IMMIGRATION RIGHTS
“Canada wants immigrants to succeed
economically as well as socially. We understand that working in one’s chosen field or with one’s skillset is very important for morale. As such, we want newcomers to integrate economically, to find productive work, and to contribute to the GDP. ”
Economic integration: Canada wants immigrants to succeed economically as well as socially. We understand that working in one’s chosen field or with one’s skillset is very important for morale. As such, we want newcomers to integrate economically, to find productive work, and to contribute to the GDP.
I will touch on this more in the next section, but I should mention that the Government of Canada is reforming our immigration policy to increase the relative numbers of economic immigrants for this very reason. The new Express Entry program explicitly favours applicants who have job offers already in place. Unlike the immigration criteria in the 1990s and early 2000s, the rebalanced system is designed to avoid long backlogs which leave immigrants in a kind of application limbo. Loyalty to Canada: The last major expectation I will mention is the requirement that newcomers be loyal to Canada. Many
100 | The Parliamentarian | 2015: Issue Two
Above: A Hispanic family become Canadian citizens at a citizenship ceremony. Canadian nationality law determines who is eligible for citizenship.
immigrants come to Canada as a land of opportunity but need a reminder to adopt the principles of individual rights and freedoms which make it so. Unfortunately, there are those who would abuse our generosity by radicalizing the disaffected or by using Canada as a staging ground to attack us or our allies.
Likewise, there are those who accept Canada’s aid by seeking refuge here, eventually taking out citizenship, only to travel with a Canadian passport while returning to their homelands to join the jihad.
To address these abuses, in 2012, I introduced a Private Member’s Bill in parliament to strip Canadian citizenship from convicted terrorists and traitors (without leaving anyone stateless) and to reward permanent residents who joined our armed forces by reducing
their residency requirement before applying for citizenship. The Ministry at the time incorporated its provisions into official government legislation which was passed by Parliament and came into force in June 2014. This leads to the next major point; the recent reforms to Canada’s Immigration system.
Legislative changes in recent years The current Government of Canada has passed significant reforms to Canada’s immigration system since forming in 2006, but I will only highlight a few of the most recent ones. For example, to improve the chances of newcomers economically and culturally integrating once in Canada, the government increased funding in April 2015 for expanded pre-arrival services including orientation sessions overseas.
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