{"id":148305,"date":"2018-01-23T05:52:45","date_gmt":"2018-01-23T10:52:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=148305"},"modified":"2018-01-23T05:52:45","modified_gmt":"2018-01-23T10:52:45","slug":"davids-blog-a-new-year-of-challenges-and-opportunities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/01\/23\/davids-blog-a-new-year-of-challenges-and-opportunities\/","title":{"rendered":"David\u2019s Blog: A new year of challenges \u2014 and opportunities"},"content":{"rendered":"
\""I<\/a>
“I don\u2019t say this to boast \u2013 we\u2019ve only recently emerged from our own challenging period of government. But having experienced that, and now watching what the United States is going through under the leadership of Donald Trump, the return to more progressive immigration policies north of the border comes as nothing if not welcome relief,” Attorney David Cohen said. (Photo: CIC NEWS<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

These are days when you have to admit it feels good to be Canadian.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t say this to boast \u2013 we\u2019ve only recently emerged from our own challenging period of government. But having experienced that, and now watching what the United States is going through under the leadership of Donald Trump, the return to more progressive immigration policies north of the border comes as nothing if not welcome relief.<\/p>\n

Since coming to power in October 2015, Canada\u2019s Liberal government has repealed some of the previous government\u2019s more troubling legislation, such as conditional permanent residence, the removal of health care for refugees, and the right to strip Canadian citizenship from dual nationals. \u201cA Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian,\u201d now Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated during the election campaign that year. \u201cAs soon as you make citizenship for some Canadians conditional on good behavior, you devalue citizenship for everyone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Now, a little more than two years and a Trump victory later, Canada is reaping the rewards of its return to a more generous, welcoming approach to the world. With a new year ahead of us, it\u2019s worth reminding ourselves of the ways in which Canadian immigration policy has evolved, and where we can still do better.<\/p>\n

While repealing the more punitive policies of its predecessors, the Trudeau government has introduced welcome innovations like the Global Talent Stream and reformed Express Entry\u2019s Comprehensive Ranking System in favour of skills over job offers. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), the federal immigration ministry, has also made family reunification a priority and established new, three-year immigration levels that aim to welcome nearly one million newcomers to Canada by 2020. With isolationism and nativism on the rise in countries like the United States and Britain, these policies are helping turn Canada into a destination of choice for skilled immigrants in search of new opportunities.<\/p>\n

This is not to say the Trudeau government has been perfect and everyone is happy. The arrival of thousands of asylum seekers from the United States last summer caught the federal government off-guard and overwhelmed its capacity for processing claims in a timely manner. As\u00a0I wrote last year<\/a>, the government\u2019s lacklustre management of the situation put nothing less than the integrity of Canada\u2019s immigration system at risk. The federal government\u2019s Safe Third Country Agreement with the United States, which holds that both countries are safe for refugees, is now being challenged in a federal court. Groups like Amnesty International and the Canadian Council for Refugees argue the United States is no longer a safe country for refugees, which the Canadian government continues to refute despite mounting evidence to the contrary.<\/p>\n

Another notable glitch was changes introduced to Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada\u2019s Parents and Grandparents Program. The Liberal\u2019s went to a randomized selection process and introduced an online Interest to Sponsor form that all would-be sponsors had to first complete. A good idea in theory, yes, but the form\u2019s lack of detail led thousands of ineligible sponsors to apply, wasting both their time and that of IRCC staff.\u00a0 To its credit, IRCC has corrected this oversight on the latest version of the Interest to Sponsor form, which went live January 2. However,\u00a0as reported by CBC<\/a>\u00a0and others, the randomized selection process remains deeply unpopular with those who have been waiting patiently in line for years to sponsor their parents or grandparents to Canada.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead at 2018, the challenges and opportunities for Canada\u2019s immigration system will be great. Uncertainty in the United States may continue to drive asylum seekers north, further testing both Canada\u2019s immigration system and the public\u2019s confidence in it as the world looks on. At the same time, the federal government\u2019s three-year immigration levels plan kicks into gear, with its stated aim of \u201cincreased economic competitiveness through the attraction of global talent.\u201d This is expected translate into Canada welcoming more than 177,000 newcomers through Canada\u2019s economic immigration programs alone. Add the targets for Family Class programs, refugees and protected persons, and humanitarian programs and we\u2019re looking at a total admission target of 310,000 souls in 2018.<\/p>\n

If 2017 was a pivotal year for Canadian immigration, 2018 could see it beginning to hit a new, confident stride. All in all, it should be a fascinating year \u2014 and one that we can hopefully all be proud of as Canadians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These are days when you have to admit it feels good to be Canadian.\u00a0 I don\u2019t say this to boast …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":148306,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[199,6],"tags":[44424,23418,110],"class_list":["post-148305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-columns","category-immigration","tag-column","tag-david-cohen","tag-immigration-2","mauthors-david-cohen","mauthors-cic-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}