Economic immigration programmes: systemic fraud and corruption
By Joe Volpe — Corriere Canadese — Jan 18 2016
Joe Volpe
Immigration scandal in the news again. Pity, for now, poor John McCallum, the Federal Government’s latest minister responsible for Immigration. I say pity because he is in fact the lead Minister for Canada’s Demographic Department.
Yes, you read it correctly. In an environment where smaller family size is the norm and the population “replacement rate” is virtually unattainable without immigration (given our birth rate, ideally 1% of the gross population annually according to demographers), a Minister for Immigration necessarily needs to recruit, integrate and retain newcomers.
At first glance, this would seem to be a “slam dunk”. The general perception is that the world is trying to break down our doors to get in and that we are generous to a fault about getting them here.
We have a tendency to believe our spin. The Fraser Institute claims that those who come here cost the treasury tens of billions. Meanwhile, other think tanks, like the Asia Pacific Foundation, tell us that approximately 50% of those we admit within our borders end up leaving anyway, without or without a Canadian citizenship.
An inevitable conclusion is that we may not be as attractive as we think. Another is that we may not be integrating immigrants appropriately. Yet another is that Canada is merely a temporary stop over for the highly mobile type we are keen to attract.
Meanwhile, collectively, we spend an inordinate amount of energy and resources designing “programmes” to ensure that we get the best fit between what we need and who wants to come. Invariably we fall short of our stated goals.
Our programmes become more detailed and administratively heavy. We come to expect that our bureaucracy develop the skills to determine who will successfully integrate in an economic environment where conditions and successes change directions like a weathervane on a barnyard rooftop.
The “integrity of the system” have become more important than the ultimate goal of attracting and keeping future generations of Canadians who will contribute to the growth of our country the way we like to think we have.
Last week, three provinces jumped in with their latest version of attracting the “best” into their respective provinces. Those programmes are all about dollars and cents people might bring, and less about people making life commitments to stay.
Unfortunately, this has been the case for the last thirty years. Since 1986, Canada has bounced around with Economic Migrant Programmes with varying levels of lack of success. These include the Family Business Programme, the Investor Programme, Entrepreneur Programme, the LMO Programme, the Federal Skilled Worker Programme, the Foreign Skilled Worker Programme and the Canada Experience Programme.
Yet, since 1986, the Immigration Act has always had a singular standard in defining an economic immigrant. That standard is enshrined in the Immigration Act as Section 12. That section only requires an applicant to prove that he, or she, can become successfully economically established in Canada
Ottawa’s view has been that a verifiable bank account is the best measurement for determining the applicant’s ability to meet that standard. I am not as certain. The subsequent, documented, “abuses” and corruption of the system on both sides of the border are too numerous to list here.
Consultants, accountants, lawyers “game the system” – legitimize the fraud – for these Canadians of convenience. Many of them distort the truth to serve their aims. A cynic might say that the “rules always get bent” when money is involved.
Perhaps. Ottawa still doubles down on those who make their way here by their own devices – undocumented workers. They “stay in the shadows”, establish themselves economically, contribute to the economic well-being of all Canadians but remain outside the mainstream community, without appreciation and without rights because they are “illegally here”.
Which is the greater fraud?
For three decades, Canada has squandered opportunities to build a solid, transparent demographic policy chasing the billions of dollars their owners in search of a safe haven (however temporary) might possess. The economic migrant programs have been a bust, while the undocumented workers populate our cities with dedicated hard-working men and women who want to call Canada home.
Even a pro-business organization, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, headed by a former Progressive Conservative Cabinet Minister is expressing concern. Is there a solution? Yes.
Start by enabling immigration officers in Canada to accept the reality of de facto successful economic integration. Secondly, for the sake of security and criminality issues, provide the Canada Border Services Agency better resources in order to improve databases for this purpose.
Thirdly, determine the number of years of successful tax paying establishment that should be the ticket to permanent residency. Indeed, decide whether those candidates should then be required to undergo a further waiting period before qualifying for citizenship.
This is not new. Through its Canada Experience Class and FSTP programmes, Ottawa has already taken some tentative steps towards the recognition of de facto successful economic integration. The experiment has remained tentative because there has been no commitment to make the concept succeed.
But this is 2016. A new broom sweeps more cleanly.
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