Archives for March 2007

This month Statistics Canada published the results of the 2006 national census, detailing the demographic shifts in the nation over the past five years. The tale told by the figures is one where immigration is key to Canada’s future growth.

With the Canadian birth rate continuing a declining trend, immigration already accounts for a significant portion of Canadian population growth. Over two thirds of Canada’s population growth (now having reached 31.6 million total residents) over the past five years can be accounted for by immigration. Thanks to the 1.2 million immigrants who have made Canada their home in that time, Canada benefited from the highest population growth among the Group of Eight (G8) industrial nations. This population growth has helped Canada to compete in the global economy, fuelling economic growth at a healthy rate.

Canada’s reliance on immigration as a source of population growth is expected to become even greater over time. Canada’s natural birthrate is at an average of 1.5 children per woman, well below the replacement rate – the birthrate that is necessary to keep the population stable – of 2.1 children per woman. By the year 2030, the census suggests that the entirety of Canada’s population growth will come from immigration.

The importance of immigration to Canada’s future is highlighted by ongoing skills shortages facing businesses across Canada. With growing businesses in Canada seeking employees at a variety of skill levels, immigration is an important source of Canada’s competitive advantage. Driven by this demand, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) raised the target for new permanent residents to Canada by 15,000 for 2007, reaching 265,000 at the upper end of the range.

In order to encourage immigration to fuel growth in Canada, the Canadian government has developed several ways to speed the process of arriving in Canada for potential new Canadians. One such method is through temporary work permits, which allow the holder to arrive and work in Canada within a matter of weeks, in some cases for up to 24 months. Another path is through the Provincial Nominee Program, which allows individuals with job offers from Canadian employers in certain occupations in high demand to receive priority processing in their applications for Permanent Residency. Most of these opportunities are associated with finding a job in Canada.

One of the most common questions in the Canadian immigration application process is, “How long will it take for my Permanent Resident Visa to be issued?” The answers provided by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) are widely variable and based on historic information.

It is difficult for CIC to provide future processing times due to the annual variations in the number of applications in every immigration category and at each of the many overseas Canadian Immigration Visa Offices.

What CIC does provide as more concrete indicators of application processing activity, is the annual targets for each Canadian Visa Office. Included in these targets are Economic and Non-Economic sub-targets. The Economic category comprises skilled workers, investor immigrants, entrepreneurs, and provincially-selected applicants. The Non-Economic category is made up of spouses and dependants, parents and grandparents, refugees and humanitarian cases. The annual assignment of targets for each Canadian Immigration Visa Office is among the most important annual decisions that CIC undertakes.

In 2007, CIC aims to welcome somewhere between 225,000 and 265,000 new Canadian Permanent Residents. Of those, 66% will be economic immigrants, and will 33% be non-economic immigrants.

Highlights from the CIC 2007 targets by region

Africa/Middle East

Damascus will continue to be the leader in the number of Canadian Immigration Visas issued in the region with 10,190, up three per cent from last year. The most prominent increase in the region is at the Rabat visa office, where the number of visas issued in 2007 will be up by 46 per cent since last year to 4,315. Rabat will have the highest economic to non-economic ratio in the region at 3.71. Nairobi will be concentrating on non-economic immigrants, issuing visas to 2,300 refugees, the largest number of any Canadian visa office.

Asia/Pacific

Though the strongest growers since 2006 will be Taipei and Kuala Lumpur (at 33% and 17% respectively), New Delhi remains the front-runner at 22,380 visas to be issued. Next in line are Hong Kong and Manila, Manila being the visa office in the region where most applicants will take advantage of provincially-sponsored and live-in caregiver programs. Seoul and Taipei will have very strong economic to non-economic ratios at 10.51 and 8.73 respectively.

Europe

The region with the highest economic to non-economic ratio (at 4.12); London, Berlin, Paris, and Bucharest will be the strongest concentrations of economic immigrants with 7 or 8 economic visas issued for every non-economic. Vienna will have the largest growth in the region at 27 per cent, mainly due to non-economic immigrants. Paris, second in the number of visas to be issued after London, will issue 9,000 visas under the economic sub-category of provincially-sponsored immigrants, mainly due to immigration to Quebec.

Americas

Far and away the leader in this region, Buffalo, U.S.A. will issue 36,075 Canadian Permanent Resident Visas this year, 8,000 of which will be under the economic sub-category of provincially-sponsored programs. The Buffalo visa office’s economic to non-economic ratio will be 9.09. The targets for Sao Paulo, Kingston, and Port of Spain will have the largest increases at 44%, 38%, and 26% respectively, Sao Paulo being the only one in which the majority will be for economic immigrants. Bogota will issue 1,550 refugee visas to Canada.

Though the CIC targets do not provide estimated waiting times for visa applications to be processed, the regional and global trends are useful indicators of what Canadian Visa Offices around the world are working with.

Election campaigns provide an excellent opportunity for issues affecting immigrants to receive attention by public officials and the media. With a provincial election arriving in Quebec on the 26th of March and a federal election likely looming, the coming months should provide an open forum to discuss the issues and interests of immigrants in Canada.

As a nation built on immigration, Canadian politics have always provided an arena to discuss issues of immigration and settlement. While only Canadian citizens may vote in Canadian elections, the forum for discussion remains open to all. As politicians vie for votes in immigrant communities, they engage issues facing these communities, sometimes leading to innovative policy suggestions. In Toronto’s municipal election campaign in the fall of 2006, Mayor David Miller suggested that Permanent Residents be extended the right to vote in municipal elections – a possibility currently being studied by the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs.

The Province of Quebec will be going to the polls on Monday March 26 th to elect a new provincial government. In a heated three-way race, the competition for votes is good news for immigrants, whose communities and votes (for those who are now Canadian citizens) will be courted by politicians. With approximately 45,000 new Canadian Permanent Residents making their homes in Quebec every year, immigrants are an important constituency deciding the makeup of the next government in Quebec. Under the Canada-Quebec Immigration Agreement, Quebec is able to establish its own requirements to select those who wish to immigrate to Quebec.

While no official date is in place for the next federal election, observers expect Prime Minister Stephen Harper to call a new election in the coming months. The current minority government formed by the Conservative Party of Canada has been in power since January of 2006. With evidence abound of preparations for a campaign to win an expected summer election, politicians from each of the major parties are seeking to make in-roads with immigrant communities, listening to their concerns and readying to respond with new election platforms. As Ontario, the destination for over half of new Permanent Residents, goes to the polls in October of this year, we can expect immigrant issues to gain significant attention in the public eye in 2007.

News out today that the Conservative led minority government in Ottawa won’t be establishing a federal agency to review and recognize the work and educational credentials of newly-arriving immigrants, after all. Notwithstanding their pre-election promise to help newcomers become accredited in Canada, the party now in power has instead decided to refer immigrants to provincial bodies for the assessment of their credentials. Talk about passing the buck.

Read Full Blog on CanadaVisa.com…

Relatives and Community Groups Could Be Your Ticket to Priority Processing for Canadian Immigration 

The number of options is on the rise for Canadian immigration applicants who do not want to wait out the lengthy application processing times associated with a Federal Skilled Worker Application. Applicants who have relatives or can become part of a community group in Canada may be able to benefit from provincially-sponsored programs, aimed at increasing province-specific immigration.

Read Full Article on CanadaVisa.com…

Consider these facts:

– For the fourth consecutive year, the Canadian economy is strong and vibrant.

– In many regions of Canada there are more jobs that pay well than there are people to work at them.
They say that “a rising tide carries all the ships” but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. The reality is that Canada has well-paying jobs that go begging and eager economic immigrants, whose skills are being underutilized. Statistics show that it’s taking longer for new economic immigrants to share in Canada’s prosperity than it did for economic immigrants, who came to Canada 30 or 40 years ago.

Why should that be?

Read Full Blog on CanadaVisa.com…