The C-50 bill proposes significant amendments to the immigration policies currently in place within Canada; however while calls to rethink these amendments as it gets labelled as discriminatory and unfair come in think and fast, the government stand their ground.
The Canadian Bar Association, made up of over 30 000 law teachers, lawyers and law students, is leading the cause to put an end to the amendments to Canadian immigration legislation.
This bill has proposed a new system whereby those prospective immigrants with sought after skills will be pushed to the front of the line, while others will have to wait. Placing a limit on applications has also been suggested.
At the moment applications are processed on a first come first serve basis, whereby skilled professionals, those seeking family reunification and refugees are placed on equal footing when applying for Canadian immigration. But it was a backlog causing up to 10 years of waiting that caused these amendments to be proposed.
It is clear that this backlog is a reality; however the question as to how this new bill can deal with backlog is still unclear, particularly as there is currently no system in place that can tell who and what skills exactly the people in the backlog possess. 615 000 of the total 925 000 applicants have been estimated to be skilled workers.
The Bar Association, in a submission to the Commons Citizenship and Immigration committee yesterday believes that putting immigration power in the hands of the minister is dangerous, basing country and worldwide decisions on the discretions of Minister Diane Finley.
“The idea that the minister can pick and choose who she likes is the main basis of the criticism,” says Colin Romberger of www.globalvisas.ca, an expert in Canadian immigration and visa services. However he says that the government has assured that amendments will be tabled based on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, thwarting discrimination.
The Canadian government and immigration minister in particular constantly highlight the need for skills, particularly in medicine, education, social work, engineering and finance, while with these changes others will be side-lined remaining in the queue.
It is clear that doctors, in particular, are needed but as those skilled workers are pouched from developed nations; these countries are the ones to suffer most. This is proved if one looks at the amount of doctors in Africa compared Canada. In Africa there are thirteen doctors to every 100 000 people, while there are 214 doctors to 100 000 in Canada.
With the C-50 bill the attraction of Canada will grow even more and a place like Bangladesh where the majority of medical graduates move overseas for jobs will lose out.
It is ultimately a catch 22 situation where it is clear that skills need to be fast tracked into Canada, while at the same time overlooking certain people, such as family reunification applicants who don’t have the desired skills.
As criticism reigns, it’s a wonder how this issue will ever be resolved to everyone’s benefit.
