A Bit of History
When the Conservative government came to power in Canada in 2006, its leader Stephen Harper announced an ambitious plan to completely reshape the country. Among the areas subject to radical changes were issues of citizenship and immigration.
Active experiments in this area began in 2008 after Jason Kenney, one of the most influential members of the Conservative Party, was appointed Minister of Citizenship and Immigration of Canada. In fact, nothing good came out of his innovations; they only complicated the situation, and all of Mr. Kenney's bold promises remained just promises. Unfortunately, this did not stop him.
After the Conservatives won a majority in the 2011 election, effectively giving them a complete carte blanche to make any decisions without considering the opposition, they announced the start of work on creating a completely new system for selecting immigrants. As a result of this work, immigrating to Canada became significantly more difficult from 2011, and the acceptance of new applications was reduced to a minimum.
The Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration of Canada explained the paralysis of the immigration system in those years by two reasons. First, the need to clear the backlog of immigration applications accumulated over previous years that were waiting in line. Second, work on a new effective system, for the sake of which it was worth putting up with temporary inconveniences. The new system was supposed to begin operating from the start of 2015.
Why was 2015 chosen for the launch of the new system? The fact is that federal elections are scheduled for October 19, 2015, during which it will be decided which party will take the helm – whether the Conservatives will remain in power or be replaced by the New Democrats or the Liberals. Therefore, by the time of the election, the Conservatives needed to demonstrate the results of their work.
Overall Assessment of Results
The creation of the new system was completed by 2015, as promised. And now, after more than six months of its operation, we can take stock, especially since there is very little time left until the election.
So, what are the results of the Conservatives' activities in immigration over the past 7-8 years? To be honest, they are frankly disappointing. In my opinion, they can be called nothing less than a complete fiasco.
In general, from the very beginning of Jason Kenney's tenure as Minister of Citizenship and Immigration of Canada, all his decisions gave the impression that he had little understanding of what he was doing. Also, the new paradigm for attracting immigrants announced by Harper, in which he saw not new residents of the country but workers filling niches in the labor market, raised many questions. I think it is this approach that has led to what we now have in the immigration sphere.
To understand why I consider the Conservatives' reforms a failure, it is worth examining the main immigration streams.
Skilled Workers
Skilled workers are the most important stream in all of Canada's immigration policy, and it is for them that the reforms were essentially undertaken. Currently, it is represented by federal-level immigration programs: the Federal Skilled Worker Program, the Canadian Experience Class, the Federal Skilled Trades Program, as well as a number of provincial programs.
Let me remind you that the reform of the immigration system began with plans to create a unified system for selecting skilled workers, which was supposed to replace the existing programs. Apparently, nothing came of this, and as a result, the Express Entry system was developed, which became an overlay on top of the existing programs.
The Express Entry system was implemented on January 1, 2015. In essence, it is a preliminary filter with its own selection requirements that have nothing to do with the eligibility requirements of the programs for which applications must be submitted through Express Entry. Why this system was introduced and what the logic behind it is, is completely incomprehensible to me personally, as in its current form it looks like a fifth wheel.
Therefore, I have no other explanation for the emergence of this system than the following. This is precisely the new system that was supposed to replace the existing programs but could not be created. And since considerable money and effort were spent on its creation, they could not simply close it, so they decided to bolt it onto the existing programs.
As of the beginning of July, 112,700 immigration applications had been submitted through Express Entry. During the draws, which are conducted every two to three weeks, only 12,017 people have so far received invitations to submit a full package of documents. Of these, 844 people have already received immigrant visas, and 411 people have entered Canada under such visas.
85% of those who received invitations to submit a full package of documents were in Canada, meaning they either had a job offer (more than 70% of them), or had work experience in Canada, or qualified under other programs that allow them to earn more than 600 points. Out of the total number of applications submitted, 48,723 applicants have already been refused.
I would like to particularly note that in 2015, a quota of 74,000 immigrant visas has been allocated for just two federal programs (Federal Skilled Worker Program and Canadian Experience Class). In total, for the economic class, which is primarily composed of skilled workers, approximately 185,000 immigrant visas have been allocated. So far, I repeat, only 12,000 people have received invitations to submit a full package of documents. How the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration of Canada intends to fill the allocated quota at such a pace, I really cannot imagine.
Read the continuation of the article:
WHERE REFORMS HAVE LED CANADA (part 2)