General

Canada’s Aussie rules immigration reform

The Globe and Mail reports Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is planning major immigration reforms, including granting employers more power in requesting the immigrants they want:

“Once people have been identified by employers, if they meet our other standards we would fast-track them into the country,” Mr. Kenney said. “Frankly, the employer knows better than a big bureaucracy whose skills are needed and will be relevant to the Canadian labour market the minute they arrive.”

On the other hand, Kenny says foreign doctors and lawyers should not be given false hope that they will be able to secure jobs as soon as they arrive if their language skills are not up to par. Over the next few months, a higher language-skill benchmark will be implemented for some professions.

Most changes mentioned by Kenney are inspired by the Australian immigration system. Mikal Skuterud, an economist at the University of Waterloo quoted in The Globe article, says such changes could effectively mean Canada would favour young immigrants, and those coming from English speaking countries:

“It’s quite clear from the Australian evidence that it has the effect of shifting immigration away from non-English speaking countries, China particularly.”

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