How Chinese millionaires buy U.S. citizenship

2015/05/15 Leave a comment

US Business investor visa, another example of selling access. Expect that the numbers are smaller than State dept believes:

But what if you could buy your way to the front of the line? One visa allows investors willing to dish out half a million dollars a fast pass to a green card.

To qualify for the so-called EB-5 visa, an investor must inject $500,000 into a project or business that will create 10 new jobs in a high unemployment or rural area. The visa has become so popular among Chinese millionaires looking for a ticket to citizenship that for the first time since it was introduced 24 years ago, the government has run out of available slots… until October.

But since the EB-5 visa was created in 1990, some have seen it as selling citizenship to the highest bidder. Supporters of the visa argue it is a painless way to employ U.S. workers, stimulate the economy and create funding for American businesses. In fact, the program has generated $8.6 billion in investment and created more than 57,000 jobs since 1990, according to the State department.

Still, critics say the government needs to keep a closer eye on investors applying for the visa to ensure they have met the employment requirements adequately. Investments built in high-end neighborhoods that employ workers from poorer areas often fulfill the visa’s rural and low-income job quota. With vthe isa up for renewal this September, some are urging Congress to reconsider.

How Chinese millionaires buy U.S. citizenship.

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Nashville sets the U.S. bar for welcoming immigrants

2015/05/12 Leave a comment

Good profile on Nashville’s approach to increased diversity, a welcome antidote to so much of the political rhetoric about immigration in the US:

Nashville brands itself as one of America’s most welcoming cities, but had residents made a different choice during a referendum in 2009, it could have been known as something else.

“It was definitely a turning point,” says Tara Lentz, the program director at Conexión Américas, a non-profit organization that helps Latinos.

The referendum asked: should English be the one and only language of the city government, no translations allowed? Those against the idea said it was anti-immigrant and would tarnish the city’s reputation. They breathed a sigh of relief when a majority voted No.

“Nashville made a decision to become a welcoming city at that point,” said Lentz. “It would be crazy now in 2015 to think about Nashville having that kind of referendum — which is great to be able to say six years later.”

A lot of work was done in the last six years to ensure that immigrants not only feel welcome, but are integrated. People who work in immigrant services give credit to Mayor Karl Dean, who has overseen a host of new initiatives to help new arrivals navigate the school system, government services and community centres that offer English lessons.

In a recent interview in his office, Dean said the referendum was a “moment of clarity” about what direction the city was going to go in, and that Nashvillians chose to embrace diversity rather than reject it.

He said he’s personally put so much effort into integrating immigrants because, “It’s just the right thing to do.”

“I do think that great cities, cities that do well, are going to be diverse cities,” Dean says. “Those are the cities that are going to have the energy, the exchange of ideas, different people working together.”

The mayor acknowledged that not everyone agrees with his approach but he thinks there is a solid consensus that Nashville wants to “make people feel like they belong here.”

So, do they?

“No problems at all, everything was very good, very smooth,” said Kamal Hasan, who came to Nashville in 2000 to join the growing Kurdish community, and now owns a grocery store selling food from around the world.

Nashville sets the U.S. bar for welcoming immigrants – World – CBC News.

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Ottawa doit soutenir l’immigration anglophone au Québec, recommande le commissaire Fraser

2015/05/09 Leave a comment

Logical. Just as the federal government has to promote immigration to francophone communities outside Quebec to ensure their long-term sustainability, the same approach should apply in Quebec.

However, given that Quebec is responsible for immigrant selection, this is more of a wish. And the reality of Quebec being a minority within an anglophone (and hispanophone) North America makes it unlikely that any Quebec government will take this idea up:

Dans son rapport annuel rendu public jeudi matin, le commissaire Fraser consacre deux de ses trois recommandations à la communauté québécoise anglophone, qu’il décrit comme ayant des difficultés et comme n’étant « pas toujours perçue à sa juste valeur».

Le commissaire a entre autres recommandé au ministère fédéral de l’Immigration d’« établir clairement les mesures qu’il entend prendre pour favoriser la vitalité des communautés anglophones du Québec par l’entremise de l’immigration ».

« Les difficultés que connaissent les communautés anglophones du Québec en matière d’immigration sont similaires à celles que doivent surmonter les communautés francophones du pays, a-t-il noté. En effet, certaines ont de la difficulté à attirer un nombre suffisant d’immigrants anglophones pour pallier leur faible taux de natalité et l’exode des jeunes, et pour revitaliser leurs institutions à long terme. »

M. Fraser a précisé en point de presse qu’il respecte la compétence du Québec de sélectionner ses propres immigrants et que ses recommandations ne visent pas à plaider directement en faveur d’une hausse de l’immigration anglophone au Québec.

Mais « je pense que votre intérêt à ce sujet va soulever une discussion intéressante », a-t-il ajouté, se disant aussi conscient de la nature sensible du dossier linguistique dans la province.

Le Bloc québécois n’a pas tardé à réagir. « Le rapport du commissaire aux langues officielles est déplorable. Il propose de renforcer l’immigration anglophone alors que c’est le français qui est menacé au Québec », a dénoncé le chef du Bloc, Mario Beaulieu.

Ottawa doit soutenir l’immigration anglophone au Québec, recommande le commissaire Fraser | Hugo de Grandpré | National.

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New Canadians a better credit risk: Report

2015/05/02 Leave a comment

Not surprising but interesting:

“There is a common misconception that providing credit to new immigrants is a risky move for financial institutions, but the fact is that immigrants have a 20 per cent lower delinquency (rate on credit cards) than the national average of the general population,” explains Regina Malina, senior director of decision insights at Equifax Canada.

In her latest report, she says lenders often approach new Canadians with caution, and wind up presenting these customers with a limited product selection for credit due to a lack of insight into their credit history and risk score.

As a result, limited credit options tend to push customers to seek credit with another institution because the initial options available to them may not meet their changing needs over time, the study found.

For example, many new immigrants end up closing their first Canadian credit cards or let them become inactive, and financial institutions are losing these customers to their competition, often within two years, notes Malina.

But 46 per cent of new immigrants with an inactive or closed credit card still need that product, and 71 per cent of them will turn to a new financial institution that offers a higher limit, says the data and analytics firm study.

Between 2006 and 2011, approximately 1.2 million people immigrated to Canada, primarily from China and India, and one of the first things newcomers do is apply for credit to secure housing, car loans and phones, she said.

“Institutions are competing hard for this key market, as nearly 80 per cent of new immigrants obtain their first financial product from one of five major Canadian banks,” she noted.

“With about 250,000 new immigrants arriving in Canada every year, financial institutions have a big opportunity to build long-term relationships with this growing customer base,” the report states.

New Canadians a better credit risk: Report | Toronto Star.

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Non-permanent residents are force in Canadian economy

2015/05/01 Leave a comment

Interesting take from CIBC on the economic contribution of non-Permanent Residents:

The most powerful demographic and economic impact is not in the tight labour markets of Alberta and Saskatchewan, but in British Columbia and Ontario, Tal found.

The number of non-permanent residents tripled in Ontario between 2006 and 2013. If those people hadn’t arrived, the province would have lost 120,000 people in the important cohort that is forming households and powering economies.

In B.C., the number in the 25-44 age group would have been flat if the non-permanent residents total hadn’t doubled.

“It is not a coincidence that those two provinces are also the ones to experience long-lasting strong housing market activity,” Tal said in his analysis.

The implication is that any new federal policies to alter the status of TFWs should take into account their importance as spenders in the Canadian economy.

“The main issue is to take into account the economic impact of such large numbers. The number is big enough to change the trajectory,” Tal said.

He said the 2013 numbers, which he drew from Statistics Canada, may underestimate the number of non-permanent residents in Canada compared to more recent figures from Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

He points to a 14 per cent growth in new permits for TFWs and nine per cent growth in extensions in 2014. There is very little evidence such workers are returning to their home countries, he said.

Non-permanent residents are force in Canadian economy: CIBC – Business – CBC News.

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The real reasons why migrants risk everything for a new life elsewhere: Saunders

2015/04/27 Leave a comment

Good in-depth piece by Doug Saunders, putting the current situation in context:

Even in its worst years, the Mediterranean boat-people flow is only a small part of the migration picture: tens of thousands of entrants in a continent of half a billion people that receives three million immigrants a year. Most Africans living in Europe are fully legal, visa-carrying immigrants who arrive at airports. Even the majority of illegal African immigrants in Europe aren’t boat people: They’re legal visitors who’ve overstayed their visas.

What has compounded the matter during the past 24 months has been the conflict in Syria. While only a fraction of people fleeing that country have attempted to go to Europe – the vast majority are encamped in Turkey, Jordan or Lebanon – that fraction has multiplied the numbers of boat people dramatically in 2014 and 2015. It now accounts for perhaps half of Mediterranean boat migrants (though the boat that was the subject of last weekend’s tragedy carried passengers almost entirely from sub-Saharan Africa).

Refugees tend to be temporary (the much larger exodus of asylum seekers that confronted Western Europe during the Balkan wars of the 1990s – a population shift that seemed even more intractable – mostly returned to their countries after the conflicts ended), and are dealt with through different policies than are migrants. In Europe, those policies are deeply dysfunctional, with little agreement among the 28 EU countries about how to handle refugee claimants or how to deport illegitimate ones – which has contributed to the death toll.

“There should be no reason for Syrian refugees to be getting on these boats, except that there has been no proper pathway for safe refugee acceptance opened up,” Dr. de Haas says. If Western countries would take their United Nations refugee responsibilities more seriously, Syrians wouldn’t be dying at sea.

The most insidious notion is the one that holds that the Africans on the boats are starving villagers escaping famine and death. In fact, every boat person I’ve met has been ambitious, urban, educated, and, if not middle-class (though a surprising number are, as are an even larger number of Syrian refugees), then far from subsistence peasantry. They are very poor by European standards, but often comfortable by African and Middle Eastern ones. And no wonder: The boats cost upward of $2,000 to board (and you need more money to make a start in Europe). That’s a year’s income in many African countries.

Why would somebody risk their life, and their comfort, for a journey that at best would promise a marginal life in the underground economies of Europe?

Linguère Mously Mbaye, a scholar at the Bonn-based Institute for the Study of Labour, conducted a study of hundreds of people in Dakar, Senegal, who were planning to make the crossing to Europe.

The migrants tended not to be very poor. And they tended to be well-connected in Europe: They knew large numbers of people from their home country already living in Europe and working in similar occupations. In other words, they were tied into “migration networks” that communicated information about employment, small-business, housing and migration opportunities. Migrants tend to choose their European destinations not according to culture, language or history, but according to the number of people from their network who are living there – and also according to the economic success of their destination country.

The Syrian refugees are less tactical – and not as well linked into existing economies – than the Africans, but they, too, tend to come because they have connections to people or organizations in Europe. Concludes Dr. Mbaye, “Illegal migration starts first in thoughts, based upon the belief that success is only possible abroad.”

Both major studies found that the Africans who get onto the boats are not running from something awful, but running toward a specific, chosen opportunity, in employment or small business.

That’s a big reason that the boat-people flows have gone up and down so dramatically: Dr. de Haas’s studies found that the main driver of cross-Mediterranean migration is not any economic or political factor in Africa but “sustained demand [in Europe] for cheap labour in agriculture, services, and other informal sectors.” Even those who are fleeing – the Syrians, some Eritreans – are choosing where they flee based on a sense of opportunity.

The real reasons why migrants risk everything for a new life elsewhere – The Globe and Mail.

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Terry Glavin: Canada’s unhappy affair with China’s princeling millionaires

2015/04/24 Leave a comment

Terry Glavin on the set-for-abuse investor immigrant program, cancelled by the Conservatives and refashioned to address some of the abuse (not convinced that the new Immigrant Investor Venture Capital Pilot Program will completely address some of these issues):

To give you a sense of how absurdly the taboo had throttled Canadian debates it’s instructive to recall the rubbish that was uttered when Harper finally got around to shutting it all down last year with a resolve to start from scratch. Vancouver MP Don Davies, the New Democrats’ international trade critic, accused the government of “damaging Canada’s economy and trade relationships.” Then there was Liberal warhorse John McCallum (Markham—Unionville): “Are Conservatives inadvertently picking on Chinese people?”

China’s massive Operation Skynet fraud squad is now rummaging through Vancouver’s real estate industry. British Columbia’s police agencies won’t say whether they’re cooperating, but even if they were it wouldn’t be easy work. Over its final decade or so, the Immigrant Investor Program drew more than 30,000 Chinese millionaires to British Columbia.

Just one of the unseemly costs of Ottawa’s wheel-greasing for Beijing’s princelings is a sum that might well amount to billions of dollars in no-interest loans that should have gone to British Columbia’s provincial treasury. Instead, the money got spent on thousands of back-door keys the Canada-Quebec Accord made available with a wink and a nod to Chinese millionaires bound for Vancouver, in transit through Montreal.

It says something unflattering all round that what we know now about Canada’s immigrant-investor courtship of Beijing’s princelings is mainly due to the courage and persistence of a single reporter

Contrast that with the marquee billing given to the gluttonous wastrel Mike Duffy, a senator facing criminal charges that may or may not involve the prime minister’s former chief of staff having improperly repaid the federal treasury for travel and living expenses that Duffy may or may not have improperly billed the taxpayer, to the amount of $90,000. It’s a gripping yarn and dozens of journalists are on the story, but it says something unflattering all round that what we know now about Canada’s immigrant-investor courtship of Beijing’s princelings is mainly due to the courage and persistence of a single reporter.

Ian Young, Vancouver correspondent for the South China Morning Post, has been almost alone in chasing down the immigrant investor scandal. It was Young who recently ferreted out the data demonstrating that Canada’s investor class immigrants, about 80 per cent of whom are Chinese millionaires, appear to have contributed less to the federal treasury over the past quarter of a century in tax on earnings than the bedraggled refugees Canada admitted over that period.

Nobody seems to even know where all these bigshot investors have gone. Surveys by the China Merchants Bank show that nearly a quarter of Mainland China’s millionaires had already emigrated by 2013, but vacancy rates in Vancouver’s posh new condo districts are perhaps 30 per cent. The city doesn’t keep track, but University of British Columbia geography professor David Ley has been tracing the relationship between the rise in Vancouver residential property prices and the influx of immigrant investors over the years. The lines run in direct lockstep.

Terry Glavin: Canada’s unhappy affair with China’s princeling millionaires

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One-fifth of New Canadians arrive with no money: report

2015/04/16 Leave a comment

Interesting survey by Pollara (BMO sponsored) on immigrant savings and spendings:

Immigrants arrive in Canada with an average of $47,000 in savings – but are left with less than half of that once they get initially settled, says a new BMO Wealth Management report.

And about one-fifth, or 19 per cent, come with no money at all, finds the study being released Wednesday.

“It can be incredibly stressful – financially and otherwise – to pick up, move to another country, and begin the process of creating a new life for yourself, so it’s great to see that new Canadians do have a bit of a nest egg remaining,” said Julie Barker-Merz, president of BMO InvestorLine.

After all the initial expenses associated with getting settled — including moving costs, flights, food, clothing and shelter for their family — immigrants are left with an average of $20,000, says the inaugural study Making the Financial Transition.

It found new Canadians spend their remaining money to save for various things, including retirement at 53 per cent, their children’s education at 49 per cent, large purchases like a home or a car at 44 per cent and a trip at 36 per cent.

Two-thirds send an average of $2,300 back home to friends or family, with 17 per cent doing so monthly and one-quarter sending money a few times a year, says the report examining a variety of financial issues for those who have moved to Canada less than 10 years ago.

Immigrants face numerous challenges when arriving to their new country, including lack of familiarity with the financial system combined with language barriers, Barker-Merz said.

“What will be critical is to make sure they make their remaining money work for them by acquainting themselves with the basics of saving and investing in their new environment,” she noted.

All banks compete actively for this business.

One-fifth of New Canadians arrive with no money: report | Toronto Star.

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Oh Canada, I Cry for What Might Have Been – New Canadian Media – NCM

2015/04/14 Leave a comment

A bad immigrant experience:

And then I met Buddha, in the form of a government servant. This was a woman who was supposed to be helping immigrants settle down in Canada. In her frustration at not being able to cajole me into accepting the odd job as a cleaner or garbage collector, she told me that if I really felt that I had higher value, I could always go back to where I had come from.

That thought stuck with me.

I left my job search, used whatever money I had brought along to buy a gas bar and a convenience store in Guelph, and later a motel in Niagara Falls. My wife, with a doctorate in economics, worked with me, hand in hand. Together we built our lives and provided for our family. Later we sold the gas bar and bought two more motels, larger ones. Amongst family and friends, we were rated a success story.

Even Canada recognized our success and within three years of arriving here, Canada’s leading immigrant magazine rated me as one of the ‘Top 75 immigrants’ for 2013. Seriously? Amongst the best success stories of Canada.

And while living this ‘successful’ Canadian life, selling cigarettes and groceries, renting or cleaning rooms, doing laundry, removing garbage or plowing snow in the gas station or motel, facing racial slurs on a regular basis from customers who visited our small businesses, this soul was waiting for the moment when it could follow the Buddha’s mantra, “If you want, you can always go back.”

…We simply wanted to do our best, and offer our best to our patrons.

But this was all a scam. I was cheated. I applied for Canadian immigration under the skilled category and was selected based on a point system, which gave higher credence to my Indian education and work experience, both of which were rejected here.

I did not come to Canada to be a gas station attendant. Or a front office receptionist. Or a cleaner. I was an engineer and an experienced professional, and I expected opportunities where my expertise could have been used – even a supervisory role. I was never even short-listed for a job interview. Not even one.

After running my businesses for five years and relieved of some family responsibilities, the time had arrived to break free and ‘do’ what I was trained to do. But before that, just one last time, I wanted to try out Canada.

I sold my businesses and with my five years of ‘Canadian work experience’, started looking for jobs once more. Result? Again, a big zero, other than those offering positions at minimum wage.

I did at least develop a friendship with the Canadian flag, as we talked and scraped through the Canadian winter. The flag fought the forces of nature while I fought the very system that it stood for.

By calling us outsiders and making us feel unwanted because of our skin colour, our names and our religion and by neglecting our professional background, you are becoming a mediocre ghetto and a place as cold and frigid as its weather.

I now end my life as a non-descript entity in Canada and am reborn as a professional, while going back to the lands that trust my skills, my expertise and have called me back with open arms, entrusting me the responsibilities of managing companies and providing leadership to skilled people.

Vicious lady, my living Buddha, I am grateful and delighted today to follow your advice.  Just to help you, on your behalf, I shout loudly to anyone who in his middle age still maintains a Canadian dream – do not come here if you genuinely value yourself.

Oh Canada, I cry for thee! In wasting lives of your adopted children you lose the very skills that they brought along. While throwing cold water over our dreams, you also end the warmth of belonging towards you that once ignited our loving hearts.

By calling us outsiders and making us feel unwanted because of our skin colour, our names and our religion and by neglecting our professional background, you are becoming a mediocre ghetto and a place as cold and frigid as its weather.

Good-bye, my adopted land and I may be gone for long and may just come back in the winter of my life. Perhaps in my heart, there is still some love left. I am not taking everything away. While leaving, I give you my biggest gift, my most beautiful creation for keeps. My children – the fruit of my life’s labour.

Accept them. Treat them as your own and not as the stepchild like you treated me. Love them as much as they love you.

My friend, our flag, fluttering, dying on that building there, is shedding one last tear together with me, for thee. I pray that for once, our tears melt your frozen heart and you open your arms and accept my children as yours and build a Canada of the future, a Canada of their dreams.

Oh Canada, I Cry for What Might Have Been – New Canadian Media – NCM.

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Slow start for Express Entry but new immigration system to pick up – Minister

2015/04/13 Leave a comment

Still early days so we should see the ramp up Alexander refers to:

Mr. Alexander said he doesn’t expect the new system to significantly alter the mix of Canada’s immigration source countries. India, China and the Philippines remain the largest sources for applications.

“We still see strong interest and immigration flows from Asia … but we also see some new markets responding to the prospects of a faster system,” Mr. Alexander said. “I know in France there’s a lot of interest in Canadian immigration and a lot of interest in Express Entry.”

In one round of selections, the top countries of residence were Canada (foreign applicants who are already in the country), the United States, India and England, according to Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC).

… “That is truly remarkable,” Mr. Alexander said. Under the old system, would-be immigrants could wait up to eight years to have their applications assessed, since it was run on a first-come, first-served basis. Now, the top candidates go to the front of the line right away, he said.

It’s a competitive system, but fair, he added.

Slow start for Express Entry but new immigration system to pick up – The Globe and Mail.

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