Canada Immigration and Vulnerable Workers

The Canadian government is taking welcome steps to protect workers who are vulnerable to exploitation once they arrive in Canada:

Government of Canada introduces amendments to protect vulnerable foreign workers from human trafficking

Ottawa, June 17, 2009 — The Government of Canada will today reintroduce amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) to help protect vulnerable foreign workers such as exotic dancers and live-in caregivers who could be victims of exploitation.

The bill was tabled in the previous Parliament but died on the order paper when an election was called.

“This will strengthen Canada’s immigration system by helping to prevent situations where temporary workers in Canada may be abused, exploited or possibly become victims of human trafficking,” said Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, President of the Queen’s Privy Council and Minister for la Francophonie, Josée Verner, speaking on behalf of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney.

“The amendments will help further our agenda of increasing protections for temporary foreign workers, by preventing situations of abuse from happening in the first place,” added Labour Minister Rona Ambrose.

The bill would give the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration the authority to instruct immigration officers to deny work permits to vulnerable foreign workers who may be trafficked into Canada and forced to perform humiliating and degrading jobs against their will.

“This is one more measure that will help ensure that the expectation of safety within Canada is preserved,” added Joy Smith, Member of Parliament (Kildonan–St. Paul).

Canadian Employers Hiring Immigrant Workers

CIC is moving towards a system where many immigrants will have to find a Canadian employer as part of the immigration process. To this end, CIC is making it easier for employers to hire potential immigrants:

The Government of Canada introduces new resource for employers interested in hiring internationally trained workers

Ottawa, June 16, 2009 — A new resource to help guide employers through the hiring process for internationally trained workers was announced today by Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney.

“The Government of Canada is committed to improving the labour market integration of internationally trained workers – this is essential to building a strong Canada: socially, culturally and economically,” said Minister Kenney.

“Employers are key partners in helping internationally trained workers find jobs in their areas of training, and this resource makes it easier for employers to assess their qualifications.”

The Employer’s Roadmap will help employers meet their labour needs and will allow skilled newcomers to put their knowledge and training to work in Canada more quickly.

“This is a practical resource that employers in any sector will find useful in helping to meet their staffing needs and improve their competitiveness in a rapidly changing economy,” said Andrew Cardozo, Executive Director, The Alliance of Sector Councils (TASC). “The Employer’s Roadmap is exactly what is needed to make the process of hiring and retaining internationally trained workers a lot more efficient.”

The Employer’s Roadmap addresses questions many employers have about hiring internationally trained workers, such as how to recruit, assess and select them. It also includes suggestions on how to integrate and retain these workers once they become new employees.

Information is also provided on the range of national and regional resources available across the country to support employers.

The Employer’s Roadmap is the result of a partnership between the Foreign Credentials Referral Office (FCRO), part of Citizenship and Immigration Canada, and TASC. It is one of several measures that the Government of Canada is taking to help newcomers successfully integrate into the Canadian labour market as quickly as possible.

In addition, Canada’s Economic Action Plan includes an investment of $50 million over two years to support the development of a common approach to foreign credential recognition.

New Saskatchewan Immigration Program

The current restrictions on skilled worker applications means that applicants have to get creative and look at provincial programs.

Although most people intend to live in Vancouver, Toronto or Montreal, other cities and provinces offer potential immigrants an entry into Canada.

Here's a good article on a new Saskatchewan immigration program.

New Canadian visa scheme for entrepreneurs
June 16 2009 by Bryan Palmer

A new scheme is being launched by Candian immigration officials in Saskatchewan, with the intention of attracting foreign entrepreneurs to the region to boost business and employment.
The plan involves establishing new business immigration streams as part of the new Canadian immigration strategy.

The strategy focuses on attracting investment and entrepreneurs who may want to start new firms in Saskatchewan, thus creating jobs for the local people.

"Our new immigration initiative acknowledges the importance of entrepreneurship by building bridges between potential residents of Saskatchewan and the industries and businesses that will benefit from their investment and skills," says the province’s minister of advanced education, employment and labour, Rob Norris, who is also responsible for Canadian immigration in the region.

Under the plan, 250 immigrants will be nominated under the entrepreneurship category of the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program, over a two-year period. This will help to create around 900 new jobs, according to Norris.Earlier this month Norris said that he expected the province to grant as many as 10,000 new Canadian visas, over the coming 12 to 18 months, through the nominee programme. He said of the new arrivals, “they are bringing new ideas, new knowledge and new networks to Saskatchewan and they're helping to reinvigorate our communities.”

Conjugal Sponsorships and Canada Immigration

This is a big topic on which I've written in the past. I would like to address one question I get from so many people: "Why does Citizenship and Immigration Canada approve so few conjugal applications?"

There are some people who think that CIC targets conjugal applications for rejection. That is not true.

The reality is that most people attempting to apply through the conjugal category are simply dating. Sponsorship is reserved for people who are in a life long committed and exclusive relationship.

If you are not married, and have not lived together for at least one year, or have not even tried to live together for whatever time period you can, you have to ask yourself: are we in a life long relationship?

There are people who come to me looking for advice. They have no joint assets.

They have made no real efforts to be together other than a few weeks traveling together. They haven't even met each other's families. Objectively speaking, there is no way these people can be seen as being in a relationship that is equivalent to marriage for immigration purposes.

There are circumstances for which the conjugal application is appropriate, and I'll address those in the weeks to come.

Sponsorship and Medical Inadmissibility of a Family Member

Too often an immigration sponsorship application is rejected because a family member (whether accompanying the applicant or not) is deemed medically inadmissible. The test is whether the individual will or might reasonably cause excessive demands on the health care or social service system when that person arrives in Canada.

A recent case at the Immigation Appeal Division (Leonoff, March 31, 2009) dealt with an applicant's brother who suffered from a mental disability (the case uses the unpleasant term of "retardation").

The IAD overturned the visa officer's rejection of the application and found the brother was not medically inadmissible. The IAD stated in part:

The sponsored application for permanent residence of the appellant's parents and brother was refused on the basis that the brother was medically inadmissible in that he suffered from severe mental retardation. The appeal was allowed in law. In response to a fairness letter, the appellant submitted further medical information to counter the position taken by the medical officer that the brother's condition might reasonably be expected to cause excessive demands on health or social services. That information included letters from a psychiatrist and psychologist indicating that the brother suffered from moderate mental retardation and could be cared for at home with minimal help. It behooved the medical officer to at least indicate why he rejected their conclusions, which were different from his. There was no indication that the visa officer considered the new evidence in rejecting the applications and he failed to consider whether the medical officer’s decision had ignored evidence and was unreasonable. If that had been done, the results of the present appeal may very well have been different, as there was no reliable evidence as to what kind of services the appellant really needed and there were insufficient humanitarian and compassionate grounds to grant special relief. The refusal was invalid in law.

In other words, there was an assumption that a mental disability would prove to be burdensome on our health care system without actually investigating the facts in this case where the brother could be cared for at home with little medical intervention required.

Immigration applicants who have medical issues, or who have family members with medical issues, should be vigilent about assumptions around the amount of care required. They should voice their opinion that their medical condition can be managed without excessive demands on the health care system if possible.

Speeding Tickets and Canada Immigration

Many potential immigrants come across the criminal inadmissibilty provisions of our immigration rules and wonder if their vehicle speeding tickets will prevent them from immigrating to Canada. Surely such tickets are an offense?

Generally speaking, speeding tickets will not make you inadmissible. Section 36 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act provides that an applicant "having been convicted of an offense outside Canada, that, if committed in Canada, would constitute an offence under an Act of Parliament."

An "Act of Parliament" means federal legislation. In Canada, speeding offenses are under provincial legislation, not federal legislation. Thus, speeding tickets are not caught under the criminal inadmissibility rules.

One caveat however is if your speeding offenses amount to something more under Canadian rules than simple tickets. For example, the Criminal Code of Canada (federal legislation) contains offenses of dangerous driving, street racing, and others. If your speeding offenses fall into anything caught by the Criminal Code, you may likely be criminally inadmissible.