Immigration Laws: January, 2004 - Number #06

Canada admitted 229,091 immigrants in 2002, down from 250,484 in 2001; the leading countries of origin were China, India, Pakistan and the Philippines. About 145,000 immigrants arrived in the first eight months of 2003, within the target of 220,000 to 245,000 immigrants a year.

Canada's governing Liberal Party got a new leader, Paul Martin, who replaced Jean Chretien as Prime Minister and appointed Toronto MP Judy Sgro as immigration minister. The Liberal Party has held power since 1993; the conservative opposition is splintered and unable to mount an effective challenge. The Liberal Party's goal is annual immigration equivalent to one percent of the population, or 310,000 a year.

Canada is struggling with what to do about immigrants accused of being terrorists- should it return them to countries such as Syria in which torture is common? In 1985, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled that anyone who reaches Canada is entitled to all the rights and legal protection of Canadian citizens regardless of their immigration status, which means, according to a former commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, that "once someone gets into the country illegally, it's enormously hard to find them, and once we find them, it's enormously hard to get them out."

Some 1.5 million legal immigrants in Canada must obtain new and more secure landed immigrant cards, but only 875,000 were issued by the January 1, 2004 deadline. If immigrants who travel abroad without the new card are not nationals of one of the 45 countries whose citizens can travel to Canada without visas, they could be denied permission to board planes to Canada.

Unauthorized/Unemployed. In the past, Canada has had few unauthorized foreigners, but the Greater Toronto Home Builders Association says that "If we didn't have them [unauthorized workers], we wouldn't be able to build houses." There are an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 unauthorized foreigners in Canada, including 75,000 in the Ontario construction industry, 36,000 failed asylum applicants who have not been removed, and eight percent overstays among the 800,000 foreigners issued work, student and visitor visas in 2002.

Jeffrey Reitz of the University of Toronto says that, even though Canada selects over half of its immigrants with a point system that rewards those with education and language skills, "All the statistical data have been suggesting that recently arrived immigrants are experiencing a tougher time. Canada is choosing immigrants on a skills basis, but the transferability of their skills has been an issue." Elizabeth Ruddick, director of research at Citizenship and Immigration Canada, said in November 2003 that the earnings of immigrants have been trending downward, and foreign job experience seems to be less valued by Canadian employers, in part because many immigrants self-report more knowledge of English or French than they have.

Unemployment is a growing problem in Canada's immigrant communities. Many foreign-trained professionals cannot obtain required licenses, and thus cannot work in Canada in the occupation for which they were educated. For example, Quebec has a shortage of 1,000 doctors and at least as many nurses, but only 30 percent of the foreign-trained doctors have passed provincial medical exams. In a program that helped 100 foreign-trained doctors prepare for provincial medical exams, the pass rate rose to 50 percent.

Canada's ambassador to Jamaica in Fall 2003 said that a program that admits 5,000 Jamaicans a year as seasonal farm workers may be reduced in size because of illegal immigration and drug-smuggling. During the past six years, about 850 Jamaican farmworkers deserted the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program, which began in 1966; most have not been found. Most leave just after arriving in Canada, ostensibly to work on vegetable and tobacco farms in southern Ontario.

Barrington Bailey, head of the overseas worker program at Jamaica's Ministry of Labor, said that applicants for the SAWP are nominated by their local members of Parliament, and that steps would be taken to ensure that those nominated have experience doing farm work.

Doctors. Canada has about 250 neurosurgeons, and there was a net migration of 50 to the US between 1996 and 2001, with analysts citing factors that include higher salaries and better conditions in the US. About two-thirds of Canadian manufacturing and construction employers report shortages of skilled blue-collar workers, but most say that immigration, not efforts to recruit and train Canadians, is the answer, since they believe that Canadians are interested only in white-collar jobs.

Canada has a Live-in Caregiver Program that allows foreigners to earn an immigrant status after two years of living with persons who need in-home services, such as the elderly or those with young children. Some families abuse the program, turning their homes into day-care centers, having live-in caregivers care for others' children along with their own.

"Crimes endanger Jamaican farm labor program: Canadian ambassador," Canadian Press, December 2, 2003. Marina Jimenez, "200,000 illegal immigrants toiling in Canada's underground economy," Globe and Mail (Canada), November 15, 2003. Pratt, Geraldine. Gender, Work and Space, Real Seguin, "Quebec to help foreign MDs pass exams," Globe and Mail, November 18, 2003.