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TORONTO — Fast-tracking the immigration process for workers in 38 high-demand occupations will dramatically reduce wait times, the federal government announced Friday amid opposition criticism that the criteria for skilled workers are “absurd.”
The Conservative government’s vow to reform the immigration system has proved controversial, with some advocacy groups saying the changes would create two classes of immigrant.
Under the plan announced Friday, immigration papers for workers in 38 occupations like health, skilled trades, finance and resource extraction would be expedited. Geochemists, speech language pathologists, university professors, plumbers and chefs would also be fast-tracked.
The Tories say the reforms will seriously reduce wait times for the processing of coveted workers to between six and 12 months from the current five to six years.

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OTTAWA, ONTARIO–(Marketwire – Nov. 28, 2008) – Canada will stay the course on immigration in 2009, welcoming between 240,000 and 265,000 new permanent residents, Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, announced today.
“While countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia are talking about taking fewer immigrants, our planned numbers for 2009 are on par with last year and are among the highest for this country over the past 15 years,” Minister Kenney said. “The numbers reflect a continued commitment to an immigration program that balances Canada’s economic, humanitarian and family reunification goals.”

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TORONTO — When Pari Karem fled northern Iraq with her husband and two young daughters in the late 1990s, it cost the family three times the cash to pass through the border than what little money they had left to bring to Canada.
Settling in the southwestern Ontario city of Kitchener, each parent already held a university degree, but they were unable to gain the same level of work they had previously maintained.
So Karem’s husband began working nights as a security guard, commuting to Hamilton to attend classes during the day, while Karem worked as an interpreter at a local multicultural centre and cared for their children.
Despite these meagre beginnings, memories of seeing their home bombed and looted in Iraq meant there was only one thing on Karem’s mind when her husband first became employed on the merits of his new Canadian degree: saving for her children’s education.

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KIEV: Canada
will maintain its current policy of encouraging immigration to meet identified labour shortages in key areas despite the world-wide financial crisis, Jason Kenney, the minister for immigration, said.
Kenney, interviewed late on Friday in the Ukrainian capital Kiev, said consultations with provincial governments, labour and industry showed that immigrants with the right skills were still needed to ensure economic growth.
“Obviously, the economic crisis worries us a great deal… But we believe it would be counterproductive, from an economic growth point of view, to cut off a labour supply from those sectors of the economy that are still growing by reducing immigration levels,” he said.
“We intend to maintain a robust immigration programme but we’ll obviously monitor the situation closely to make sure it is working for Canada and our economy.”

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Around 80 per cent of Indian students in Canada apply for permanent residency, with a success rate of 99 per cent, reports Express India.
On a promotional tour in India, Canadian University Application Centre managing director Mel Broitman told university students they have a very high chance of gaining Canadian permanent residency if they study in Canada.
“With the success rate of Indian students becoming Permanent Residents (PR) in Canada recorded at 99 per cent, Canada has a high population of Indian students today. Roughly 80 per cent of them apply for PR after the completion of their studies,” Mr Broitman said.
He also said the Indian student population would be useful in meeting the needs of Canadian immigration, whereby he says 300,000 immigrants are required annually to fuel the growing Canadian economy.

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Well-educated immigrants buying single-family homes in the Ottawa suburbs have played a strong role in keeping the area housing market healthy, a CMHC conference was told yesterday.
“Immigration is one of the vital components in population growth in Ottawa,” said senior market analyst Sandra Perez Torres, adding immigrants make up 73 per cent of the new population. And, with this comes a healthy boost to the educated workforce. Between 2001 and 2006, 64 per cent of new Canadians living in Ottawa held a university or college degree.
The unemployment rate of immigrants is six per cent, slightly higher than the average 5.1 per cent.

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