Globe editorial: Let’s get Canada’s foreign student program back to the classroom

2024/02/05 Leave a comment

Well said:

…

The program is in chaos, a failure of federalism, where both Ottawa and the provinces have neglected to work together to execute their respective responsibilities. The program should never have been tailored to address short-term labour market demands for truck drivers and child care workers.

Canada can have an international student program that shines again, if both levels of government reconnect with its original, higher purpose.

source: Let’s get Canada’s foreign student program back to the classroom

Filed under Immigration Tagged with ,

Globe editorial: Ottawa’s next immigration emergency [asylum claimants]

2024/01/30 Leave a comment

Similarly, a pattern in the Globe’s coverage of and commentary on immigration with the needed critical eye:

A pattern has emerged in Liberal immigration policy over the past year: Ignore mounting evidence of trouble, dismiss rumbles of criticism and, finally, take the smallest possible action to avert an all-out calamity.

There was abundant evidence for months that the pace of new arrivals, particularly temporary migrants, was putting unacceptable strain on housing in big cities and other social infrastructure. But it was not until November that the Trudeau government took the tentative step of tamping down the growth in permanent immigration – misleadingly referred to as “stabilizing” by the government. Even with the change, permanent immigration targets will rise this year and next, with an extra 55,000 people admitted over that two-year span.

Last week, there were half-measures to curb the eye-popping growth in the ranks of international students, with Immigration Minister Marc Miller announcing a two-year cap on international study visas. But that cap is being imposed with visas already at historically high levels.

…

In the first 11 months of last year, 128,690 people made asylum claims in Canada, more than double the number in the prepandemic year of 2019. Claims from Mexican nationals in 2023 accounted for 17 per cent of the total, nearly double their proportion in 2019….

source: Ottawa’s next immigration emergency

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Keller: How the Liberals can fix the immigration system that they broke

2024/01/20 Leave a comment

Generally reasonable proposals but unlikely that the government will be courageous (or desperate) enough to rescind some of its policies that have resulted in the shift of public attitudes being more critical of immigration levels:

Step One: Greatly reduce the number of student visas….

Step Two: Restrict the temporary foreign worker stream to a small number of high-end jobs, not millions of low-paying jobs….

Step Three: Rely on the points system to decide on who gets permanent residency. Again, we should be prioritizing immigrants with high skills and educations, and the best shots at earning higher incomes than the average Canadian. …

Step Four: Control the border. A wide and welcoming door, paired with high walls, was an unspoken basis of the Canadian immigration consensus. It was well understood by previous governments, Liberal and Conservative alike….

Liberal brain trust, the choice is yours.

You can restore the national consensus by fixing the parts of the immigration system you broke. Or you can stay the course – which won’t be good for the economy, productivity, housing, higher education, inequality or national unity, but which may give you a wedge issue for the next election.

You can fix the problem, but lose the wedge. Or you can wait for the Conservatives to criticize your immigration mess, and then you can try to weaponize that criticism, turning a practical question of how to run the immigration system for the benefit of Canadians into a moral issue, in which any questioning of your immigration policy and levels will be defined, by you, as racist.

For the sake of the country, choose the first course.

Source: How the Liberals can fix the immigration system that they broke

Globe editorial reinforces some of this points, with the following punchline:

As Mr. Miller has seemingly recognized, the immigration system has indeed spun out of control. Quick action is needed to restore its stability: not in coming months, but now.

Source: The Liberals’ half-measures won’t fix a broken immigration system

Filed under Immigration Tagged with ,

Globe editorial: When protests become acts of intimidation

2024/01/06 Leave a comment

Well said:

This cannot stand. Supporters of the Palestinian people have every right to express their views and to protest actions by Israel, but they have no right to intimidate and to threaten people on the street, on campuses, in theatres or in neighbourhoods. To tolerate such misbehaviour is to encourage much worse actions that inevitably follow. Enough.

Source: When protests become acts of intimidation

Filed under Antisemitism, Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

Globe editorial: When it comes to international students, ‘show me the money’ is only half a policy

2023/12/13 Leave a comment

Valid critique that politicians (and stakeholders IMO) are to blame:

The Liberals, as well as the opposition parties, have been loathe to blame immigrants, temporary foreign workers, international students and refugees for a housing crisis that has been fuelled by rapidly growing demand combined with a stagnant supply. They should be loathe to, because it is the politicians who are to blame.

Until the housing crisis emerged, Ottawa and the provinces turned a blind eye to shady “diploma mills” in Canada that sell dodgy educations as a back door to permanent residency. They also let the temporary foreign workers program turn into a massive cheap labour boondoggle that brings hundreds of thousands into the country.

Ottawa made a shocking error this year when it secretly waived rules for temporary visitors that required them to prove they would leave the country when their visas expired, leading to a huge surge in refugee claims at airports. The Trudeau government has also refused to alter its plan to increase annual immigration targets.

Source: When it comes to international students, ‘show me the money’ is only half a policy

Filed under Immigration Tagged with ,

Globe editorial: Who we are, and must be, as Canadians

2023/11/15 Leave a comment

Same principles, of course, apply to any form of racism, discrimination and hate:

…Solidarity can take many forms. Tearing down posters of those held hostage by Hamas is a hateful act; do not let that happen unopposed. Go out of your way to solicit businesses that have been targeted for being Jewish-owned. Most of all, reach out to your fellow citizens to let them know that they are not alone.

That is who we want to be, who we must be, as Canadians…

source: Who we are, and must be, as Canadians

Filed under Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Multiculturalism Tagged with , , ,

Globe editorial: Canada’s prosperity problem points to a lower-wage future

2023/11/10 Leave a comment

Money quote:

In 1993, Canada’s real GDP per capita was 106 per cent of the OECD average. The C.D. Howe Institute forecasts that in 2024 Canada will be just 89 per cent of the average of advanced economies. Canada has also fallen compared with the United States: In 2023, this country’s GDP per capita is forecast to be less than three-quarters that of the U.S. (Those statistics are relatively generous to Canada, since the institute has adjusted them for domestic purchasing power.)

Source: Canada’s prosperity problem points to a lower-wage future

Filed under Immigration Tagged with ,

Globe editorial: How Ottawa ignored its own warning and made Canada’s refugee crisis even worse

2023/10/30 Leave a comment

Good policy advice, not listened to.

And it appears from a variety of public opinion research that this ill-advised policy change is likely one of the changes contributing to declining public support for immigration:

There is a thicket of bureaucratic language in the eight-page briefing document from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada on the upside and downside of waiving temporary visitor visa requirements to get rid of a massive backlog of applications.

…

Source: How Ottawa ignored its own warning and made Canada’s refugee crisis even worse

Filed under Immigration, Multiculturalism Tagged with , , ,

Globe editorial: The right way to deal with a Nazi memorial

2023/10/14 Leave a comment

Sensible:

The question, then, is what to do about those monuments that glorify what should be a shameful moment for the men who served in the Waffen SS and cause for sombre reflection by Canadians, particularly the Ukrainian community?

…

Source: The right way to deal with a Nazi memorial

Filed under Multiculturalism Tagged with ,

Globe editorial: How the Liberals can roll back the surge in student visas (and blame Stephen Harper)

2023/08/25 Leave a comment

Likely one of the simpler solutions but will provoke considerable opposition given the number of education institutions that have largely become “visa mills.”

Another lesson from the Harper years is with respect to Temporary Foreign Workers; when abuse and displacement of Canadian workers became apparent, the government reversed course and largely reimposed the restrictions it had imposed.

One bit of political folk wisdom of Chretien (forget the context and the exact wording) was “when you paint yourself into a corner, you need to step on the paint.” Time for the government to do so with credible changes:

Timid as it is, the federal Liberals’ mulling of a cap on the (already astronomical) number of international student visas met with instant opposition from Quebec and postsecondary institutions.

Source: How the Liberals can roll back the surge in student visas (and blame Stephen Harper)

Filed under Immigration Tagged with ,

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