Immigration Laws: August, 2000 - Number #7

Even as Canadian and US authorities meet with Chinese officials in an effort to reduce the smuggling of Chinese migrants, Canadian officials announced plans for more temporary camps to house migrants expected to arrive by ship in the summer of 2000. Of the 590 Chinese migrants who arrived in four ships in summer 1999, 549 applied for asylum- 16 were granted refugee status by the Immigration and Refugee Board and 106 have been returned to China. Most of the others are appealing negative decisions or have disappeared.

Three Korean seamen went on trial in July 2000 in Victoria for smuggling Chinese to British Columbia in summer 1999. Defense lawyers argued against allowing TV cameras in the court room, arguing that the families of the seamen may be put in danger by Chinese snakeheads. The Supreme Court of Canada and 47 U.S. states allow television in court rooms for trials, but cameras and tape recorders are not routinely allowed in Canadian courts.

The anticipated influx of Chinese boat people to British Columbia has not occurred. The first of four Chinese boats arrived July 20, 1999, and Canadian officials leased detention space for what they assumed would be a greater influx in 2000.

Politics. Stockwell Day, formerly Alberta's finance minister, was confirmed as leader of the Canadian Conservative Alliance, a new right-wing party that may give the governing Liberals a tough fight at Canada's next election. Day supports more restrictive immigration laws, including quicker deportation of illegal immigrants.

Ujjal Dosanjh, born in the Punjab, became Canada's first minority provincial premier in July 2000 when he was elected premier in British Columbia as leader of the New Democrats. British Columbia has about 350,000 ethnic Chinese and 250,000 ethnic Indians. Adrienne Clarkson, an ethnic Chinese from Hong Kong, became Canada's governor general, or head of state, in 1999.

The head of Canada's second most valuable company after Nortel Networks, PMC-Sierra (a computer chip maker) said that Canada and the US should have uniform immigration and tax policies to prevent Canada-US migration in search of higher salaries and lower taxes.

Roma. A representative of the Roma reports that Hungarians are disguising themselves as gypsies, or Roma, in order to get asylum and citizenship in Canada. Canadian immigration says that about 1,400 Hungarians apply for asylum each year. In the first six months of 2000, decisions were made on 522 applications, with 398 rejected, 59 granted refugee status, 61 abandoned and 98 withdrawn.

James Brooke, "Sikhs on the Rise in British Columbia," New York Times, July 18, 2000.
Steven Pearlstein, "Opposition Leader Courts Canadians," Washington Post, July 16, 2000.
"Hungarians Disguised as Roma," Budapest Sun, July 4, 2000.