The Media Roundup provides links to recent and archived articles, in both English and French, on immigration and diversity appearing in the national and local news. Some international content is also included. Articles are updated weekly.
Toronto Star – Temporary Foreign Workers Warned to Leave Canada as Required
Many low-skilled people who came to Canada under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program are expected to leave the country beginning Wednesday as a result of a clampdown by the Conservative government. Estimates of the exodus run into the tens of thousands but Ottawa won’t provide details. As the rule of the four-year ban of re-entry rolled in Wednesday, the federal government warned temporary foreign workers who are due to leave that they will be dealt with swiftly if they try to go underground to avoid leaving Canada. “Let there be no mistake: We will not tolerate people going ‘underground.’ Flouting our immigration laws is not an option, and we will deal with offenders swiftly and fairly,” Immigration Minister Chris Alexander and Employment Minister Pierre Poilievre said in a statement. The low-skilled workers are losing their work permits under a policy introduced on April 1, 2011 that requires any temporary foreign workers who have been here for four years to leave. They are also barred from returning for four years under the “4-in-4-out” rule.
Le Devoir – La réforme d’Ottawa dénoncée en France
De nouvelles règles imposées par Ottawa aux étudiants étrangers mettent en péril une entente historique qui permet au Québec et à la France d’échanger des centaines de stagiaires chaque année. Plus de 1000 stages d’étudiants français au Québec sont menacés par les changements apportés par Ottawa à la délivrance de visas aux stagiaires étrangers, a appris Le Devoir. Devant ces « mesures de verrouillage » sans précédent, un des plus importants regroupements d’universités françaises remet en question ses relations historiques avec le Canada, et plus spécifiquement avec le Québec. Le « rayonnement du Québec à l’étranger » est en jeu, préviennent les ministres Christine St-Pierre et Kathleen Weil dans une lettre adressée le 26 mars au ministre fédéral de la Citoyenneté et de l’Immigration, Chris Alexander. « […] vous comprendrez la confusion et les inquiétudes suscitées auprès de nos partenaires, qui auront pour effet de limiter la venue de stagiaires et de stagiaires de recherche au Québec », ajoutent les ministres du gouvernement Couillard.
La Presse – Le Canada met un frein à l’accueil des stagiaires étrangers
Les jeunes à la recherche d’un stage au Canada pour une première expérience professionnelle vont être découragés et moins nombreux avec les nouvelles contraintes administratives et financières du gouvernement canadien. La nouvelle réglementation du gouvernement fédéral pour déposer une demande d’EIC (Expérience internationale Canada) aura «pour effet de limiter la venue de stagiaires» au Québec, selon le gouvernement de la province francophone. Outre un dossier plus détaillé à monter, les entreprises doivent maintenant payer 230 dollars canadiens au service de l’immigration canadien, une somme à la charge du stagiaire si l’entreprise ne veut pas prendre en charge cette dépense pour un stagiaire qui souvent ne sera pas rémunéré. Pour les ministres québécoises de l’Immigration, Kathleen Weil, et des Relations internationales, Christine Saint-Pierre, c’est toute la politique de recrutement professionnel à terme qui va pâtir des nouvelles règles.
Globe and Mail – B.C. Freezes Worker-Immigration Program as Backlog Grows
The B.C. government has abruptly shut the door on most of its provincial immigration program for the next three months, saying new federal limits on temporary foreign workers have triggered an unmanageable flood of applicants seeking entry to Canada through British Columbia. Jobs Minister Shirley Bond said Tuesday that no new applications will be accepted until July 2, giving her staff time to process a growing backlog while her ministry looks at what qualifications it will seek from those hoping to come to B.C. through the provincial nominee program (PNP). Some exceptions will be made in high-need categories such as health-care workers. Under the program, Ottawa allows the provinces limited control over immigration. This year, B.C. will grant permanent resident status to 5,500 immigrants to fill labour-market needs. Applications to the provincial program surged after the federal government introduced immigration changes, in particular tighter controls on its temporary foreign worker program. A year ago, B.C. could process a PNP application in 12 weeks; now the wait list is 13 months, and there are already more people in the queue than B.C. can admit this year.
Nanaimo Bulletin – Refugee Sponsorship Focus of Multicultural Society Public Forum
The Canadian government is asking private sponsorship groups to sponsor thousands of Syrian refugees over the next three years. The request is part of the United Nations’ response to the ongoing Syrian refugee crisis, which will see 100,000 refugees taken in by various countries. Of those, 10,000 people will find new homes in Canada with 6,000 of those taken in under the wings of private sponsorship groups. People can learn what the financial and legal responsibilities of sponsoring someone into Canada are at an upcoming refugee sponsorship forum hosted by the the Central Vancouver Island Multicultural Society and the Bethlehem Retreat Centre. “To have speakers in the know provide accurate information about what’s involved in sponsoring,” said Nannette Leather, multicultural society executive director. The forum will feature special presentations by representatives from Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the Refugee Sponsorship Training Program, the Immigrant Services Society of B.C. Resettlement Assistance Program. Those attending will also learn how to form private sponsorship groups.
CBC – “A Lot” of TFWs Must Leave Canada on April 1 as Visas Expire, But How Many?
The exodus begins April 1. That’s the message from immigration lawyers and labour market analysts who say that Canada — and in particular Alberta — is due to lose thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of temporary foreign workers in the coming weeks and months. […] That is all possibly true, but the problem is that Citizenship and Immigration Canada won’t share the number of temporary foreign workers about to lose their work visas, and everyone else is depending on anecdotes, extrapolation and educated guesses. […]Not all people are willing to take all jobs, says Farahnaz Bandali, a senior policy analyst with the Canada West Foundation. “So a high-skilled oil worker may not be willing, even if they are recently unemployed, to take a low-skilled job previously held by a temporary worker.” […]Many people will think we owe temporary workers nothing — the jobs were temporary after all. But Bandali says that workers might have been temporary, but the jobs are permanent, and that the program created to fill temporary jobs has changed over the years.
