Unfortunately, the main victims of the ongoing changes have been highly skilled professionals with work experience, who just a few years ago constituted the core of immigrants. It is hard to say why, but this category, contrary to all common sense and logic, fell out of favor with both the previous Harper government and the new Trudeau government.
The year 2015 was significant for Canada's immigration system for two reasons. First, a new system for submitting and selecting immigration applications, Express Entry, was introduced. Second, in October, the government changed in Canada. The Conservative Party, which had been in power since 2006, was replaced by the Liberal Party, known for its pro-immigration stance, which gave hope for improvements in this area.
So, what are the results of this important year for Canada's immigration system?
Speaking about the Express Entry system, its results can be politely called questionable. Despite years of work on it, nothing good came of it, which was already clear at the time of its launch.
As 'Russian Toronto' notes, Express Entry looks at least like an illogical addition to immigration programs, having no relation to them, and is essentially an alien structure that does more harm than good. Practice has confirmed this. The results of the Express Entry system over the past year are as follows: 31,000 applications were selected out of 190,000 submitted. A total of 23 draws were held during the year, with a minimum passing score of 450.
Is 31,000 selected applications a lot or a little? Judge for yourself. In 2015, for just two main economic class programs, the Federal Skilled Worker Program and the Canadian Experience Class, which are submitted through the Express Entry system, a quota of 75,000 immigration visas was allocated. To that, quotas for the Federal Skilled Trades Program and several provincial programs (PNP), whose applications are also submitted through Express Entry, must be added. So there is a clear shortfall. But that's not all.
Particular attention is drawn to the fact that 78% of applicants selected through Express Entry were already in Canada at the time of application. That is, these are individuals who have work experience in Canada or a job offer in Canada.
As for the Federal Skilled Worker Program, which had been the main channel for immigration to Canada for skilled workers in previous years, and for which a quota of 51,000 immigration visas per year was allocated, in 2015 the number of selected applications did not exceed 8-9 thousand.
In fact, the results of 2015 show that it is becoming quite problematic to qualify under the Federal Skilled Worker Program without a job offer in Canada. It remains accessible only to a small number of applicants who have very good education, excellent English skills, and most importantly, are still young. For everyone else, without a job offer, this program can be considered useless – due to the selection requirements of the Express Entry system.
Among the bad news is that the new government does not plan to abolish the Express Entry system in the foreseeable future, despite its obvious illogicality and technical shortcomings. Those who have dealt with it constantly complain about the system's poor design and a host of bugs, which cause the system to crash repeatedly. Nevertheless, there is no talk of its abolition for now.
Finally, the set of occupations of the lucky ones who got through the Express Entry system and received an invitation to apply looks interesting:
• 8% – 2256 applicants – food service supervisors;
• 8% – 2295 applicants – cooks;
• 4% – 1255 applicants – information systems analysts;
• 3% – 940 applicants – software engineers;
• 3% – 935 applicants – computer programmers and interactive media developers;
• 3% – 745 applicants – university professors and lecturers;
• 2% – 669 applicants – retail sales supervisors;
• 2% – 550 applicants – graphic designers and illustrators;
• 2% – 494 applicants – financial auditors and accountants;
• 2% – 446 applicants – financial investment analysts.
The fact that altogether, people related to information technology passed one and a half times fewer than cooks and food service workers speaks to the ineffectiveness of the selection system as a whole and the lack of priorities in selecting the most talented and promising specialists for Canada.
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IMMIGRATION TRANSFORMATION: PLANS