Liberals and changes in immigration policy
When it comes to the political platform of the Liberals and their attitude toward immigrants, the coming to power of Justin Trudeau's team is good news for those wishing to enter Canada. The only question is what the Liberals will tackle first and how quickly we will see changes. And that is where questions arise.
The fact is that the Conservatives, who were in power for the last nine years, left the Liberals a difficult legacy. Having set themselves the ambitious task of creating a completely new model for selecting immigrants, the Harper government suffered a severe fiasco in implementing its plans. As a result, it managed to destroy what was more or less functioning, without providing anything truly functional in return.
Now the Liberals will have to urgently fix what can be fixed and create something new where fixing is no longer possible. There is another path – returning to what worked before and which the Conservatives simply abandoned.
At this point, it is unclear which path the Liberals will choose and what they will focus on first. I think we need to wait at least until the end of this year – usually at the end of December, the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration announces its plans for the future. And it is unlikely that we should expect rapid changes: the mere fact that the government has changed will not instantly change anything in the immigration sphere; it is a fairly inertial machine. It will be many months, if not a year, before we see any real changes. I draw attention to this because I constantly encounter expectations of immediate changes in Canadian immigration policy solely due to a change in government. Unfortunately, it is not that simple.
Programs for skilled workers
Undoubtedly, the most sensitive topic remains programs for skilled workers. As practice has shown, the Express Entry pre-selection system introduced by the Conservatives turned out to be so poorly thought out and so poorly implemented that it either needs to be abandoned or radically changed. I wrote about the fact that the Express Entry system is logically not connected to federal skilled worker programs and is essentially a completely alien addition even before this system was introduced. The past year has fully confirmed my conclusions – the Express Entry system does not help in better selecting immigrants; it only hinders. As a result, today we have a shortfall of applications accepted for processing by immigration authorities, whereas the opposite was always the case.
What is more important, the Express Entry system gives virtually no advantage to individuals who have at least one year of work experience in Canada, which noticeably diminishes the role of the Canadian Experience Class program – even those who meet all the requirements for it can pass through the Express Entry sieve only in very few cases. And this is despite the fact that in recent years the Canadian Experience Class program has been positioned as the highest priority for Canada. This largely also applies to the Federal Skilled Worker Program.
From a technical standpoint, the implementation of the electronic application system Express Entry has also been far from ideal; there are numerous complaints about its operation. In particular, the system often glitches, applicants cannot complete forms because the system resets after some time, and so on. Essentially, we have a completely raw product with a host of fundamental flaws.
In theory, the Express Entry selection system should be abandoned as soon as possible. Will the new government do this? To be honest, I am not sure that the new Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, John McCallum, will have the determination and desire to do so. I think we are in for a series of tweaks and changes to this system, and we will have to deal with it at least until the end of next year. Which, frankly speaking, is not good at all. Why do I think so? There are several reasons, which I will discuss below.
Refugees
The situation is that the Liberals outlined their priorities during the election campaign, and these priorities are focused on refugees. In particular, the first thing the new head of the immigration department concerned himself with was the task of bringing 25,000 refugees from Syria to Canada by the end of 2015.
It must be said that the refugee topic is quite sensitive for Canada. Except for a very small number of advocacy groups that support open doors for refugees, the general population of Canada is sharply opposed to accepting them. In fact, tightening refugee admission rules was the trump card for the Conservatives that helped them win previous elections. That the Liberals are primarily concerned with refugees and have made working with them a priority in immigration will serve them poorly in the future. But the reality is that for the Liberals, this is currently a priority area.
At the same time, two important points must be considered. First, refugee admission rules have been significantly tightened in recent years. At the same time, there is an influential lobby in Canada interested in accepting as many refugees as possible, along with increasing government spending on their maintenance, and the Liberals are subject to their influence. Therefore, it can be assumed that at least for the next six months, the immigration department will be dealing with refugee issues, to the detriment of other programs.
Family sponsorship
Another pressing issue that requires attention is family sponsorship. In particular, the question of changing the rules for obtaining work permits for spouses who have obtained permanent resident status through family sponsorship is acute. According to rules introduced by the Harper government, spouses who have gone through family sponsorship do not receive permanent resident status immediately, but only after two years of living in Canada. All this time until they receive permanent resident status, they are not allowed to work. The inability to work for such a long period creates major problems for the family, and this absurd rule clearly needs to be abolished.
Family sponsorship for parents also requires urgent action from the Liberals. The immigration policy of the Harper government on this issue has been reduced to accepting only 5,000 applications per year, which is ridiculously low. The Liberals' announced increase in the number of applications accepted to 10,000 per year does not solve the problem; without a radical change in approach to this issue, it will not go away. This is especially questionable against the backdrop of the rush to accept 25,000 refugees from Syria – are they better and more important in humanitarian terms than the elderly parents of Canadians who want to sponsor them from abroad?
A few years ago, the Conservatives took a step in the right direction and introduced a special Super Visa for parents of Canadians, allowing them to live in Canada for up to two years after entry. However, the inability of parents to work in Canada significantly reduces the value of this visa, and it cannot be an alternative to family sponsorship.
If the Liberals do not urgently solve this problem, they will lose the trust given to them by ethnic communities. So far, there are no signals that they will address this.
Entrepreneurs and investors
What is most surprising is that practically nowhere and never – neither in the press nor in statements by representatives of the immigration department – is the problem of the absence of federal programs for investors and entrepreneurs in Canada raised. While the whole world is hunting for such immigrants who develop the economy and create jobs, in Canada there is a complete lack of interest in this.
Let me remind you that at the federal level, all business programs are practically closed. The existing Start-Up Visa and Immigrant Investor Venture Capital Pilot Program are essentially not working, as the number of people immigrating through these programs is in the dozens, which is simply not serious. And there is simply nothing else.
The most logical thing would be to reopen the programs that were previously in place – Investor and Entrepreneur – only by changing the admission requirements in accordance with current realities. However, with a complete lack of interest from Canadian society and politicians in business immigrants, it is hardly worth expecting quick changes in this area. Especially against the backdrop of other, more priority tasks.
On the role of the new minister
So far, the first actions of the new minister of citizenship and immigration do not give much optimism regarding rapid changes in the immigration sphere. Moreover, it looks like this is only a temporary position for him, so he is unlikely to make any serious decisions. He is the most experienced politician in the entire new cabinet, who, as the press has already reported, has been appointed as a mentor for young colleagues. Such a combination of the role of curator of the new cabinet of ministers and the post of head of a problematic ministry suggests that the problematic ministry may not receive due attention.
It is worth recalling that John McCallum in the previous Liberal government (under Chrétien and Martin) headed the Department of National Defence and the Department of Veterans Affairs. It is quite possible that he is now also eyeing the post of Minister of Defence or Minister of Foreign Affairs, which looks more reasonable than appointing him head of the immigration department.
According to established practice, we should expect a cabinet shuffle within the first year, and John McCallum is very likely to leave the post of Minister of Citizenship and Immigration. Perhaps this explains why he is emphasizing such a well-publicized topic as helping Syrian refugees, without making any statements about plans for other immigration categories. If these assumptions are correct, then this is another reason why no serious changes in immigration should be expected in the near future.
The purpose of this review is to attempt to bring some clarity about the plans and priorities of the new government for those planning to immigrate to Canada. I want to note that this is only an analysis of the current situation and conclusions about the direction it may develop. But how this will happen in reality cannot be said now. For more definite conclusions, we need to wait until the end of December, when the government traditionally announces its plans for the next year.