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Canada welcomes a record high...

Canada welcomed an unprecedented number of permanent and temporary residents in 2008, according to preliminary data released by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) today.

“While other countries are talking about taking fewer immigrants, today, I am pleased to announce that in 2008, we increased the number of new permanent residents to Canada,” said Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney.

Canada welcomed 247,202 permanent residents in 2008, 70,000 more than in 1998, and well within the government’s planned range of 240,000 to 265,000 new permanent residents for the year. An additional 193,061 temporary foreign workers and 79,459 foreign students resulted in a combined total of 519,722 newcomers for the year.

The higher number of temporary foreign workers reflects increased demand in the Canadian labour market last year. The hiring of temporary foreign workers is based on employers’ needs and labour market demand.

“Our government will not follow the advice of those who believe that Canada should take steps to reduce immigration levels. In fact, we are maintaining our planned immigration levels for 2009,” said Minister Kenney. “As minister responsible for multiculturalism, I am particularly concerned by short-sighted, divisive rhetoric that pits immigrants against Canadians in our economy.”

List of Eligible Occupations

The immigration authorities have released a list of eligible occupations for the Skilled Worker category. An applicant must have at least one year of experience in any of the mentioned occupations to be considered under this category.

Here is the list:
0111: Financial Managers
0213: Computer and Information Systems Managers
0311: Managers in Health Care
0631: Restaurant and Food Service Managers
0632: Accommodation Service Managers
0711: Construction Managers
1111: Financial Auditors and Accountants
2113: Geologists, Geochemists and Geophysicists
2143: Mining Engineers
2144: Geological Engineers
2145: Petroleum Engineers
3111: Specialist Physicians
3112: General Practitioners and Family Physicians
3141: Audiologists and Speech Language Pathologists
3143: Occupational Therapists
3142: Physiotherapists
3151: Head Nurses and Supervisors
3152: Registered Nurses
3215: Medical Radiation Technologists
3233: Licensed Practical Nurses
4121: University Professors
4131: College and Other Vocational Instructors
6241: Chefs
6242: Cooks
7213: Contractors and Supervisors, Pipefitting Trades
7215: Contractors and Supervisors, Carpentry Trades
7217: Contractors and Supervisors, Heavy Construction Equipment Crews
7241: Electricians (Except Industrial and Power System)
7242: Industrial Electricians
7251: Plumbers
7252: Steamfitters, Pipe fitters and Sprinkler System Installers
7265: Welders and Related Machine Operators
7312: Heavy-Duty Equipment Mechanics
7371: Crane Operators
7372: Drillers and Blasters – Surface Mining, Quarrying and Construction
8221: Supervisors, Mining and Quarrying
8222: Supervisors, Oil and Gas Drilling and Service
9212: Supervisors, Petroleum, Gas and Chemical Processing and Utilities

 

Consultants and Swindlers

The Canadian government continues to monitor the immigration services industry. A Citizenship and Immigration Commission summoned by the Parliament has presented a report critically analyzing the activities of immigration consultants.

In 2004, as a response to abundant criticism of the industry, the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants (CSIC) was created in an attempt to regulate the consultants. However, the improvement was not significant enough; according to the Commission, thousands of people fall victims of fraud every year. At this time in Canada, there are approximately six thousand individuals referring to themselves as immigration consultants, while only about a thousand of them are members of the professional organization. Just as before, anyone regardless of having appropriate education or a license, can offer immigration services, thus represent clients to the immigration authorities.

Certainly, there are many honest and hardworking consultants; however, it is clear that under present conditions the system is far from being perfect and is vulnerable to illegal activity, thus provoking appropriate criticism. Incidentally, government activities directed at protecting the rights of Canadians and potential immigrants can hardly be called adequate. Lack of this adequacy ends up costing the victims large sums of money or what is worse, leads to broken lives and shattered hopes. In many other cases the government demonstrates far more decisiveness in maintaining order.

There is one more side to the problem: services offered by immigration lawyers are often too expensive, forcing people to turn to the help of immigration consultant. As for the clientele, they are in abundance; according to the “Toronto Star”, there are at least 80,000 illegal immigrants living in Toronto (not taking into account the rest of the country). The Citizenship and Immigration Commission strongly recommends shutting down the existing association of immigration consultants and replacing it with a new organization capable of maintaining order and helping immigrants and refugees avoid being defrauded. Presumably, membership in the new organization will be mandatory, which means that consultants would have to prove their sufficient knowledge and experience.

Recent Immigration Reform

The conservative party has yet again gained support of the liberal opposition on an issue the parties were not able to agree upon in the past. This time the issue is immigration reform. Liberals are afraid of provoking an untimely election and are compelled to agree with proposals of the Harper government, in spite of publicly condemning them.

The immigration reform empowers the Minister of Immigration to be more selective and give preference to certain categories of immigrants as well as issue instruction on specific cases. Opponents of this bill claim that these changes would lead to discriminative practices. It is interesting to note that the opposition does not mention the interests of Canada in light of these changes. Meanwhile, the main idea behind the reform is allowing the Minister of Immigration to select classes of immigrants that correspond with the needs of the country. It is not surprising that there is a degree of apprehension based on increased authority of the Minister; if the Minister of Immigration is able to reduce certain categories of immigrants that become an unnecessary burden to the economy but are at the same time of interest to some political parties then those political parties will lose the support of corresponding electorate. The consequences of this reform will be clear in the future.

Recently, Statistics Canada published a report stating that success of new immigrants is affected by a multitude of factors; country of origin is listed as one of the more significant factors. It is interesting to note that this statement is not supported by concrete data that enables the reader to determine which countries bear more adaptable and successful immigrants and why. For now these questions remain unanswered.