OPINION:
Immigration continues to be the nation’s most persistent headache. Everyone acknowledges it as Headache No. 1, but nobody has either the solution or even an effective headache powder. The masses keep crowding the border, and the politicians punt.
On the nation’s doorstep, Canada has had an immigration procedure as fouled up as our own, with more immigrants arriving than any country but Australia. Since January, Canada has turned to the practical task of sorting through the demands of that vast troubled world out there that wants to come to North America. Canada is using a sieve for the qualified, rather than for those standing longest in line. It has already brought in or tapped temporary residents who, though unemployed, were facing the expiration of their working visas. Canada will still consider family reunification but is setting out more detailed criteria for consideration.
The new “Express Entry “takes a passive, paper-driven first-in-line system, Immigration Minister Chris Alexander tells London’s Financial Times, “and replaces it with a proactive, recruitment-driven pool of talented people “
It has switched from a system favoring China, the Philippines and India, and returned to giving Ireland, Britain and Germany added preference at a time when the United States seems less welcoming to those applicants. The Canadians rubbed salt in American wounds in 2013 when it put up a billboard in the Silicon Valley to appeal to recent immigrants: “H-1B problems? Pivot to Canada.” The United States now authorizes visas for 85,000 high-skilled workers annually. But American companies say this is far short of what they need. Some multinational companies speculate that Canada’s new green card may attract industry as well as skilled workers.
The new Canadian system puts aside a first-come, first-served approach, and substitutes a rolling criteria based on demands for skilled workers. It will match prospective immigrants much faster with labor demand, using a digital data bank. The data will include complete personal and work records and score applicants on a grade scale. If this succeeds, Canada expects to admit 280,000 permanent residents this year, and two-thirds of them will be “economic immigrants.”
Critics argue that the proposed system isn’t transparent, as to how the final decisions will be made. There are complaints, too, that it discriminates against low-skill immigrants and abandons the much touted effort to achieve ethnic diversity. But even Premier Philippe Couillard, in querulous Quebec, which strives to find French-speaking migrants as the native — and largely French-speaking — population rapidly dwindles, says his province will welcome more immigrants through “the economic classes.” There might be a lesson here.
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