Nick Noorani Website

When I plop myself into Ahmed’s cab at the Somerset-Bridlewood C-Train station, the first thing I notice is a pile of books in the front passenger seat. While waiting for a fare, he had been parked, reading textbooks and pouring over practice exams by the meagre illumination of a book-light.
“What are you studying?” I ask.
“I am a doctor in Pakistan,” he says, “but I need to write exams to work in Canada.” He folds up his books and asks me my destination. “It is hard,” he says, pulling away from the curb.

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Fears of visa, work permit fraud prompting Ottawa to tighten up on its landed immigrant system.
Ottawa is planning to restrict job offers to foreign workers in an attempt to discourage fraud and clamp down on those who try to bypass the rigorous immigrant selection system introduced last year, the Star has learned.
The federal government specifically wants to target small and medium-sized employers, who allegedly are more likely to make fraudulent job offers – which can help foreign nationals enter Canada on work permits or immigrant visas – in return for kickbacks.
Citizenship and Immigration Canada has refused to reveal details of the plan, but two sources familiar with the proposed changes told the Star they could hurt legitimate employers – and eliminate the advantages of having a job lined up for prospective migrants.

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Job applicants with English-sounding names have a greater chance of getting interviews than those with Chinese, Pakistani or Indian names, a new study by University of British Columbia researchers suggests.
The study found Canadians and landed immigrants with names such as “Jill Wilson” or “John Martin” are 40 per cent more likely to be offered an interview than someone with a name like “Sana Khan” or “Lei Li,” given an identical resumé.
Applicants with mixed names like “Vivian Zhang” had a 20 per cent better chance to land an interview than job-seekers with non-English names, but still less than the English-only names.

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OTTAWA — Canada lives up to the expectations of most immigrants, a new study reveals, but finding a job remains the biggest challenge for new residents.
Two reports released by Statistics Canada on Monday examine immigrants’ assessments of life in Canada and the difficulties they face here.
Four years after arriving in Canada, the majority of new immigrants — 84 per cent — were positive about their decision to come here.

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Evolution of a self-proclaimed attack dog
It’s not surprising that the phrase “attack dog” crops up in an interview about Immigration Minister Jason Kenney. The Calgary MP is, after all, a hard-hitting House debater known for dropping the rhetorical gloves. What is unexpected is that Kenney applies the term to himself. Asked about his parliamentary style, he volunteers, “I think when I was in opposition I developed a reputation as an attack dog.”
Not that he’s regretful. “Even if I threw some rhetorical bombs across the aisle,” he says, “it was never personal.” Now that he’s in the Conservative cabinet on the government side, Kenney, who turns 41 later this month, claims he doesn’t mind being the target of question period salvos. “It’s an adversarial system,” he says. “We shouldn’t cringe at that fact.” He even argues that if cameras had been around since the start of the British parliamentary system, every era’s “rhetorical excesses” would have shocked outsiders as much as today’s often bitterly partisan tone in Ottawa.

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Small towns, rural communities slide towards decline as bigger, more
multicultural cities continue to attract and retain skilled immigrants
TORONTO, May 11 /CNW/ – Despite Ontario being the most popular
destination for newcomers to Canada, rural communities and small towns are
slowing “dying” as immigrants are choosing larger diverse cities to settle,
finds a report released today by Ryerson University immigration policy
experts.
This immigration trend poses serious challenges for smaller communities
in Ontario, according to Professor John Shields of Ryerson’s Department of
Politics and Public Administration. He and co-author Magdy ElDakiky wrote the
report, Immigration and the Demographic Challenge: A Statistical Survey of the
Ontario Region, which was published in the current issue of Policy Matters, a
publication by the Ontario Metropolis Centre (CERIS).

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