A detailed analysis of Canadian immigration system and the opportunities lying ahead with forthcoming elections
The forthcoming federal election in Canada on September 20 provides a chance to consider the future of the country's immigration system. Political parties are presently canvassing voters around the country to outline their vision for how Canada should be governed. The next administration will be given a four-year mandate to rule the country and it is obvious that Immigration will be the most significant policy topic for the next four years and beyond. Canada's prosperity is growing increasingly reliant on immigration.
Immigration is the major cause of Canada's population and labour force growth, and it is also playing an increasing role in the country's economic growth. Canada's reliance on immigration stems from its ageing population and low birth rate. Since they rely on important government-funded services such as health care and so on. In addition, older individuals need extra care and support, meaning extra burden on government resources but they spend less than younger people, resulting in lower economic activity. In Canada, the birth rate is insufficient to replace the population and retiring workers, implying that younger Canadians will be required to shoulder an even greater tax burden, as well as an economic burden in terms of generating economic activity through their labour-force participation and personal spending on goods and services.
Although immigration may not cure all of these problems, it does assist to ease the economic and budgetary burden imposed by Canada's demographic reality. The Canadian government understands this, which is why it is boosting the number of immigrant arrivals. Canada hopes to accept at least 401,000 new immigrants each year under the 2021-2023 Immigration Levels Proposal, which is the most ambitious plan in the country's history. Only once in Canadian history has such a large number of immigrants been accepted and that too was in 1913. Canada must handle certain pressing COVID-related immigration concerns. In addition, there are additional topics that are not an urgent priority but are nevertheless significant and warrant further investigation.
COVID
The epidemic has produced a slew of immigration issues for Canada. There are some immediate priorities to be addressed at the earliest and some of them are as follows:
Assisting Newcomers in Finding Work: During the epidemic, newcomers have been particularly badly impacted in the Canadian labour market. Furthermore, the data of the Canadian government suggests that newcomers who entered Canada during recessions have poorer economic results in Canada than those who arrive during stronger economic periods.
As a result, it is critical for Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to collaborate with industry, lower levels of government, researchers, settlement organizations, the education sector, and credentialing bodies to determine how to offer the best employment support to newcomers during this difficult period.
With more skilled workers retiring rapidly, it can be believed that many newcomers will succeed in the labour market and there are some obvious reasons to believe it such as increased focus on increasing the selection criteria of its economy class, and transitioning more temporary residents to permanent residence and so on. However, there is still a significant risk that some newcomer segments, such as women, families, and refugee class immigrants, will fail. To minimize long-term economic damage for such vulnerable immigrant sectors, IRCC must be aggressive and attentive.
Inviting FSWP Candidates: Since its inception in 1967 and introduction of Express Entry programs in 2015, the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) has been the primary means by which Canada has welcomed economic immigrants. IRCC, on the other hand, has not welcomed FSWP candidates in its bi-weekly Express Entry draws for the whole year of 2021. The reason is that FSWP candidates are more likely to be overseas and will encounter COVID-related problems that will impede Canada's ability to accept them as permanent residents. While this argument makes sense in certain ways, it also has flaws.
FSWP applicants living in Canada who are not receiving invites. Throughout the epidemic, IRCC has been processing temporary residence applications, allowing hundreds of thousands of additional international students and foreign employees to visit here. The vast majority of Canada's travel restrictions have been removed. The most convincing counter-argument is that FSWP applicants have higher core Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) ratings than other candidates.
The CRS is used by IRCC to rate Express Entry candidates. The goal of Express Entry is to favour the highest-scoring individuals since they are more likely to thrive in our economy. All of this is to say that resuming invites to FSWP candidates is long overdue, and the IRCC's position is becoming increasingly difficult to explain now that Canada has relaxed most of its travel restrictions.
Landing Expired COPR Holders: Holders of Confirmation of Permanent Residence (COPR) continue to report difficulty renewing their expired COPRs so that they can ultimately move to Canada. These are people who have finished the whole immigration application procedure and have been approved by IRCC. Unfortunately, thousands of them had their COPRs expire during the pandemic owing to obstacles such as a shortage of flights, lockdowns in their countries, and not being authorized to come to Canada.
In June, Canada officially relaxed its limitations on all COPR holders. Many COPR holders, however, continue to claim a lack of communication from IRCC as they eagerly await the opportunity to start their new lives in Canada. It is past time for the IRCC to accelerate the processing of such individuals, who had their lives put on hold for the majority of the epidemic. These people have already resigned from their jobs, pulled their children out of school, and packed their belongings to relocate here, only for COVID to stand in their way. The most Canadian thing to do is to show compassion and provide these future Canadians with the care and assistance they need.
Aside from the examples of current priorities given above, the following are suggestions for other areas in which Canada might focus to discover improvements.
Economic Class
Express Entry: Express Entry was meant to offer IRCC the required leverage to invite immigrants with high potential and who could really contribute to the Canadian economy. However, from its inception in 2015, the department has mostly recruited applicants with the greatest CRS, and during the epidemic, the emphasis has switched to primarily inviting Canadians. Provinces and territories have shown more innovation via their various Provincial Nominee Programs (PNP). Industry and occupation-specific draws, for example, are key innovative techniques used by provinces to respond to highly specific labour market demands. The Liberal Party of Canada suggested modifications to Express Entry in Budget 2021, although they did not explain what they were thinking. One innovative method that IRCC might adopt is to organize industry and occupation-specific Express Entry draws to assist relieve labour shortages in critical industries across Canada, such as technology, health care, and agriculture.
Municipal Nominee Program (MNP): The Liberals pledged to create a new Municipal Nominee Program (MNP) to assist smaller communities in attracting more immigrants, however the pandemic halted this promise. Launching it after the election would be advantageous since Canada's experience suggests that offering selection programs to smaller jurisdictions tend to encourage a larger distribution of entrants. An easier and faster approach would be to simply raise PNP allocations for interested provinces that promise to utilize the designated resources to nominate applicants who desire to reside in smaller cities.
Business Immigration: Canada was previously the world leader in recruiting immigrant entrepreneurs and investors, but the IRCC has lost interest in this area after closing down two long-standing programs in 2014. The programs were troublesome and outlived their usefulness, but IRCC has yet to create new alternatives capable of welcoming hundreds of thousands of more business immigrants who can contribute to Canada's economic progress.
It is reasonable that IRCC is hesitant, but Canada is now passing up an opportunity to bring in immigrants with considerable human, social, and financial resources. The Start-up Visa is a worthwhile program, but after over a decade of operation, it has demonstrated that it is specialized in nature and unable to attract business immigrants on a broader scale. Canada has a large network of corporate immigration specialists that may assist IRCC on how to create effective new programs.
Family Class
Spouse Sponsorship: Several years ago, IRCC announced that the new processing threshold for spousal sponsorship applications would be 1 year. Given the importance of spousal sponsorship to the Canadian economy and culture, it is worth considering raising the bar even higher and lowering the processing time to 6 months, which was the baseline for Express Entry applicants before the pandemic.
Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP): The International Rescue Committee has long battled to manage the tremendous demand to sponsor parents and grandparents. Its answer in recent years has been to hold a draw, although this approach is not optimal for any of the parties concerned. Once the pandemic has passed, IRCC would benefit from facilitating a conversation with stakeholders across the country to develop a more sustainable and satisfying method to managing the PGP. Before the pandemic, ideas such as a weighted draw system were presented, in which people who were not invited in previous draws would have a better chance of obtaining an offer to sponsor in following draws.
Refugees
Afghan Refugees: The restoration of Taliban authority in Afghanistan has generated alarm and will almost certainly result in a massive humanitarian disaster. Afghanistan had 5 million refugees and internally displaced people before the NATO-led coalition arrived in 2001. Its population has more than doubled since 2001, therefore we must be prepared for the worst. Canada has already committed to accepting 20,000 Afghan refugees, but it will very certainly need to accept much more. The future government must pull up its sleeves and figure out how to welcome the first 20,000 Afghans as soon as possible, and then figure out how to make room for additional Afghans in the following years.
PSRP (Private Sponsorship of Refugees): One method IRCC may help Afghan refugees and achieve Canada's humanitarian goals is to improve the processing level of its long-standing PSRP. The PSRP allows Canadians to privately sponsor refugees and assist them in settling in after they arrive. However, processing processes can take years, discouraging potential sponsors and undermining Canada's capacity to assist individuals in need.
Settlement Services
PSRP (Private Sponsorship of Refugees): One possible way out for IRCC to help Afghan refugees and achieve Canada's humanitarian goals is to improve the processing level of its long-standing PSRP. The PSRP allows Canadians to privately sponsor refugees and assist them in settling in after they arrive. However, this process can take years, discouraging potential sponsors and undermining Canada's capacity to assist individuals in need.
This is a policy issue since IRCC publicly promotes such people to apply for permanent residency. For example, it created a unique program in May 2021 for important employees and international graduates in Canada to apply for immigration. The sooner such people get access to IRCC-funded programs, the sooner they are likely to settle, integrate, and prosper in Canada. There are several solutions to this problem. For example, IRCC can make such services available the minute a temporary resident applies for permanent residency.
Citizenship
Fees: The Liberals also pledged to make Canadian citizenship applications free, but we may presume that owing to the epidemic, they did not follow through on this promise. A new federal law allows us to consider either carrying out this pledge or lowering citizenship fees. Some believe that recent increases in citizenship fees have made it expensive for some permanent residents to proceed with their citizenship applications.
In the end, it can be said that Canada has a world-class immigration system as a result of its constant effort to modernize and improve. In recent years, the government has made considerable strides, including the adoption of Express Entry and a multi-year immigration policy. Express Entry has accelerated the processing of economic class applications, and a multi-year plan has allowed stakeholders across the nation more time to prepare for an increase in arrivals.
Furthermore, IRCC deserves a lot of respect for its job in handling the immigration system during a pandemic. At the same time, the immigration system is not without problems, and there are several methods to improve it. The present election campaign and the new government mandate provide us with a huge window of opportunity to implement our finest immigration proposals.
Comments
Post a Comment