Enabling Emigration

Canada depends upon immigration to swell our ranks as a country long accustomed to increasing its population through immigration. And would-be immigrants depend upon Canada to welcome them as potential new citizens of the country. So much of the world is in constant upheaval and people seek shelter elsewhere than those countries which have somehow failed their expectations for the future.

In any event, humankind has always been migratory, and for one reason or another there has been a tendency to seek one's fortune elsewhere. In a world where growing competitiveness among countries in trade and export, in encouraging home-grown technologies, corporate growth and business acumen, there's more than ample competition for the well educated and those who can be productive within a nation on forward momentum.

Canada takes in approximately 250,000 immigrants a year, welcoming people from far and wide to our shores. To accept what it is to be a Canadian, even if it takes several generations to reach that point. Initially, making compromises, accepting what is given as the Canadian way of life; that our citizens, while accepting all the privileges and rights of citizenship, acknowledge also personal responsibility to the country, and accommodating themselves to the reality of inclusion, acceptance and respect for diversity.

Through a succession of governments, particularly those led by the Liberal Party of Canada, the emphasis has always been largely placed on family re-unification. A recognized need to enable families who wish to enlarge their presence in their new country of choice by sponsoring other family members for emigration from their home countries. The other major element has been to encourage highly educated people, with trades and professions needed in Canada to choose this country.

A point system has always been employed, taking into account applicants' vital statistics, including education, profession, and economic status as an entry wedge. Certainly not least is Canada's obligation to open itself to people escaping countries at war, or countries where they have been marginalized or threatened because of their ethnic, religious or ideological backgrounds.

The process of enrolment has been slow, with some immigrant-applicants waiting for years to be successfully processed. The backlog stands now at approximately 900,000, representing people who have applied to emigrate to Canada, many waiting for as long as six years. The current government has recognized it is past time to upgrade the system, and is enacting legislation to do just that. Proposing expanded powers of choice and speeding up the process be given the Minister of Immigration.

Immigration officers attempt to determine, through the interview process, whether an applicant represents himself or herself accurately, and whether that applicant seems likely to be able to integrate into Canadian society. It's a complex, complicated and frustrating procedure at the best of times. There is a growing recognition that Canada needs to attract greater numbers of skilled immigrants to the country.

Employment opportunities are there, qualified immigrants should be able to fill gaps, and government has to take action to make that match-up more likely to happen than it has in the past to the present. Family reunification cannot be left by the wayside. On the other hand, it is not particularly in Canada's best interests to bring in the elderly at the end of their working lives, who will become a burden on the medical and welfare system.

That's a hard-headed decision. Although sponsors must guarantee support for relatives whose emigration they sponsor for a specific length of time, it often enough occurs that those with compromised health conditions and the elderly become burdens on the system. Many successful applicants make heavy use of Canada's social welfare system until they're able to establish themselves; some never do.

The current government's proposals make good sense, although some ethnic communities within Canada have been quick to find fault with the new initiative, giving additional powers to the Minister of Immigration to make choices that will benefit the country's need for workers. Tellingly, spokespeople for the Chinese Canadian Community Alliance, welcome the changed perspective: "It has everything to do with skills, and it will bring the right type of people into Canada."

President of the Canada-Poland Chamber of Commerce is said to have concluded that the new direction is designed to give the minister flexibility to respond to labour shortages. "The most important thing is that, if nothing is done, by 2012 the backlog will be such that people will be waiting ten years for their applications to be heard. I'm glad to see the government doing something", he said.

As things now stand, the backlog and the waiting times are injurious both to the expectations of would-be immigrants, and to the needs of the country. That the new legislation is designed to expedite the acceptance of applicants on the basis of their attributes, matching the needs of the country, is a positive thing. People languishing while awaiting determination simply turn elsewhere. New Zealand's immigration processing time is a mere six months.

Opposition to the bill has been mounted by the Liberal Party, since it is the Conservative-led government that is proposing these amendments. Their shrill denunciations indicate not too much of anything, other than to appeal to their usual constituents among the immigrant population to support them in the next election. A spokesperson from the Canadian Arab Federation has been quick to take up the cudgel of opposition.

Speculating on the possibility of a hidden agenda - encouraged by the Liberals - in which the government has made plans to discriminate against certain minority groups because they may seem incapable of integrating well into a pluralist society of live-and-let-live. "I'm not saying they will discriminate against Arabs or Muslims, but who knows?" he said.

Who knows, indeed.