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IMMIGRATION TRANSFORMATION: RESULTS
The new immigration minister John McCallum made the main focus of his work on refugees. At least, at the end of 2015 and beginning of 2016, all the attention of the immigration department was concentrated on attracting Syrian refugees to the country, in the number of 30 thousand people.
The plans for 2016 also confirm the new government's lack of interest in attracting highly qualified specialists and business people to the country. If you study these plans, the overall picture may seem quite rosy – this year the quotas for the number of immigrants accepted have been increased from last year's 279 thousand to 300 thousand. If you compare with what it was a few years ago, when quotas were at the level of 225 thousand per year, this is certainly a big step forward. However, the nuance is in how these quotas are distributed.
Among the positive changes, there is an increase in quotas for family sponsorship from 68 thousand in 2015 to 80 thousand in 2016. The increase in quotas falls on the category of sponsoring parents, which has been increased from 10 thousand in 2015 to 20 thousand this year.
Also good news is the continuation of applications for the programs of the province of Quebec – for the Quebec Skilled Worker program in 2016, a quota of 26 thousand people has been allocated, and for the business program – a quota of almost five and a half thousand. The quota for programs of other provinces (PNP) also remains high – 48 thousand immigration visas.
This is where the positivity ends, and what raises questions begins. In particular, in 2016, quotas for the acceptance of refugees have been increased to almost 56 thousand people from a level of 25 thousand people in 2015. At the same time, it must be taken into account that in Canadian society as a whole there is a negative attitude towards accepting refugees, and the zeal of the new government in this matter does not add to its popularity.
Such a significant increase in quotas for the number of refugees accepted looks especially strange against the backdrop of a reduction in quotas for the number of immigrants under the economic class – from 181 thousand in 2015 to 160 thousand in 2016. At the same time, the main blow fell on the programs Federal Skilled Worker Program, Federal Skilled Trades Program and Canadian Experience Class – for them the total quota has been reduced from 77 thousand in 2015 to 58 thousand in 2016.
The reduction also affected business programs – combined for the Self-Employed Persons Program, Start-up Visa Program and Immigrant Investor Venture Capital Program in 2016, a quota of only 800 visas was allocated. It is worth recalling that in 2015, only the Start-up Visa Program had a quota of 2,750 visas.
Unfortunately, the activities of the new government are frankly disappointing, both in terms of economic steps and in terms of setting immigration priorities. Actually, this is one side of the same coin – it seems that the Trudeau government cares little about how to improve the business climate in Canada and improve the situation in the economy, despite the problems arising from the drop in demand and prices for raw materials and energy.
This same disregard for the economy can be seen in immigration policy: instead of actively attracting business people and top-class specialists in the most promising fields, they are ignored, and doors are thrown wide open to refugees, who increase the burden on Canada's economy.
But, despite all these negative aspects, Canada has been and remains one of the best countries in the world for living and immigration, and is still one of the most attractive countries for immigrants. One just needs to properly build a strategy to achieve one's goal.
Given the priorities of the new government and its policies, the most reliable path to Canada is through study. This is also indicated by a recent statement by the head of the immigration department John McCallum, who promised to make changes to the Express Entry system in order to increase chances for graduates of Canadian colleges and universities, calling them the most attractive category of immigrants for Canada. The same is indicated by the results of the Express Entry system sampling for 2015.
For the rest, including skilled workers who do not have a chance to go through the Express Entry system, as well as businessmen and investors, it makes sense to consider the possibility of immigrating through provincial programs, especially given that quite large quotas have been allocated for them.