Immigration Laws: September, 2002 - Number #4

Canada had 250,346 immigrants in 2001, up from 227,327 in 2000. In 2001, 61 percent of Canada's immigrants were economic immigrants (including family members), 27 percent were family-class immigrants, and 11 percent were refugees. Of 2001's immigrants, 134,118 people, 54 percent, came from 10 countries, including China with 40,282; followed by India with 27,899; Pakistan, 15,342; Philippines, 12,884; Korea, 9,613; U.S., 5,920; Iran, 5,726; Romania, 5,586; Sri Lanka, 5,517; and Britain, 5,349.

Canada's Immigration Minister Denis Coderre said that the government may need to hike immigration levels beyond 300,000 a year to offset its aging population. He added that they may have to be told where they can settle so that the country can absorb such a big increase in numbers. Coderre plans to offer a new "contract" to temporary skilled workers; if they agree to restrict their mobility rights and settle somewhere other than Toronto, Vancouver or Montreal. They would be granted permanent status in Canada at the end of the three- to five-year contract. Critics of the plan say that it violates the mobility rights guaranteed to all Canadian residents under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

On June 28, 2002, a new point system went into effect, requiring immigrants seeking immigrant visas to score 75 points, up from 70 points. The new system rewards education (five points for a high school diploma and 25 points for a PhD), language (16 points for English or French, and 24 points for both) and experience (15 to 21 points for at least one year of work experience). Applicants get 10 points for being ages 21 to 49; 10 points if they have a confirmed job offer in Canada; and up to 10 points for "adaptability," or at the discretion of the examiner of the application.

Immigration Minister Denis Coderre has proposed that immigrants arriving under the point system could receive extra points if they signed contracts to live in rural areas, what he called a "regional development strategy" that would help smaller communities fill the vacancies for skilled workers, such as nurses and teachers. The immigrants would receive "temporary work permits for three or five years" that could be converted to immigrant visas if they fulfilled the residence requirement.

Canada has five million foreign-born residents, 17 percent of all residents; 2.1 million of the immigrants arrived between 1981 and 1996. Immigration averaged 235,000 a year to Canada between 1991 and 1996, 93,000 a year to Australia, and one million a year to the U.S.

On December 3, 2001, Canada and the US issued a Joint Statement on Border Security that required asylum seekers to apply in Canada or the US, whichever country they reached first. About 15,000 foreigners a year travel through the US, or apply for asylum in the US, and then apply for asylum in Canada.

Integration. V. S. Naipaul, an immigrant from Trinidad who won the 2001 Nobel Prize in Literature, advised his nephew, Neil Bissoondath, to follow him to Canada, but not to make race "the center of your worldview." Bissoondath followed his advice and became a writer. His novels often criticize multiculturalism, portraying immigrants who are less than satisfied with their new home.

He says: "I believe in the ability of the individual to shape one's own life," and criticizes the government's financing of ethnic festivals and community centers. The result, he says, is segregation. Many intellectuals in the Canadian West Indian community have scorned Bissoondath, saying that he has turned his back on his roots and arguing that his call for color-blindness is naïve.

Labor. In May 2002, four Mexican workers who had nonimmigrant visas to work at Maple Leaf Pork in Brandon, Manitoba were arrested just inside the North Dakota border. Maple Leaf processes 9,000 hogs a day, and hired 47 Mexican workers with two year visas for C$9.65 an hour. As the number of Mexican guest workers in Canada increases, the number slipping away to the US may increase.

Bill Curry, "Coderre says plan to settle new Canadians in small cities is good for everyone," National Post, August 27, 2002. Allan Thompson, "Newcomers to Canada may be told where to live," Toronto Star, August 9, 2002. Clifford Krauss, "The Immigrant Culture, Written in Harsh Light," New York Times, August 3, 2002. "Mexicans flee huge Brandon hog plant: Workers arrested in U.S.," National Post, May 2, 2002. Bissett, James. 2002. Canada's Asylum System: A Threat to American Security.