Immigration.ca - Canada Immigration News - June 2008
Last month the Conservative government passed a bill that will change the way immigration applications are processed. Instead of being processed in the order which they are received, applications from workers whose skills are deemed most desirable to the Canadian job market will be fast-tracked to the front of the line.
The Conservatives argue that their reforms are intended to reduce the application backlog which will, in turn, encourage more applicants whose skills are desperately needed in Canada.
However, now that the bill has been voted through, the Department of Citizenship and Immigration, headed by Diane Finlay, admits that there has been no systematic monitoring of which applications have been filed by which professionals. The government now faces the daunting task of wading through the over 900,000 application backlog to determine which ones should be prioritized.
The first step is to sort and categorize the applications according to occupation. This task alone is expected to cost taxpayers $100 million. After that, Finlay will travel to all provinces in an attempt to gather knowledge for her department as to which skills are most needed where.
These changes are part of what is expected to be an overhaul of Canada’s immigration system. Under the current system, the government uses a “point-system” to evaluate each applicant’s potential in Canada. Critics of the system point out that many approved immigrants arrive with very limited language skills and credentials that, although meriting immigration points, are often not recognized within Canada.
Australia formerly had a similar point-based system for immigration, with similar problems. About a decade ago, their government implemented a new system geared toward placing greater emphasis on needed skills and integration potential.
After implementing those changes, Australia has managed to increase its immigrant job-placement rate by approximately 20 per cent. In that same time-frame, Canada’s rate has stagnated.
The Canadian system is likely to receive tinkering so that more emphasis is placed on language testing, as well as a redistribution of the points awarded for job experience and credentials.
Realistically, however these changes are a ways off. The government will have its hands full for now just dealing with the backlog and trying to come up with a fast-track system that will be fair, rather than arbitrary, based on a concrete analysis of what each province needs and not which political groups can place the most pressure on the government.
Source: National Post
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=597231
