Speakers address challenges, confusions and complexities.
by Mehdi Rizvi
The "mix of federal-provincial strategies" on immigration "is a recipe for confusion," according to Professor Keith Banting, Research Chair in Public Policy at Queen's University.
Differences among provincial immigration and integration strategies have set the stage for continuing federal-provincial conflict and created a system that is confusing and complex, he added. "With more than 50 streams in various provincial nominee programs and various pathways at federal level," immigrants with equal qualifications will get treated differently, "depending on which door they knock on," he said.
Banting spoke at the 14th National Metropolis Conference, held in Toronto from February 29 – March 3, to discuss recent changes to immigration policies.
The new immigration rules have done little to remove job market barriers for educated immigrant job seekers.
According to the conference website, "Multiculturalism, a hallmark of Canadian society, is now under the microscope. Canadian immigration policies have also changed dramatically with a revised selection system for permanent immigrants, an expanding temporary foreign worker program, and new paths to permanence for temporary workers and international students.
"Provinces now exercise more control over immigration and municipalities play a role in settlement policies. The Safe Third Country and Smart Border agreements and the proposed North American security perimeter are transforming border security."
More than one thousand academics, immigration experts, researchers, settlement practitioners and university students attended the conference, which featured addresses by Honourable Jason Kenney, Federal Minister for Citizenship and Immigration; Honourable Charles Souza, Ontario Minister of Citizenship and Immigration; NDP MP Olivia Chow, and many other intellectuals, professors and policy officials.
In 2008, the Government of Canada introduced changes to the Immigration and refugee Protection Act through Bill C-50 to tackle a federal backlog of applications from skilled workers. The Bill authorized Minister to give instructions to limit numbers, accelerate processing, and return some applications without processing them to a final decision.
Although our immigration system has cleared much of its backlog and is now focussed on improvements that improve access for newcomers, Minster of Citizenship and immigration Jason Kenney said that the government is determined to keep improving the system.
"Everything we do and that we plan to do is in the best interest of creating, a faster, more flexible immigration system," said Kenney, with clear rules and fair enforcement. "The previous system was passive, slow, inefficient and unfocused," he said.
Canada can maximize new arrivals' success and social inclusion with a preference for immigrants with English and French language skills and credentials consistent with Canadian standards, he added.
Perhaps the government sincerely wants to improve the system, as it is in a chaos. Mostly he delivered the same old kind of speech that his predecessors used to deliver, with new supporting arguments and numbers. While it may be true that, "We face acute labour shortages of workers in various fields in different regions of the country," so far the new immigration rules have done little to remove job market barriers for educated immigrant job seekers.
Two weeks later, after Kenney addressed the Toronto Canadian Club, I asked him, "On what basis do you say that we have labour shortages? Are there any statistics which can show, how many highly educated immigrants have been forced to accept survival jobs? Some PhDs are driving cabs here in this downtown — what are you doing for them?"
He replied, "That's a very good question and that's why we are trying to improve the system to make it more skill oriented, and suitable for immigrants, so that they don't face such hardships".
Immigration is a shared federal-provincial and territorial responsibility. Differences between the Federal government's and the Ontario government's approaches, opinions and plans were clearly visible during the conference.
Immigration is also an economic imperative for Ontario, said Charles Sousa, Ontario Minister of Immigration and Citizenship, and "federal immigration policies are hurting Ontario. We have seen a dramatic drop in economic landing — 60 percent of whom would have selected Ontario as their home. Every province needs to attract immigrants. Why does federal government wants to weaken our ability to grow and prosper?"
Sousa said that changes introduced in the last decade deprive Ontario of its fair share and "that's why I object when federal government unilaterally cut settlement funding to Ontario for second year in row." He noted that Julia Deans, former CEO of Ontario Civic Action Alliance, will chair an expert round table on immigration strategy to deal with current issues and prepare plans for the future.
These complexities and confusions will not only create difficulties for intended immigrants trying to understand the Canadian immigration system, but will also generate a kind of negative competition between provinces to grab human resources and receive more federal funding to help immigrants settlement .
Canada urgently requires open debate on immigration policy, to discuss national needs, provincial demands and jobs market capacity to absorb new immigrants. Then maybe we can formulate a comprehensive and dynamic policy to fully utilize immigrants' skills and talents for the benefit of the country.
eMail: smehdir@yahoo.com
References
14th National Metropolis Conference
CCA supports Kenney's proposed immigration reforms to address labour shortages
About Mehdi Rizvi
Mehdi Rizvi is a former member of the Community Editorial Board, Toronto Star and an affiliate of the Center of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement, which is a consortium of three Toronto universities. He is a chemist who has worked in the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals, cement and UV printing products for the last 35 years.
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