As Canada is feeling the urge to attract more and more new skilled and younger workers into it, the country’s federal, provincial, as well as territorial governments came together to have talks on how to improve the country’s immigration system for that purpose. The meeting of the governments held in Ottawa.

In the meeting, Canadian immigration minister said that in order to confirm the country’s position in the world economy and face future challenges, Canada needs to retain its immigrants, as well as attract overseas skills it requires at this point of time. He was also caught saying that the combined efforts of Canadian governments would help the country reach it goals and prove itself as one of the best world destinations for the overseas immigrants.

The ministers from all the levels (governments) are committed to be cooperative in executing the country’s immigration system and would help welcoming and assisting new immigrants. Canada is already known for its welcoming nature when it comes to immigrants.

The governments in the meeting discussed many issues, including the significance of planning different aspects of immigration, including visa policies in order to make the department more complying for the needs of the economy. Immigrants and their success play an important role in making the Canadian immigration system to be responsive towards the Canadian economy. The ministers also had talked matters like progress on the Pan-Canadian Framework for the Assessment and Recognition of Foreign Qualifications. These provisions will help overseas workers in getting recognized for their training and eventually engaged in skilled work as soon as possible.

Canada may become harder on marriages of convenience, indicates a latest case of the arranged marriage of an Indian-origin couple. With this case, concerns have been raised about the effect on marriages, arranged by families. The family-arranged union, between a couple, based in Hamilton, Bhagwat Verma and Dimpi cropped up the issue of marriages of convenience, where people get married to obtain the citizenship of a country.

As a result of growing number of such instances, the Citizenship and Immigration Canada started reviewing the country’s immigration rules to take some actions on such marriages. To this, Verma has to say that there are people who abuse the Canadian immigration system and practices getting married to obtain citizenship, but all couples are not the same. He also strongly believes the practice of marriage of convenience should be stopped. But, genuine arrange d marriages should be free from facing any problem.

According to the figures of Canadian immigration department, its overseas branches received 30,000 to 40,000 spousal sponsorships to Canada this year, out of which about 18 percent are refused, reason being many of them are marriages of convenience. It is still yet to know whether the CIC would make changes to its immigration policy or not, however, it has made it clear to its offices that they should refuse citizenship based on two criteria- if the relationship is illegitimate and if it is based on getting immigration status (marriages of convenience).

According to the Canadian Construction Association, Canada may face shortage of construction workers soon, if the country does not appoint overseas workers. Reportedly, the construction industry in the country will generate over 300,000 jobs in the next seven years. But, it would not be possible to fill all the jobs without recruiting workers from overseas.

The head of the CCA, Wayne Morsky said that the solution to fill all the jobs is to recruit the country’s aboriginal people. Besides, the recruitment of overseas skilled workers may be one of the solutions that could meet the worker shortages in the long term. Mr. Morsky has emphasized the recruitment of aboriginal Canadians, since they have been an integral part of the construction industry since the historic times. He urged that the industry should make it a point to re-engage them in order to meet the worker requirement.

He believes that immigration of overseas skilled workers will surely help the construction industry’s possible worker shortage to reduce. But, Canadian Construction Association head is worried about the fact that the Canadian Immigration system is not ‘construction-friendly’ anymore. He does not expect significant help from the immigration system towards the industry in the near future. He is also concerned about the report that Canadian government’s support for infrastructure projects will be reduced as the economy improves and the government’s efforts to control budget deficits intensify!

For information on immigration to Canada, contact an Immigration and Visa consultant!

According to a recent report brought out by the Auditor General – Sheila Fraser in Canada, there are major issues with reference to the Canadian Immigration system. To overcome these faults, amendments have been proposed by Ottawa. However, if speculations are to be believed, little has been done to foresee the relative after effects.

The report states that the immigration policies are catering more to the individual provinces and the employers hiring immigrants. But nothing is being done to dig out the illegal and fraudulent cases being attempted. This mainly refers to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program which permits many low skilled migrants for jobs including construction workers or nannies and so on.

With such immigrants, some of whom can’t even talk in English, the employers tend to abuse these workers which include paying low wages and so on. The Canadian government hold these immigrants in high regard and thus feels that nothing specific is being done to stop the abuse that the program has catered to.

With the help of this program, some employers also tend to bring in their relatives on these visas which probably could have been availed by a more deserving candidate. Also, these employers are then overseeing the family – reunification rules.

Looking into the above aspects, the Foreign Worker program is set to undergo changes since it plays a major role in the building the Canadian economy.

The report also states that the Provincial Nominee program is expected to become a major source for immigration where as the Federal Skilled Migrant program is going to fall down comparatively. Also, no minimum set criteria has been identified by Ottawa for the workers selected by the provinces. Thus, a review has also been called for all these programs.

Since Canada considers all its immigrant population an asset, it is important that as a prospective immigrant, you don’t fall prey to the above nuisances. Thus, it is best that you contact an Immigration and Visa Specialist who deals with Canadian immigration. He would be able to guide you with all the aspects and provide you with the relevant information regarding the incomes, salaries and wages and so on. So, Contact one today!