Ontario missing strategy to match immigration to labour market needs: auditor

2024/12/06 Leave a comment

Of note but not surprising as once in Canada, immigrants like all people will pursue what appears be be best for them, whether in terms of economics or social and family considerations. Auditor recommendations for better data on where they end up make sense, allowing for further analysis and understanding of their reasons:

Immigrants nominated for permanent residency under Ontario’s provincial program aren’t always going to the regions or sectors that need them the most, a new auditor general report found.

The observation was made by Auditor General Shelley Spence in the audit of the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) included in her 2024 annual report, which was released on Tuesday.

According to the report, about 37 per cent of nominees with job offers intended to settle outside of the Greater Toronto Area between 2019 and 2023.

Of those, only about three per cent of job-offer nominees landed in Northern Ontario.

“The ministry does not have an overall strategy towards a needs-based distribution of nominees across the province and particularly to regions outside of the GTA,” the auditor wrote, adding that one of OINP’s objectives is to “spread the benefits of immigration to all parts of the province and help address Ontario’s labour market needs.”

Spence noted that other provinces and the federal government have mechanisms to encourage immigration into less populated areas.

For instance, the federal government launched the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot “to boost economic immigration to smaller communities and provide a pathway for skilled foreign workers to gain permanent residency,” she wrote.

Five of the 11 participating communities are in Northern Ontario — North Bay, Sudbury, Timmins, Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay — and, as of Dec. 31, 2023, almost 4,600 permanent residents across Canada had come through this pilot, Spence found.

Spence did outline a number of programs launched by the Doug Ford government meant to encourage nominees to settle outside of the GTA, like higher scoring for those with offers elsewhere and a two-year regional pilot to bring 300 nominees to Chatham-Kent, Cornwall and Quinte West/Belleville communities.

The pilot resulted in 147 OINP nominations. However, the auditor said, “No follow-up was conducted to see how successful the individuals were in these communities, or if they continue to reside in these communities.”

The government should also look at specific labour demands in those regions, which are different from those in the GTA, the auditor suggested. Nominations have not helped address the increasing job vacancies for registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses in central Ontario, she noted.

The report said that within the five-year analysis period, there were 1,730 nursing vacancies in Central Ontario and 11 OINP nominations.

The auditor recommends collecting information on intended settlement locations for all nominee streams and monitoring progress toward regional targets. The government has accepted this recommendation and pledged to “work to integrate available and reliable regional labour market data into our targets where possible.”

Source: Ontario missing strategy to match immigration to labour market needs: auditor

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Criminals in cribs: The crazy attempt to ban birthright citizenship

2024/12/05 Leave a comment

Never heard birth tourism described in this manner:

There have been some interesting discussions about birthright citizenship, intensified by Donald Trump’s election a few weeks ago.

A number of people who are angry at the chaos at the border have jumped right over the normal processes and procedures which would guarantee illegal border crossings are limited, and hit right at one of the core principles of our nation, one embedded in the 14th Amendment – if you are born here, regardless of the status of your parents, you are a U.S. citizen.

The actual wording of the amendment is as follows: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.”

Those who don’t like the idea that birth on American territory automatically grants you the gift of American citizenship have started to parse the words of the amendment. They are doing what gun reform activists tried to do with the 2nd Amendment, making the “right to bear arms” a collective right held by “militias,” not an individual and a personal right for each and every American citizen. That parsing, which would make every Catholic school English teacher who ever diagrammed a sentence on a blackboard proud, was roundly rejected by the Supreme Court in the Heller decision, which recognized an individual right to own a gun. That being the case, conservative attempts to dismantle well over a century of constitutional precedent is dishonest, and untenable.

Some argue the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction of” means parents of the child born in this country must be legally here in order to confer citizenship. The point they are missing, or actually one of several points, is that it is not the parents who are conveying anything but life to the child.

It is the Constitution itself that is conveying citizenship. More importantly, virtually everyone physically present in the U.S., regardless of legal status, is subject to the jurisdiction of our government. If this were not the case, we can imagine a Batman style Gotham city environment, where illegal aliens could just commit crimes and the only thing we could do if we catch them is deport them. No arrests, no jail terms, no trials and no life sentences.

Imagine if that were the case with Laken Riley’s murderer, an illegal alien who is now going to spend the rest of his life behind bars. This writer would have been happier had he been sentenced to death, but that’s another column altogether.

The idea we can simply strip people of their citizenship and thereby erase a constitutional right, merely to solve a problematic but temporary problem at the border, is anathema. I know legal scholars have differed on the integrity of birthright citizenship, but they are going to need better arguments than those proffered by anti-immigration activists in order to be able to convince even this conservative Supreme Court of their legitimacy.

I am an immigration lawyer and my bias is incorporated into my viewpoint. Thirty years of doing this work will color anyone’s perspective on the laws governing immigration policy. I understand extremely well the importance of maintaining order at the border, but stripping people born here of their birthright, one over a century old in its recognition, on specious political grounds is not going to advance that goal.

People do not come here to “have” U.S. citizen children, who frankly can only be of benefit from an immigration perspective after the child turns 21 or in a few other very limited circumstances. The immigration laws already eliminate U.S. citizen children as the basis of most waivers of inadmissibility and against deportation/removal, so this is simply an appeal to the lowest common denominator, the basest instincts of the xenophobic.

Where will we draw the line? Is being born to a citizen the only way to ensure the citizenship of the child? Is being born to a visitor who has the right to live here for a few months enough? Do you need your green card? And is this what we want, a world where your value is based on your parents’ status in the country? I don’t think that Americans are that sort of people.

So even if you do support Trump’s more draconian policies on immigration, you are not as patriotic as you think if you are in favor of making newborns criminals in their cribs.

Source: Criminals in cribs: The crazy attempt to ban birthright citizenship

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Canada’s limits on immigration targets will cost billions in lost revenue over next five years: RBC report

2024/12/05 Leave a comment

Underlines just how much the government relied on its expansionist immigration policies that increased GDP and related tax revenues but weakened GDP per capita growth:

The federal government’s plan to scale back Canada’s annual immigration targets will lower revenues by billions of dollars over the next five years, according to a new RBC report that urges Ottawa to take a cautious approach to new spending.

Royal Bank of Canada economists Cynthia Leach and Rachel Battaglia’s release Tuesday, which looks ahead to Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s coming fall economic statement, says fewer immigrants will translate into lower consumption and employment growth for the economy as a whole – resulting in a significant negative impact on federal finances.

Ms. Leach, a former economist with the federal Finance Department, said in an interview that Ottawa should stay within its self-imposed targets to control the deficit and debt-to-GDP ratio.

“I do think it’s important for the government to stick to its fiscal anchors‚” she said.

Ms. Leach said the government is facing several sources of economic volatility, including the immigration changes and talk of higher tariffs from U.S. president-elect Donald Trump.

The economists project that revised immigration policies will lower federal revenues by about $50-billion over five years, which is only partly offset by a $30-billion fiscal improvement tied primarily to lower-than-anticipated interest rates. The overall fiscal landscape has worsened by about $20-billion over five years compared with the 2024 budget estimates, according to the RBC report….

Source: Canada’s limits on immigration targets will cost billions in lost revenue over next five years: RBC report

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Clark: The return of Trump has Poilievre talking about a crackdown beyond the U.S. border

2024/12/04 Leave a comment

Of note:

…On Sunday, he called for a crackdown on people coming to Canada – tightening visa requirements to make it harder to visit and setting a cap on the number of asylum-seekers.

For a long time, Mr. Poilievre didn’t go there. His party wanted MPs and candidates to steer clear of anything that suggested tough talk on immigration. It’s only in the last few months that Mr. Poilievre has ramped up criticism of the Liberal government’s failure to control a surge of temporary residents.

Now, he’s talking about cracking down on “false refugees” and warning “our Canadian jobs are being taken.”

“I think it is time for a cap. And it is time to get rid of all of the abuse,” Mr. Poilievre said in his press conference on Sunday.

He added: “We need to shut off the flow of false refugee claims who are in no danger in their country of origin but are sneaking in either through our porous border or our weak visa system, and when they land here making a false claim.”

That’s the kind of lexicon Mr. Poilievre had kept from his lips for a long time, and on an issue that wasn’t in the repertoire of attacks against the government in the Commons until November….

Source: The return of Trump has Poilievre talking about a crackdown beyond the U.S. border

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Rising diplomatic tensions and allegations of foreign interference fuel plummeting Canadian views of India

2024/12/04 Leave a comment

Significant and understandable:

Amid fresh, but so far denied, allegations of Indian political interference in Canada’s 2022 Conservative Party leadership race, a new public opinion poll from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute, in partnership with the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, indicates a significant decline in Canadian views towards the sub-continental superpower.

Where a majority (52%) of people in this country told ARI 20 months ago that Ottawa should approach New Delhi either as a valued partner and ally or on friendly terms, that sentiment has dropped by half to just 24 per cent.

Further, favourable views of India have plummeted from a high of 56 per cent in January 2020 to 26 per cent today. The inverse negative view has more than doubled.

These data also reveal India is now only seen more favourably by Canadians than Russia and China, while trust in New Delhi sits at less than one-third (28%).

There is less consensus over how Canada is perceived to be handling the relationship, although a plurality are inclined to say Ottawa isn’t managing it well (39%) compared to one-third (32%) who say the opposite and almost the same number (29%) who say they aren’t sure. A significant political tension colours these perceptions. Those who say they would vote for the Liberal Party of Canada in the next election are most complimentary of the Trudeau government’s performance on this file, while professed Conservative supporters say the current government is mishandling the situation.

The froideur between the two nations shows little sign of warming in the short term. The belief among 39 per cent in Canada is things will not improve until Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is no longer in office, while 34 per cent say the same of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

That said, two-thirds (64%) of Canadians say this country should at minimum, “cautiously” attempt to re-open trade negotiations on a free trade agreement with India, a finding slightly boosted by threats from incoming U.S. President Donald Trump of blanket 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian exports.

Source: Rising diplomatic tensions and allegations of foreign interference fuel plummeting Canadian views of India

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Canada pulls refugee welcome mat, launches ads warning of stricter asylum rules

2024/12/04 Leave a comment

Responsible shift:

Once presenting itself as one of the world’s most welcoming countries to refugees and immigrants, Canada is launching a global online ad campaign cautioning asylum seekers that making a claim is hard. The C$250,000 (US$179,000) in advertisements will run through March in 11 languages, including Spanish, Urdu, Ukrainian, Hindi and Tamil, the immigration department said. They are part of a broader shift in tone by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s unpopular government on immigration and an effort to clamp down on refugee claims.

Migrants have been blamed for high housing prices, although some experts argue this is a simplistic explanation, and polls show a growing number of Canadians think the country admits too many newcomers.

The four-month campaign is budgeted to cost a third of the total spend on similar advertisements over the previous seven years.

Search queries such as “how to claim asylum in Canada” and “refugee Canada” will prompt sponsored content titled “Canada’s asylum system – Asylum Facts,” the ministry said.

“Claiming asylum in Canada is not easy. There are strict guidelines to qualify. Find out what you need to know before you make a life-changing decision,” one ad reads. Canada has long been seen as a welcoming place for newcomers. Now its leaders are slashing immigration and trying to get temporary residents to leave and to prevent people fleeing US president-elect Donald Trump from claiming asylum.

“Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada is working to combat the spread of misinformation and disinformation about Canada’s immigration system, and to highlight the risks of working with unauthorised representatives,” a department spokesperson wrote in an email.

Refugee case backlog

It may be an uphill battle. Canada’s refugee system faces a 260,000-case backlog amid growing global displacement. The government has little control over who claims asylum. Its immigration minister has hinted at fast-tracking claims deemed unlikely to succeed. The government is hoping millions of people will leave the country on their own when their visas expire, and the immigration minister has threatened to deport them if they do not.

It is a dramatic about-face for a government that for years set out the welcome mat. In January 2017, when Trump took office, Trudeau tweeted: “To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength #WelcomeToCanada.” On November 17, nearly eight years later, Trudeau published a video promoting his government’s immigration policies, calling out “bad actors” who “have been exploiting our immigration system for their own interests.” Last month, the Liberal government, trailing in polls, announced it is slashing permanent and temporary immigration. The population is projected to shrink slightly for two years.

Ad campaigns to counter misinformation on how to apply for asylum could be useful, said University of Ottawa law professor and immigration expert Jamie Chai Yun Liew.

“On the other hand, if they’re saying, ‘You’re not welcome’ … it does seem contrary to Canada’s approach in the past,” she said. “They’ve switched their messaging.”

Source: Canada pulls refugee welcome mat, launches ads warning of stricter asylum rules

Filed under Immigration, Refugees Tagged with ,

Manitoba teachers decry union’s decision to cancel antisemitism education

2024/12/04 Leave a comment

Cancel culture? Cowardice?

Jewish educators say they are alarmed after finding out that the Manitoba teachers’ union cancelled a professional development talk about antisemitism in schools.

“The PD (professional development) is very much needed. That’s the number one concern,” said Tamara Gottlieb, co-founder of the Jewish Educators and Families Association (FEFA).

In October, some Manitoba teachers had signed up for a professional development course on the subject of “bearing witness to October 7th” and fighting antisemitism in the classroom. The talk was to be delivered by Kelly Hiebert, a history teacher at Westwood Collegiate in Winnipeg who has been tasked by the provincial government with developing a mandatory Holocaust curriculum for students.

Yet, the event was cancelled. Concerned teachers reached out to Gottlieb’s group, and it, along with a number of other Jewish advocacy groups, wrote to the Manitoba Teachers’ Society and the provincial government to express concern.

“This approved and well thought PD session is needed now more than ever. Canceling it with so little notice before it was to take place leaves many educators without the resources they need,” says a letter, signed by JEFA and a number of other organizations.

Gottlieb received a response from the Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning ministry, which said that the event had been cancelled because of unspecified threats.

“The decision to cancel the session was made out of an abundance of caution for the safety of the presenters due to online comments related to this event and recent escalations in antisemitic incidents,” the letter says.

National Post reached out to the Manitoba Teachers’ Society, which said there were “unsettling comments on social media related to the event.

“Out of an abundance of caution for the safety of the presenters and those in attendance, MTS elected to cancel,” the union said in an email.

In a separate statement, Nathan Martindale, the president of the teachers’ union, acknowledged that “our decision was discouraging to members of the Jewish community, and to our Jewish members.”

“The point has been made that it would have been helpful for us to consult with the community prior to making the decision to cancel, and we appreciate this valuable feedback,” Martindale said. “As we said to our members in a recent email, this is difficult work, and we won’t always get it right. But we are committed to it, and to ongoing dialogue in our efforts to promote understanding and community within our organization.”…

Source: Manitoba teachers decry union’s decision to cancel antisemitism education

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Preparing for a Conservative government in the public service

2024/12/03 Leave a comment

This article was prompted by my experience under the Harper government and Minister Kenney, as a way to assist public servants likely facing a dramatic transition to a Conservative government. I hope readers find it helpful and that this will contribute to conversations regarding the likely transition:

Faced with the likelihood of a majority Conservative government in the foreseeable future, Canada’s federal public service should seriously heed the warning of Stephen Harper’s former communications director, Andrew MacDougall, that “the hangman is coming.”

Over 40 per cent of federal public servants have only worked under the Trudeau government, and after nearly a decade in power, many public servants may have internalized Liberal perspectives.

A Conservative majority would signal public desire for change, and the public service, like it or not, will have to support a different and arguably sharper ideological agenda.

While the Clerk of the Privy Council and deputy ministers will provide high-level direction along with transition briefing books, many of the challenges will affect mid-level executives. Looking back at my experience under the Harper government, as detailed in my book Policy Arrogance or Innocent Bias: Resetting Citizenship and Multiculturalism, the following lessons may be helpful.

These reflect the specific policy areas I was responsible for (citizenship and multiculturalism at the federal departments of Canadian Heritage and then Citizenship and Immigration), working under the activist and effective minister Jason Kenney, in what was arguably a less polarized political and social media environment. History seldom repeats itself, but hopefully these reflections will still provide some guidance for public servants beyond the usual transition planning….

Full article source: Preparing for a Conservative government in the public service

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Elon Musk vs. Stephen Miller: Washington preps for battle on high-tech immigration

2024/12/03 Leave a comment

Will be interesting to watch. I’m betting on Citizen Musk but we shall see:

High tech companies — with Elon Musk seemingly on their side — are gearing up to push the incoming Trump administration to let more high-skilled immigrants into the U.S., setting up a potential conflict with the nativist figures in Trump’s orbit who want to minimize immigration at all costs.

During Donald Trump’s first term, Silicon Valley firms tried to impress upon Washington the importance of high-skilled immigration. They were stymied by people like Stephen Miller, a key figure in the first Trump administration now slated to serve as White House deputy chief of staff for policy.

But the tech lobby now has a powerful new ally in Musk, a key Trump donor and close confidant who since the election has called for fixes that would make it easier for “super talented people” to immigrate.

Other newly minted Trump backers in Silicon Valley, including venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, have placed high-skilled immigration at the center of their Washington agenda. Their rising influence has already had an impact, prompting Trump himself to float giving green cards to talented students earlier this year.

“We definitely see it as an opportunity,” said Linda Moore, president and chief executive of industry group TechNet.

Silicon Valley views the incoming administration and GOP congressional majority as its best chance in years to pass policies that let in more immigrants with rare skills in science, technology, engineering and math. Though it feels counterintuitive, Trump’s antipathy toward illegal immigration could leave him uniquely positioned to argue for more of the legal kind — especially if it comes wrapped in an argument about making America more competitive.

“In the same way that it took Nixon to go to China — because he was tough on China — President Trump may have an interesting opportunity” to get the GOP onboard with high-skilled immigration, said Vivek Chilukuri, director of the technology and national security program at the Center for a New American Security think tank.

But tech lobbyists and Musk aren’t the only ones working Trump on STEM immigration. Hardcore immigration restrictionists — informally led by Miller — are also in the president-elect’s ear, cautioning that foreign STEM workers take American jobs and depress wages in high-tech industries. They prevailed during Trump’s previous presidency, when under Miller’s influence, Trump slashed the number of green cards issued and denied applications and extensions for H-1B and other skilled visas, causing some companies to lose skilled workers.

Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, believes Trump is “definitely going to be more receptive to certain kinds of legal immigration expansion” than he was in the past. Like other restrictionists, he’s warily eyeing the emerging influence of tech billionaires on the president-elect — and warning of consequences if Trump and congressional Republicans cave to their immigration asks.

“These tech lobbyists think they’re going to be feeding at the trough, just making all kinds of demands because Elon is going to support them. They’re in for a big surprise,” said Stein. He added that Trump “has to walk a very fine line so that people don’t feel betrayed.”

Other restrictionists are also alarmed. “Will the Trump administration kowtow to Silicon Valley CEOs or will it protect American tech workers? We shall see,” said Eric Ruark, director of research at anti-immigration group NumbersUSA.

The tech lobby has long urged Washington to boost the amount of STEM immigrants allowed into the country — typically through increases to the annual cap of H-1B and other visas, or through programs that would increase the availability of green cards or attach them to diplomas earned by foreign students. From microchip companies to emerging artificial intelligence firms, a wide range of tech interests warn there simply aren’t enough tech experts to staff their facilities or achieve America’s long-term strategic goals.

“AI, quantum, biotechnology — we can’t snap our fingers tomorrow and create the STEM PhDs that we need to compete in all of these areas,” said Chilukuri, whose nonprofit is funded in part by tech giants like Microsoft, Amazon and Google, as well as tech billionaires like Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

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Poilievre calls for asylum seeker cap, border plan as U.S. tariff threat looms

2024/12/03 Leave a comment

Former minister Kenney used the terms “bogus claimants” vs bonafide, Poilievre uses the term those who lie:

With gridlock in Parliament set to continue, Poilievre said Conservatives “will make accommodations to quickly pass a border plan if it goes towards fixing Trudeau’s broken border.”

He said Canada should also cap the number of asylum seekers as it faces a significant influx in refugee claims.

Canada had nearly 250,000 refugee claims in the queue as of Sept. 30, 2024, having approved more than 33,000 claims between January and the end of September.

In all of 2023, Canada accepted 37,000 refugee claims, and in 2022, it accepted 28,000.

“I love real refugees,” Poilievre said. “Our country was built in large part by real refugees who were genuinely fleeing danger, like my wife. But I have no time for people who lie to come into our country, and that is the problem we have to cut off.”

Source: Poilievre calls for asylum seeker cap, border plan as U.S. tariff threat looms

Filed under Immigration, Refugees Tagged with , ,

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