The Londoner

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney recently tweeted the following: “In 2013 we’ll keep immigration levels at ~250,000. The NDP says we should increase immigration by 40 per cent to at least 350,000.What do you think?” He went on to further tweet that 90 per cent of Canadians oppose higher immigration levels. I wonder if those 90 per cent of Canadians understand just how important immigrants are to population growth across Canada – particularly in the country’s growing mid-sized urban centres? Historically, the vast majority of immigration into Canada has clustered in the Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs) as well as some of the smaller urban centres surrounding Toronto and Vancouver. In recent years, however, there has been a substantial increase in the annual immigrant levels in mid-sized urban centres that historically relied on inter-provincial migration and natural increases for most of their population gains. Statistics Canada data ...

Jason Kenney, the Canadian minister for Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, visited the UK and Ireland at the end of October 2012. He was trying to persuade skilled workers to consider a new life in Canada. While he was in the UK and in Ireland, he took the time to address audiences of Poles who are resident in the two countries. He told UK-based Poles 'Many of you would find a better job in Canada.' He also told them that the cost of living is lower in Canada. A spokesman for Mr Kenney's department, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) said that there are skills shortages in Canada in four sectors of the economy; construction, manufacturing, transportation and service industries. He added that 40-50% of job vacancies are to be found in the construction sector. In the UK, Mr Kenney held meetings in the Canadian High Commission in London with leaders of UK Polish groups and associations. Mr Kenney believes that Poles resident in the UK and I...

Quebec has such a unique position within Canada that the province of Quebec manages its own immigration program for migrants intending to settle in Quebec. A summary of Quebec's immigration plan for 2012 to 2015 has been recently published by the ministère de l'Immigration et des Communautés culturelles (MICC), Quebec's immigration department, detailing the province's current immigration goals as follows: balancing out the aging workforce with young Canadian immigrant families , economic prosperity; preserving the French language and managing the diversity of migrants entering Quebec. This is an excellent opportunity for potential applicants to apply to settle in the province as the Quebec government has been aggressively trying to recruit new Canadian immigrants to make up for the declining population due to aging problem. Quebec wants to attract skilled immigrants who wish to work and live in the province through the Canadian Quebec Skilled Work...

Sean Kilpatrick / The Canadian Press In September, Jason Kenney, the minister of citizenship and immigration, announced his department had sent letters to 530 Canadians advising them their citizenship was being rescinded. Investigations into another 3,100 suspected of citizenship fraud were still underway, he said. HOW YOU BECOME AN UNCANADIAN The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration sends a Notice of Intention to Revoke Citizenship outlining the grounds for revocation. The person concerned has the right to refer the matter to the Federal Court. If the court finds citizenship was obtained through false representation, fraud or knowingly concealing material circumstances the Minister may prepare a report to the Governor in Council recommending that citizenship be revoked. The text of the report is disclosed to the person concerned, who has the opportunity to make written submissions. If the Governor in Council decides to rev...

Immigration consultancy is big business in the UAE. Immigration aspirants pay thousands in fees for assistance in applying for immigration, especially to Canada and Australia. However, some clients complain of fraudulent consultants. And consultants claim, their complaints are unreasonable or wrongly addressed.   Applicants who complaint of lack of services by immigration consultants, often demand a full or partial refund, which is not justifiable in each and every case, say the consultants.   Policy changes   According to Sohail Saleem, general manager of Premiers Consultancy, a lot of the complaints are the result of the frequently changing immigration policy of Canada, which has affected qualifying applications retroactively.   According to him, this can be traced back to 2008, when the Canadian government started implementing a series of reform movements intending to bring back the waiting time of approximately 40 months to less tha...

Canada's immigration selection system has always been rigorous, in part because we have viewed immigrants as "citizens in waiting." After three years of permanent residence, they are able to apply for citizenship and more than 89 per cent choose to do so -- one of the highest naturalization rates in the world. But, recent and proposed changes to Canada's immigration and citizenship rules are making it much more difficult for immigrants to become citizens. In 2009 the government changed the citizenship guide that prospective citizens need to review to pass a citizenship exam. The new guide is 15 pages longer and places a greater emphasis on Canada's monarchy and military history and less on civic participation. The associated exam was also revised and the pass mark was increased from 60 per cent to 75 per cent. The fail rate rose as a result, from four per cent to 15 per cent, and is now high as 41 per cent among immigrants from some source countri...

Jason Kenney to table details of bill that would give more power to immigration minister   Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says he'll soon give Parliament more information about a proposed power for the minister to deny people from entering Canada even if they don't have a serious criminal record. The power is included in Bill C-43, legislation that would give sweeping powers to the minister of immigration. MPs will vote Tuesday night on whether to send the bill to committee for study. The power, known as negative discretion, would allow the immigration minister to deny entry to Canada for a non-citizen who may promote hatred or violence. The minister can currently deny entry to a foreign national based on criminality or national security reasons. Kenney says he plans to go to the immigration committee with a list of criteria the department would use in deciding if someone is inadmissible to Canada. He also plans to ask opposition MPs...

I heard that Canada has changed the requirements for professionals who want to move to Canada. Why have they made this change and what are the changes that we can expect? How does this affect the point system? - D.D. Dear D.D., Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) announced that as of July 1, 2012 they have put a temporary pause on accepting applications under the Federal Skilled Worker programme. This does not affect persons qualifying under the PhD programme and those who have arranged employment in Canada. CIC has chosen to put a pause on these applications to ensure that they are able to adequately manage the files that they have already received and to re-evaluate their point system to "ensure that immigration works for Canada's economy and that there are greater opportunities to be realised by immigrants ... " (Jason Kenny, minister of citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism). In the August 2012 Gazette, CIC stated that the changes will b...