Immigration Canada Celebrates 20,000th Graduate of Immigrant Integration Program

Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney at a press conference on Tuesday commending the Canadian Immigrant Integration Program (CIIP) for reaching the milestone of 20,000 graduates

Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) celebrated the 20,000th graduate of the Canadian Immigrant Integration Program (CIIP) on Tuesday, marking a milestone in its effort to improve the economic integration of new Canadians.

CIIP was launched in 2010 with funding from CIC, and is managed by the Association of Community Colleges (ACCC).

The program provides counselling on settlement-related issues like entering the Canadian labour market and credential recognition through foreign offices in up to 25 countries, including Philippines, China, India, and the UK to foreign nationals who have had their application for permanent residence in Canada approved and are waiting to receive their visa.

The goal is to prepare these would-be immigrants so that once their visa has been finalized and they arrive in Canada, they hit the ground running and more quickly find a job and begin their career in the country.

Patricia Soyao,  a 28-year old nurse from the Philippines and the 20,000th graduate of the program, praised the program for helping her prepare for life in Canada:

Coming to CIIP was the best decision I have ever made. Though I totally believed in my choice to go to Canada, getting there and knowing what to do was better laid out to me by CIIP.

Ms. Soyao is scheduled to arrive in Canada in April.

The federal government, through CIC, has invested $15 million into CIIP since 2010.

Canada’s Iranian Immigrants Could See Reprieve As EU Court Strikes Down SWIFT Embargo

A branch of Bank Saderat in South East Iran. In two rulings over the last week, the EU General Court found there was insufficient evidence that Bank Saderat and Bank Mellat, the two largest private banks in Iran, were involved in Iran’s nuclear program, and ordered the EU sanctions against them to be lifted

According to an article by Jon Matonis in Forbes, the General Court of the EU has ruled that European Union sanctions against two of Iran’s largest private banks, Bank Mellat and Bank Saderat, must be reversed, due to lack of evidence that they are involved in Iran’s nuclear program.

If the ruling stands, it would allow Iranian-Canadians to once again send and receive money to and from family members in Iran using the international banking system.

EU sanctions forced the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, to eject Iran from its global financial messaging service, which almost all bank wires around the world use.

It effectively isolated Iranians from the global financial system and prevented Iranian students from receiving money from their parents while studying in Canada, and Iranian-Canadians from sending money to elderly parents in Iran whose pensions have been hit by the devaluation of Iranian currency.

While many in the Iranian diaspora, including in Canada’s Iranian immigrant community, are critical of Iran’s current government and its human rights record, the sanctions against the country have drawn criticism for their unprecedented broadness, and the apparently exceptional treatment Iran is receiving among the world’s countries.

Many see the fact that even countries charged with committing genocide have been allowed to stay in the SWIFT financial network, while Iran was ejected, as evidence of a double standard against Iran, and an attitude that Iranian civilians are acceptable collateral damage to achieve geopolitical aims.

Their claims have been validated by some of the statements made by U.S. political representatives, like Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), who wrote in October 2010: “Critics also argued that these measures will hurt the Iranian people. Quite frankly, we need to do just that.”

In a statement in December 2012, Canada’s Foreign Minister, John Baird, announced new Canadian sanctions targeting the Iranian economy:

“Canada’s measures also target economic sectors that indirectly support or provide funds for Iran’s nuclear program: oil and gas, mining, metals, and shipping. The amended regulations further isolate Iran from the global financial system.”

The sanctions include an exemption for transfers of $40,000 or less between family members in Canada and family members in Iran.

Canadian Government Eliminates the Penny

The Canadian penny will continue to circulate and be accepted, but will no longer be provided as change by retailers or produced by the Royal Canadian Mint (CICS News)

The government of Canada ended distribution of the Canadian penny to financial institutions on February 4th, marking the end of the penny’s 155 year history in the country.

The decision came about due to the steady devaluation of the Canadian dollar, which has reduced the face value of the penny to one twentieth of what it was worth when it was first introduced.

Due to this decline in face value, the penny as legal tender is now worth approximately 63 percent of its production cost. This is unlike other denomination coins, on which the Royal Canadian Mint makes money on their sale to financial institutions, due to their face value exceeding the value of their metal content.

The elimination of the penny is expected to reduce government expenses by $11 million a year, and save financial institutions, retailers and consumers approximately $140 million in handling costs.

A graphic provided by the federal government showing how change will be rounded now that the penny is eliminated (Government of Canada)

The smallest denomination coin that will be given in change to consumers by businesses will now be the nickel, with change being rounded to the closest 5 cent increment. Electronic money will still be rounded to one cent increments.

Financial Post Profiles Canada’s Latin Immigrants

Canada’s Latin American immigrant entrepreneurs are dispelling stereotypes of Latin America’s revolutionary communist past

A story appearing in Monday’s Financial Post, one of Canada’s largest national business newspapers, examines the achievements of Canada’s Latin American immigrant entrepreneurs, which it calls Generation Ñ.

The article, by Eva Salinas, profiles Diego Casco, a native of Costa Rica, who now runs a branding agency in Toronto, Canada.

His experience is like that of many in Generation Ñ. After over a decade of building a modest-sized business, improving his English, and getting himself familiar with the Canadian business environment, he now wants to expand his company and become a major player in Canada’s business world.

Salinas notes that Generation Ñ is highly educated, with the Toronto Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (THCC) finding that 91% Toronto area Latin American professionals surveyed report having a Bachelor’s degree or higher:

“These people are educated, they come with a decent amount of money and they’re looking for not only a new life but to be recognized in terms of their quality of work and experience and education that they have,” says Jacob Moshinsky, THCC chairman and Mexican-born entrepreneur. He now runs Ñ Communications.

“There’s absolutely a misconception of what the Hispanic community is here,” he adds, listing Latino stereotypes such as all being refugees and living in low-income areas.

Unlike the previous generation of Latin American business owners, the new generation is looking to integrate into the wider Canadian economy and target beyond its own cultural group, says Salinas.

Salinas describes Cristian Contreras, who immigrated to Canada from Columbia, and graduated from the University of Toronto, as a Generation Ñer who fits this profile.

Since graduating, he has taught himself how to program, and created a political collaboration website called Next Parliament, which is intended to improve the way Canadians create, discuss and share political proposals.

Vancouver, Canada to Host International TED Conference

The TED conference will be held in the Vancouver Convention centre’s West Building, which was opened in 2009

The annual TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conference, a gathering of some of the world’s brightest and most influential thinkers, will be moved to Vancouver in 2014 and 2015, it was announced on Monday.

It is believed that the move will provide a major boost to Vancouver’s reputation as a first class global city and have peripheral benefits in the way of attracting more businesses, innovators and international events to the city.

The annual TED conference started in 1990 and has emerged as one of the most highly regarded public forums for spreading ideas that benefit humanity. It often features renowned speakers, which have included Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, and Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

The topics covered in the talks can relate to any thing ranging from science, to contemporary politics, to economics, to culture, like the harm schools have on creativity and video showcases of creatures in the ocean.

Each ticket to the TED conference costs $7,500, meaning the event’s 1,400 attendees will be a collection of the comparatively very rich and influential, whose visit to Vancouver will doubtlessly raise awareness of the city among global decision makers.

Vancouver’s rising profile

Vancouver has qualities that make it particularly attractive to immigrants and international visitors to Canada, including access to the Pacific Ocean, a mild by-Canadian-standards climate, and the natural beauty of the Coast Mountains.

Its domestic and international popularity and above-Canadian-average population growth rate have persisted for decades, which suggests the trend will continue into the foreseeable future and the city will become increasingly important on the global stage.

TED’s move to Vancouver could be the iconic event that marks its transformation into a World City.

Illegal Immigration in Canada Expected to Surge in 2015

temporary foreign worker

Over 190,000 temporary foreign workers entered Canada last year. Many of those whose work permits are set to expire in April 2015 are expected to remain in Canada illegally (CICS News)

The number of people in Canada illegally is expected to increase substantially in April 2015, when a large contingent of foreign workers see their work permits expire.

Their work permits will expire on April 1st 2015 because of a rule enacted on April 1st, 2011, that created a four year limit on cumulative time a foreign national can spend in Canada as a temporary foreign worker.

The rule change was made to reduce the perceived over-dependence of Canadian employers on the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) to meet their permanent labour needs.

The number of temporary foreign workers in Canada has increased from approximately 100,000 in 2002, to over 300,000 today, which some have criticized as a subsidy for business at the expense of Canadian workers.

Setting limits on how long a temporary foreign worker can work in Canada was seen as a way to limit the use of the TFWP to its intended role: to temporarily meet labour shortages until a permanent solution could be found.

People familiar with visa and immigration controls expect a significant percentage of those whose permits will expire on April 1st 2015 to over-stay their visa and reside in Canada illegally, leaving Canada with a problem that Americans are more familiar with: a sizeable illegal immigrant population.

The immigrant magnets of Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto are expected to host the majority of those illegal migrants, which will likely put pressure on their infrastructure, public transit and policing resources, which are already being strained by rapid population growth.

Costs vs Generosity

Canadians are a generally generous people, who don’t like deporting individuals whose only crime is to stay in a country that affords them a better quality of life, but that generosity has to contend with the reality that unskilled foreign workers represent an economic cost for Canada.

Each additional person living in Canada comes with additional set costs in government spending, that can only be compensated if the person pays taxes that are at the Canadian average – something low-wage unskilled workers do not.

Allowing any of the literally hundreds of millions of people who would choose to immigrate and work in Canada if they could, to do so, would, in real terms, result in skyrocketing government spending levels and lower wages / higher unemployment rates for less skilled Canadians who would have to compete with the entrants in the labour market.

This means that immigration controls, and their integrity, are important for the economic well-being of Canada. Nevertheless, an extensive policing campaign that deports thousands of illegal immigrants, many of them living as families in Canada, would spark public outrage and would also be logistically difficult.

How Canada deals with the surge in the illegal immigrant population in 2015 remains to be seen.