Keller: On immigration, the sum of Canada’s special interests is not the national interest

2024/02/10 Leave a comment

Nails it (money quote: “Even the government appears to have been largely unaware of its own actions, and even more ignorant of their consequences.”:

…When government makes policy, it usually consults with all of the stakeholders. It takes notes. It aims to please. And on temporary immigration, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall because he did exactly what all the king’s stakeholders and all the king’s lobbyists told him to do.

The business lobby said there was an economy-wide labour shortage – there isn’t, but sit through enough business stakeholder meetings and you’ll believe it. The solution was unlimited recruitment of low-wage overseas workers.

Colleges and universities said they needed an ever-growing number of student visas, their provincial masters mostly agreed, and business applauded because visa students were another low-wage work stream. A Quebec government that loudly demanded lower immigration quietly pressed for ever more temporary foreign workers. And progressive activists pushed for the lowering of all barriers to coming to Canada or remaining.

Year after year, the Liberals gave the stakeholders what they wanted. In a government-as-client-service model, it read like a success story.

But the sum of a bunch of narrow special interests does not add up to the national interest. It’s a pity this government didn’t figure that out sooner.

Source: On immigration, the sum of Canada’s special interests is not the national interest

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Is a waning Canadian dream fuelling reverse migration in Punjab?

2024/02/10 Leave a comment

Of note:

It’s hard to miss the ardour of Punjab’s migrant ambitions when driving through its fertile rural plains.

Billboards promising easy immigration to Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK jut out through ample mustard fields.

Off the highways, consultancies offer English language coaching to eager youth.

Single-storey brick homes double up as canvasses for hand-painted mural advertisements promising quick visas. And in the town of Bathinda, hundreds of agents jostle for space on a single narrow street, pledging to speed up the youth’s runaway dreams.

For over a century, this province in India’s northwest has seen waves of overseas migration; from the Sikh soldiers inducted into the British Indian Army travelling to Canada, through to rural Punjabis settling in England post-independence.

But some, especially from Canada, are now choosing to come back home.

One of those is 28-year-old Balkar, who returned in early 2023 after just one year in Toronto. Citizenship was his ultimate goal when he left his little hamlet of Pitho in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. His family mortgaged their land to fund his education.

But his Canadian dream quickly lost its allure a few months into his life there.

“Everything was so expensive. I had to work 50 hours every week after college, just to survive,” he told the BBC. “High inflation is making many students leave their studies.”

Balkar now runs an embroidery business from a small room on one side of the expansive central courtyard in his typical Punjabi home. He also helps on his family’s farm to supplement his income.

Opportunities for employment are few and far between in these rural areas, but technology has allowed entrepreneurs like him to conquer the tyranny of distance. Balkar gets the bulk of his business through Instagram.

“I have a good life here. Why should I face hardships there when I can live at home and make good money?” he asks.

The BBC spoke to at least half a dozen reverse migrants in Punjab who shared similar sentiments.

It was also a common refrain in the scores of videos on YouTube shared by Indians who had chosen to abandon their life in Canada and return home. There was a stark difference one young returnee told the BBC between the “rosy picture” immigration agents painted and the rough reality of immigrant life in Toronto and Vancouver.

Immigration services are a big business in Punjab

The “Canada craze” has let up a bit – and especially so among well-off migrants who have a fallback option at home, says Raj Karan Brar, an immigration agent in Bathinda who helps hundreds of Punjabis get permanent residencies and student visas every year.

The desire for a Canadian citizenship remains as strong as ever though among middle- and lower middle-class clients in rural communities.

But viral YouTube videos of students talking about the difficulty in finding jobs and protests over a lack of housing and work opportunities has created an air of nervousness among these students, say immigration agents.

There was a 40% decline in applications from India for Canadian study permits in the second half of 2023, according to one estimate. This was, in part, also due to the ongoing diplomatic tensions between India and Canada over allegations Indian agents were involved in the murder of Canadian Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

There are also hints of deeper cultural factors at play, for a waning Canadian dream among an older generation of Indian migrants.

Karan Aulakh, who spent nearly 15 years in Edmonton and achieved career and financial success, left his managerial job for a comfortable rural life in Khane ki Daab, the village where he was born in 1985.

He told the BBC he was upset by LGBT-inclusive education policies in Canada and its 2018 decision to legalise recreational cannabis.

Incompatibility with the Western way of life, a struggling healthcare system, and better economic prospects in India were, he said, key reasons why many older Canadian Indians are preparing to leave the country.

“I started an online consultancy – Back to the Motherland – a month and a half ago, to help those who want to reverse migrate. I get at least two to three calls every day, mostly from people in Canada who want to know what job opportunities there are in Punjab and how they can come back,” said Mr Aulakh.

For a country that places such a high value on immigration, these trends are “concerning” and are “being received with a bit of a sting politically”, says Daniel Bernhard of the Institute of Canadian Citizenship, an immigration advocacy group.

A liberalised immigration regime has been Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s signature policy to counter slowing economic growth and a rapidly aging population.

According to Canada’s statistics agency, immigration accounted for 90% of Canada’s labour force growth and 75% of population growth in 2021.

International students contribute to over C$20bn ($14.7bn; £11.7bn) to Canada’s economy each year, a bulk of them Indians who now make up one in five recent immigrants to the country.

India was also Canada’s leading source for immigration in 2022.

The numbers of those leaving are still small in absolute terms with immigration levels at all-time highs in Canada – the country welcomed nearly half a million new migrants each year over the past few years.

But the rate of reverse migration hit a two decade high in 2019, signalling that migrants were “losing confidence” in the country said Mr Bernhard.

Country specific statistics for such emigrants, or reverse migrants, are not available.

But official data obtained by Reuters shows between 80,000 and 90,000 immigrants left Canada in 2021 and 2022 and either went back to their countries, or onward elsewhere.

Some 42,000 people departed in the first half of 2023.

Fewer permanent residents are also going on to become Canadian citizens, according to census data cited by the Institute for Canadian Citizenship. In 2001, 75% of those eligible became citizens. Two decades later, it was 45%.

Canada needs to “restore the value of its citizenship,” said Mr Bernhard.

It comes as Canada debates its aggressive immigration targets given country’s struggle to absorb more people.

A recent report from National Bank of Canada economists cautioned that the population growth was putting pressure on its already tight housing supply and strained healthcare system.

Canada has seen a population surge – an increase of 1.2 million people in 2023 – driven mostly by newcomers.

The report argued that growth needed to be slowed to an annual increase of up to 500,000 people in order to preserve or increase the standard of living.

There appears to have been a tacit acceptance of this evaluation by policymakers.

Mr Trudeau’s Liberal government recently introduced a cap on international student permits that would result in a temporary decrease of 35% in approved study visas.

It’s a significant policy shift that some believe may end up further reducing Canada’s appeal amid a wave of reverse migrations.

Source: Is a waning Canadian dream fuelling reverse migration in Punjab?

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Century Initiative: Yes, immigration has weighed on the economy, but it is not the enemy

2024/02/09 Leave a comment

The latest in weak arguments by the Century Initiative, conveniently neglecting their role in advocating for high immigration without consideration of the impacts on housing, healthcare and infrastructure, their scorecard notwithstanding. 

No recognition of the time lags between immigration level increases and building needed infrastructure. 

Hard for organizations to pivot when public commentary and opinion shifts and CI, like others, has been caught flat-footed by this change.

A more credible approach for CI would be advocating for a pause in planned increases in immigration, and caps on temporary workers (the government at last is doing so with international students). 

And seriously, considering immigration and infrastructure as the “two pillars … as the lifeblood of modern economies” without technology and productivity, along with essential social and public services, is perhaps telling:

Two pillars can be characterized as the lifeblood of modern economies – immigration and infrastructure.

Ideally, they’re dance partners – one always moving attentively in response to the other. A careful, constructed harmony.

In reality, they can and dofall badly out of step.

Right now, Canadians are experiencing the pain of that reality. Homes are desperately needed; too few are being built. Hospital wings and hospital beds are called for, none can be found. Overcrowded schools, roads and transit systems require renovation, and no workers can be hired to repair them.

This challenging reality is affecting our attitudes. Research shows declining public support for Canada’s immigration levels. But, crucially, that same research also illustrates this waning support is tied to that very same pain and frustration – to crushed dreams of home ownership, interminable wait times and unpaved roads.

We have not fallen into a pit of nativism. But we are falling into an overriding sense of pessimism, and the Band-Aid solutions that sense so readily provides. And, by far, the very worst is to simply curtail population growth.

Easy answer. Bad idea in both the short term and the long. Because this is also the answer that would result in an aging, less-skilled work force, less foreign investment, less diversity and less influence on the global stage.

The more ambitious, yet critical, task is building and planning for growth. And that requires us to rethink our approach to housing and infrastructure.

I say “rethink” because, as much as anything, it’s a question of mentality. The orders of magnitude we’re talking about are monumental. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says Canada needs to tripleits homebuilding output by the end of 2030 to restore affordability.

On this front, the federal government’s recent pledge to revive its wartime homebuilding strategy by adopting a catalogue of preapproved home designs to reduce the costs and approval timelines is welcome news.

A wartime effort might sound hyperbolic. It’s not. It expresses the urgency of the problem rhetorically, but it also suggests the definitive, long-term infrastructure planning needed to marshal and free up concrete action – planning that depends on immigration to succeed.

As with any wartime effort, we won’t fix the problem with one department or initiative alone. We need a sustained push from all levels of government and partners in the homebuilding industry, finance and not-for-profit sectors.

While many of the most cumbersome roadblocks to construction exist at the municipal level, the federal government must use its cheque book and political capital to eliminate barriers. Legalizing six-plexes as-of-right, lowering development costs, cutting red tape and prioritizing housing near city-led developments such as libraries, community centres and subway stations are all critical priorities. Early “strings attached” housing agreements between the federal government and municipalities including Kelowna, B.C., Calgary and Toronto are a promising start.

It also means working with the provinces on skilled trades strategies that simplify pathways into home construction, both for newcomers and long-time residents looking to contribute to the effort. And it means reviewing public land from top to bottom, with an eye toward identifying opportunities to increase affordable housing stock.

We can’t blame the problem exclusively on land speculation, but should use available tools to ensure construction permits result in quick development. This may include the adoption of “use it or lose it” levies and enhanced efforts to combat money laundering in the housing market. Governments should invest at a level that matches the urgency of this crisis with stronger commitments to subsidize affordable, non-profit and co-op housing development and operation.

Like any wartime effort, there isn’t a silver bullet that will make the problem go away. The key is using every tool at our disposal.

Such an approach is not only essential for housing supply, but for the infrastructure projects that must accompany population growth. Canada needs widespread broadband coverage, new bridges, wastewater treatment facilities, and public transit. While, on the housing front, we have the clear political will to execute a wartime strategy, we must continually reproduce the imperatives of co-operation, efficiency and determination this effort represents.

George Bernard Shaw once observed, “Reformers have the idea that change can be achieved by brute sanity.” It’s a pithy challenge to the fallacy of rationalism, that all can be set right by the seemingly logical. And the temptation toward the brutishly sane is, in this case: cut out immigration and thus cut out the problem. It’s a line of thinking all too real in recent weeks.

But, in today’s Canada, calling for an end to immigration, or a vast reduction in our targets, is like trying to fix an engineering problem by standing on the sidelines and calling it a problem of overengineering. It’s unhelpful. It’s outside the bounds of the functional. And, worst of all, it doesn’t solve the problem. It doesn’t result in a country that can compete in a highly competitive world, support its seniors, or promise a better future for the next generation.

It doesn’t result in a country that will thrive.

Recent conversations about immigration levels should be a wakeup call – not to try and cut the problem in half, parse it, or leave it for tomorrow, but to face it down with uncommon planning, investment and effort.

Lisa Lalande is chief executive officer of Century Initiative.

Source: Yes, immigration has weighed on the economy, but it is not the enemy

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Organized crime, including Mexican cartels, smuggling migrants to Canada

2024/02/09 Leave a comment

Foreshadowing likely re-imposition of Mexican visa requirement?:

Immigration Minister Marc Miller told the Commons that the government is looking at measures to “tighten the screws” on steeply rising migration to Canada, including examining whether to re-impose visas to visitors from Mexico.

“The flows that are coming into the country – regardless of the country of origin – particularly in terms of asylum seekers and irregular migration are very high,” he said. “I think it is important to take a look at our public policies to see where we can tighten that up – and that includes Mexico.”

Conservative immigration critic Tom Kmiec said there had been a surge in asylum claims from Mexicans to more than 14,000 a year, since the visa requirement was lifted in 2016. He pressed the minister on why action has not yet been taken to reimpose visas, with 70 per cent of Mexican asylum claims rejected.

Mr. Miller said he did not want to “downplay the severity of the issue” and that the acceptance rates from asylum seekers from Mexico were much lower overall than those from other countries. But he said Mexico is one of Canada’s most important trading partners and the issue involved “a process internally as well as with the Government of Mexico.”

Source: Organized crime, including Mexican cartels, smuggling migrants to Canada

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Here’s how Canada will decide which colleges and universities can be trusted with international students

2024/02/09 Leave a comment

Leaked draft plan. Would likely be simpler just to make the main criteria being a public institution without satellite strip mall campuses…:

…Although the department refused to say if the plan has been updated since it was first presented in August, it offered a first glimpse at what precisely immigration officials were going to look at when assessing the schools’ legitimacy and capacity to bring in international students.

“The rapid growth in intake has disrupted processing times and service standards,” said the 11-page proposal, obtained by the Star. “There are concerns that many (designated learning institutions) have become increasingly dependent on international students for tuition revenue, in some cases, not providing international students a positive education experience in Canada.

“There is a belief that processing times are impacting Canada’s ability to attract top international students, and that, compounded with the reported cases of international student exploitation, this may harm Canada’s reputation as a destination of choice.”

It said the department had developed a matrix that could be used to determine which institutions would be eligible. The index would be based on seven indicators, including an institution’s:

  • Percentage of students who remain in the original program after their first year in Canada;
  • Percentage of students who complete their program within the expected length of study;
  • Percentage of total revenue that’s derived from international enrolment; 
  • Dollar value and percentage of total scholarships and grants to students from less developed countries;
  • Dollar value in mental health support as well as career and immigration counselling per international student versus the average tuition they pay;
  • Total number and percentage of international students living in housing they administered; and
  • Average teacher-student ratio for the 10 courses with the highest international enrolment.

All in all, said the plan, the information will help ensure the student intake is sustainable, only “genuine” learners are recruited, high-quality education is supported, and graduates demonstrate strong outcomes….

Critic Earl Blaney said the trusted regime is a step in the right direction, but he is doubtful whether it could be implemented in time for the fall semester. He says few institutions would have all the data handily available and the compilation process must be standardized to make the information comparable and meaningful from coast to coast.

Currently there are more than 1,500 designated learning institutions authorized to accept international students, though not all are in post-secondary education. 

“They’re trying to vet the quality of the institution and the student experience, which I definitely support,” said Blaney, an education agent and international education policy analyst based in London, Ont. 

“There’s a lot to figure out here. I just don’t think they had time to implement something that would not be criticized or ridiculed, essentially when they weren’t getting the data that they needed to start the evaluation process.”

According to the plan, in assessing trusted institutions, officials would also rely on the Immigration Department’s own data such as study permit approval rate, “adverse outcomes” of students and diversity of their country of origin at a school. They would also examine how many graduates from the institution become permanent residents, as well as their language proficiency and earnings when they apply for immigration. 

Given that international students are used increasingly to serve Canada’s labour market needs, Blaney said the trusted scheme should also look at what programs they enrol in at a school to ensure those churning out talents that the country needs are prioritized.

source: Here’s how Canada will decide which colleges and universities can be trusted with international students

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Looking for an ‘IELTS clear girl’: Why Canada’s international student reforms may spoil these kinds of marriages in India

2024/02/08 Leave a comment

Interesting read and suspect more of these stories will come out as the new restrictions on international students come into effect:

At first glance, it looks just like any matrimonial profile, detailing the age, height and education background of the boy looking for a match. But then there’s a twist: Only an “IELTS clear girl” should bother responding.

In another ad, a young woman with a bachelor’s degree in science is looking for a groom interested in moving to Canada and willing to bear all expenses. And her biggest asset, as advertised: “IELTS 7 band.”

IELTS stands for the International English Language Testing System, one of the world’s most popular English proficiency tests for higher education and immigration — and an entry requirement to come to Canada. International students need a minimum overall score of 6 in writing, reading, listening and speaking English for admission to undergraduate and diploma programs in this country.

A perfect match would mean the bride could get the boy’s family to pay for her tuition and living costs of studying abroad. In exchange, the groom could come to Canada on an open work permit, accompanying the spouse. And they’d both hope to one day earn their permanent residence here.

“These are real marriages and there’s nothing illegal about it,” said Rajinder Taggar, an investigative reporter based in Chandigarh, India. “You can find these matrimonial ads very easily, in all the newspapers. People make no secret about it.”

But the practice of so-called “IELTS marriages” is coming to an end, quickly, after Canada’s announcement last week to tighten up the international student program. Among the many changes made by Ottawa is stop issuing work permits to the spouses of international students in undergraduate and diploma programs.

“The boy marries the girl and his family puts money in her studies, so the spouse can come,” Vinay Hari, a prominent education agent based in Jalandhar, told the Star.  “Now that will stop. The girl will not get the money for the education in Canada.

“They will file divorces and their relationships will be terminated. It’s already happening.”

Almost 40 per cent of Canada’s international students these days come from India, where prospective students are being hardest hit by Canada’s recent changes to the international student program.

Last month, Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced a plan to slash the number of new study permits issued across Canada this year by 35 per cent from last year’s level, to 364,000, while leaving the number of applicants accepted in master’s and doctoral programs, as well as those admitted to primary and secondary schools, uncapped.

Other new or recent measures include:

• Effective on Jan. 1, doubling the cost-of-living financial requirement for study permit applicants from $10,000 to $20,635 in addition to their first year of tuition and travel costs;

• Starting Sept. 1, stopping to issue post-graduation work permits to international students who complete programs provided under so-called Public College-Private Partnerships;

• In the weeks ahead, the spouses of most international students will no longer be granted work permits, with the exception of those studying in graduate schools or in a professional program such as medicine or law.

These three measures are intended to raise the bar and plug the incentives for people to take advantage of the international student program in what Miller has described as a “backdoor entry” into Canada.

According to Taggar, the Indian journalist, IELTS marriages have been happening for some time, but they became more common with Canada’s open policy to welcome international students and the marketing by unscrupulous agents to promote international studies as an immigration scheme.

“Girls work harder and are smarter. And they pass the IELTS exam,” said Taggar, who has published in the Tribune, Indian Express, Hindustan Times, and Times of India. “Some of them come from poor families but they are good at studies. The boys’ families will pay for the education. They want to come to Canada and become permanent residents. That’s all.”

Removing the spousal work permit for students in undergraduate and college programs, which are normally cheaper and shorter than postgraduate studies, would deter that kind of exploitation of the international student program, he said.

Hari, the education agent, said he has received more than 100 inquiries in the past week from prospective students who asked to withdraw their applications for programs delivered under public-private college partnerships because they will no longer grant postgraduation work permits.

These partnerships are mostly between smaller public colleges in remote communities in the province and private colleges in Greater Toronto, where international students prefer to live — prompted by the public institutions’ need to stay afloat amid declining domestic enrolment and provincial funding cut.

The business model allows taxpayer-funded colleges to provide curriculum at a fee to private career college partners, who can hire their own non-unionized instructors to deliver the academic programs in the region.

Graduates from the private colleges then get a public college credential, which made them eligible for a postgraduate work permit as a pathway for permanent residence.

After the Jan. 22 changes, “they told us, ‘Sir, I don’t want to go to a (public-private partnership college). Transfer my application to the (public college) main campus,'” Hari said. “They don’t want to go to Hanson College in Toronto or Brampton. They want to go to Cambrian College in Sudbury.”

Over the last five years, said Hari, Canada has gained a bad reputation in India as a destination for immigration through education. As a result, many Indian students are enrolled in college diploma programs that give them quick access to work permits but won’t necessarily advance their employment and career prospects.

He said serious learners now tend to prefer the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, while those who want to immigrate come to study in Canada.

“Thousands of these students are coming for these general business programs,” said Hari, who has helped more than 11,000 students come to study in Canada in the last 14 years. “Did Canada produce that many businessmen and entrepreneurs?

“This immigration scam has given students the opportunity to work full time. So students are not coming but labourers are coming.“

Hari said many prospective students and their families in India are panicking in the wake of Miller’s announcement because the price tag has now gone even higher, with education agents quickly shifting to promote and market the master’s programs in Canada.

“Canada has to support the quality education. They have to fund public colleges and universities,” he said. “The PPPs have created a mess and I think Canada is now on track again.”

Nitin Chawla, an education agent and immigration consultant based in Ludhiana in Punjab state, said he’s already seeing the impacts of Canada’s new rules as inquiries about Canada have slowed down and most people walking into his office are now exploring the opportunities to study in other countries, such as New Zealand.

While these changes might be good for Canada because they’ll raise the qualifying requirements and help weed out the “weaker” students, Chawla said they are going to have ripple effects on the consulting industry and employment in India, where tens of thousands of people make a living selling immigration to this country.

“Here in Punjab, the first word a baby learns is Canada,” he said. “People will not stop going to Canada, but the number will drop very badly. People have already started withdrawing (visa application) files.”

He predicted many people in India will lose their consulting and recruitment jobs, including some of his 40 staffers, and so will many employed in the postsecondary education sector in Canada.

In a recent entry on his blog, Alex Usher, an expert on higher education, said the federal crackdown on the public-private college partnerships — upwards of 125,000 international students in Greater Toronto — is going to take at least $1.5 billion in revenue out of the hands of Ontario colleges.

“Without the promise of a post-graduation work visa, it is hard to see how those spots are going to stay filled,” wrote Usher, president of Higher Education Strategy Associates. “I’d wager a couple of the northern colleges, who used PPPs as a way to escape the brutal economics of teaching in the more sparsely populated north, will be in need of a bailout soon.”

Source: Looking for an ‘IELTS clear girl’: Why Canada’s international student reforms may spoil these kinds of marriages in India

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ICYMI: Douglas Todd: Why Vancouver housing prices became so out of whack

2024/02/07 Leave a comment

Not much new but neverthelesss telling:

Prices in Canada’s major cities have also been growing extremely fast compared to other countries.

The U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, which monitors global economic trends, reports that Canadian housing prices since 2015 have skyrocketed roughly twice as swiftly as prices in the U.S., United Kingdom, Germany and France.

Why? Even the stodgy Bank of Canada, which is hard to accuse of being racist, in January acknowledged that the country’s rapid population growth, 98 per cent of which comes from international migration, has led to higher costs for housing.

The National Bank of Canada’s chief economist, Stefane Marion, is also among the many voices lamenting how years of welcoming record-breaking numbers of new residents is strongly contributing to inflation, especially of shelter costs and rents.

Unfortunately, many politicians and the development industry obfuscate the issue by putting virtually all the blame for lofty prices on a lack of supply, plus mortgage rates and bureaucratic red tape.

But a host of housing analysts, such as Steve Saretsky, John Pasalis, Ron Butler, Stephen Punwasi, Ben Rabidoux, Patrick Condon, Mike Moffat and others, counter that Canadian developers, especially in Metro Vancouver, have been building new housing at a frantic rate — yet still cannot come close to keeping up with demand.

That demand has been exacerbated ever since 2015, when newly elected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau began to crank up targets for new permanent and non-permanent residents to rates far more intense than any other Western country. Last year, Canada’s population grew by a record 1.25 million people because of it.

Meanwhile, a huge cohort of people in Canada who seek a place to live at a reasonable price, including many newcomers, continue to suffer.

For Metro Vancouver, it all adds up to a double whammy: The gateway city has its own distinct house-price problems, and it’s located in a country that compounds them.

Source: Douglas Todd: Why Vancouver housing prices became so out of whack

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Globe editorial: Canada is an immigration nation

2024/02/06 Leave a comment

Latest Globe immigration editorial advocating for an increased share of economic immigration, partly to replace needed reductions of international students and temporary workers, in the context of overall levels of one percent of the population, or about 400,000, a reduction of about 20 percent from 2025 target:

But the fact remains that Canada needs immigrants, badly. Statistics Canada reported last week that the total fertility rate has declined to 1.33 children per woman, far below 2.1 replacement rate that ensures a stable population. Without robust immigration, Canada would lack the workers needed to fill labour shortages, and to pay the taxes that sustain social services and pensions.

Other developed countries that do not embrace immigration, from Japan to Poland, are experiencing weak economic growth and relentless population decline. To prevent that, Canada needs to maintain an intake target of about 1 per cent of the existing population annually.

…

Lastly, economic migration should be the focus of any expansion of overall immigration targets. Ottawa is already moving in that direction, with the economic migration category edging up to a planned 60 per cent of the total in 2026 from 58 per cent in 2022. That proportion should continue to rise, with other categories increasing at a slower pace.

Canada’s history of welcoming newcomers is not just one of this country’s finest characteristics – it is one of our biggest competitive advantages. Measured action now can restore confidence to the immigration system that has served Canada so well for so many years.

Source: Canada is an immigration nation

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Madhany: Immigration is our future

2024/02/06 Leave a comment

Not convinced that centralizing immigration in PCO/PMO will make much difference given the overall degree of centralization of this government. Whether more consultations with the provinces and stakeholders (interest groups) would be more effective, arguably existing consultations have resulted in today’s mess:

….At the same time, last year, 1.2 million immigrants arrived in this country, the highest level ever recorded in this country’s history. Canada also broke the 40-million mark in terms of population. This population influx has heightened strains and fractures in longstanding, complex issues around housing affordability, health care, economic mobility, and more. 

Complex issues require cohesive solutions. So, as we enter a new parliamentary session, we ask for the government to bring a holistic approach to this critical issue. That includes centralizing the issue at the federal level in the Office of the Prime Minister and Privy Council Office. That includes incentivizing collaboration and ensuring accountability at the provincial level. And that includes ensuring that immigrant leaders and immigrant-serving organizations have a seat at the table when these issues are being discussed, along with employers, regulators and others invested in the success of this country and its newest residents. 

Immigrants are and must be part of the solution to complex issues facing Canada and our global community. From the health-care industry to the construction industry, and from Ontario to the Northwest Territories, we can bring our skills and our abilities to bear across the nation to help move this country forward. We are ready to work together with all levels of government and stakeholders who serve newcomers to create the long-term immigration strategy Canada desperately needs. We believe immigration is our future, and we are ready to dig in together to make it happen.

Shamira Madhany is the managing director for Canada and deputy executive director at World Education Services.

Source: Immigration is our future

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Ottawa must restore balance between its temporary and permanent resident programs

2024/02/06 Leave a comment

Arguably, IRCC could include temporary workers and international students in the annual levels plan in advance of an amendment to IRPA given that no such amendment is likely during the current parliamentary session;

….

A legislative amendment should also require the minister to include such details and future planning in reports to Parliament. And in the short term, aside from readjusting the overall immigration balance, Ottawa could shift proportions within the temporary streams to prioritize helping critical industries such as health care, construction, educational services and agriculture.

There may be pushback from businesses that have grown dependent on this source of cheap labour, but this can be mitigated if their concerns are taken seriously when they tell the government that Canadians are unwilling to do certain jobs. We cannot dismiss the reality that part of the service sector can only survive with low-wage, low-skill foreign workers. This issue is not unique to Canada, though, and it will not disappear tomorrow.

To maintain Canada’s pro-immigration consensus, welcoming newcomers should generally be tied to a pro-economic-growth vision. Allowing many businesses to depend on low-skill temporary workers disincentivizes investments that increase productivity, so Mr. Miller should reduce the proportion of temporary resident visas in relation to permanent ones. The challenge will be in doing this humanely, while recognizing the contribution of low-skill migrants.

Source: Ottawa must restore balance between its temporary and permanent resident programs

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