citizen of the Netherlands? That’ll $1.4 million, please. What about France? $10 million and a two-month wait. According to a studyby Allison Christians, citizenship by investment around the world range from $5.4 million in Russia to as low as $5,000 in Paraguay. On average, the price of citizenship is approximately $1 million internationally. However, the program has been accused of being susceptible to fraud and abuse with little oversight. Developers, such as the Kushner Company, can get investments offering very low rates of return because the investors are getting something they care about even more: U.S. citizenship.

While the EB-5 offers a simplified and expedited route to citizenship, the unfortunate truth is that for many entering the United States, $1 million is not exactly petty pocket cash that can be thrown into an ambiguous investment. It seems that the path to citizenship is different for those bringing economic capital and jobs into the country. Their stimulation of the domestic economy is so valued that the government rewards their investment in America’s continued growth with U.S. citizenship. A Department of Commerce review of EB-5 shows that in calendar years 2012 and 2013, more than 11,000 immigrant investors provided $5.8 billion in capital, roughly 35% of the total investment ($16.7 billion), for 562 EB-5 related projects, creating an estimate total of 174,039 jobs. In essence, the government is financing private real estate developers.

Although the EB-5 visa program received bipartisan support for its termination at the end of April, President Trump recently signed a bill to extend that program through the end of September. While attracting foreign investment and generating jobs in the U.S. is undoubtedly supported, advocates for the end of EB-5’s exploitation propose better options, like thoughtful tax and regulatory policies that open the U.S. for more pro-business opportunities rather than through the sale of something quite invaluable: the right—and privilege—to be an American citizen.

Source: A Bargain Price on American Citizenship – Diplomatic Courier

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Half of the most highly valued tech companies in the U.S. were founded by immigrants – Recode

2017/06/02 Leave a comment

Speaks for itself:

It turns out immigration is a boon for innovation in the United States. Sixty percent of the highest-valued tech companies were co-founded by first- or second-generation immigrants, according to Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner Mary Meeker’s annual internet trends report, which she presented at the Code Conference at Terranea Resort today.

Mary Meeker internet trends report

That number is still pretty high even if you count just first-generation Americans. Half of all of the most valuable private tech companies in the United Sates were co-founded by immigrants — including Uber, SpaceX, Instacart, AppNexus and FanDuel.

Mary Meeker internet trends report

Source: Half of the most highly valued tech companies in the U.S. were founded by immigrants – Recode

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