Dozens of Citizenship Events Held for Canada Day

A screenshot of an interactive map on the CIC website showing the citizenship and affirmation ceremonies held on Canada Day (GOOGLE MAPS)

Over 30 special citizenship ceremonies were held across Canada, mostly in major cities, on Canada Day to mark the granting of citizenship status to Canadian permanent residents and to celebrate the country’s birthday.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) included a map of all events on their website to direct Canadians who wanted to observe the ceremonies and welcome the new Canadians.

Also held across the country were four affirmation ceremonies, also called “The Great Canadian Oath” ceremonies, where individuals already holding Canadian citizenship ‘reaffirm’ their commitment to Canada, by recounting the Oath of Citizenship, singing the Canadian national anthem, “O Canada”, and talking about the importance of citizenship.

Men Outnumber Women 2-1 Among Temporary Foreign Workers in Canada

Many temporary foreign workers are employed by immigrant-run businesses like the above, and data from Citizenship and Immigration Canada shows that the majority are men (CICS News)

The gender makeup of Canada’s foreign worker population is like that of foreign workers around the world, with men outnumbering women by a large margin.

The data, collected by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), shows that over 143,000 men entered the country in 2012 as temporary foreign workers (TFWs), over double the approximately 70,000 TFWs who were women.

Men, who are the primary breadwinner in most households around the world, are often driven to work abroad by pressure to provide for their families, when wages in their own country are inadequate.

A recent MacLean’s story on outgoing foreign remittance from individuals in Canada reports that the country has the highest foreign remittance rate in the world, at $667.57 per capita, suggesting that many of these TFWs are in fact sending the money they earn in Canada to family living in their country of origin.

Occupations of male and female temporary foreign workers

The CIC data also points to male and female TFWs tending to work in different types of occupations. While 75 percent of male TFWs worked in occupations that have well defined skill levels (e.g. managerial, professional, skilled and technical), only 40 percent of female TFWs did the same.

Six out of ten female TFWs were categorized as working in occupations where the skill level was not stated, which usually either means an individual is a family member of a foreign worker, or they are working in an unskilled occupation.

More women becoming permanent residents than men

Despite men outnumbering women in the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), slightly more women become permanent residents in Canada than men every year.

TFWs with skilled work experience in Canada can qualify for permanent residence through economic class immigration programs like the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) and Canadian Experience Class (CEC), however the number of men who become permanent residents through economic class programs is only slightly higher than the number of women.

This could suggest that more women apply for permanent residency from outside the country than men, making up for the larger number of men whose path to permanent residency was through the TFWP.

What puts women over the top in the total permanent residency numbers is the family class immigration programs, which grant 37 percent more women permanent residency than men, mostly as a result of more foreign women being sponsored for immigration by their Canadian spouse than foreign men.

New ePassport Now Available to All Canadians

The new Canadian ePassport contains a digital signature that can be verified by the ICAO Public Key Directory (PKD). In addition to Canada, 29 other countries participate in the PKD, including Australia, China, the Czech Republic, the United States, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, and France (Government of Canada)

Canada’s new 10-year ePassport is now available to all Canadians, according to Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC).

Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced the new electronic passport on Tuesday in Calgary:

“The new, 10-year ePassport provides more convenience for Canadians, and facilitates safe, secure travel which, in turn, helps create jobs, growth and long-term prosperity for Canadians. The Canadian passport is not only a privilege of citizenship, but a reflection of the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.”

The ePassport format is becoming the norm in international travel documents, as its embedded electronic chip makes fraud more difficult and stores the passport holder’s personal information as well as a digital signature authenticating the document as being issued by the Government of Canada.

The digital signature is unique to the personal information contained in the electronic chip, making it impossible to modify the digitally stored personal information without invalidating the signature.

Artistically, the new Canadian ePassport features images iconic to Canadian history and culture, including Robert Harris’s 1885 painting, The Fathers of Confederation, a depiction of the 1885 Last Spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and a picture of Pier 21 in Halifax, an important port for the entry of Canadian immigrants between 1928 and 1971, similar to the role Ellis Island played in late 19th century in the United States.

The new passport will cost $160, which year for year, is cheaper than the current 5 year, $120 passports.

Kenney also announced that the transition of responsibility over Canadian passports from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) to CIC had become effective on Tuesday, which the federal government says will improve operational efficiency by grouping departmental duties according to their relation between each other.

In addition to announcing new information regarding the Canadian passport, Kenney took the opportunity to announce a new special measure by CIC for temporary and permanent residents affected by the flooding in Southern Alberta.

Fees for temporary and permanent resident applications filed by individuals living in regions affected by the flooding are being waived and the status of the applications will automatically be extended until September 19, 2013.