Citizenship Application Process to Get Easier With Test Re-Takes

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New Canadian citizens at the Oath of Citizenship ceremony. New rules will allow citizenship applicants who fail their citizenship knowledge test to re-take the test a few weeks later

Following recent changes to the citizenship application process that increased the difficulty of acquiring Canadian citizenship, including the introduction of proof of minimum language proficiency and an increase in the difficulty of the citizenship knowledge test, the federal government is reversing course to make it easier for permanent residents to meet citizenship eligibility requirements.

According to an announcement made on Monday, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) has begun providing permanent residents who take their citizenship test their results immediately, and if they fail, allowing them to book another test a few weeks later.

The previous rules required a citizenship applicant who failed the citizenship knowledge test to wait months to have an interview with a citizenship judge who would then decide if they would be granted citizenship.

The new rules will also apply to applicants who are currently waiting to see a citizenship judge due to having failed their knowledge test, allowing them to take their test in weeks and obtain citizenship.

Furthermore, CIC announced that family members are now able to obtain their citizenship individually without all members of their family getting approval of their citizenship application.

The previous rules required all members of a family to obtain their citizenship together, which prevented some individuals who otherwise qualified for citizenship to have to wait because the citizenship application of one member of their family was not approved.

The two new measures are expected to speed up the citizenship acquisition process.

Approximately 200,000 people become Canadian citizens each year, which is about two-thirds of the number who receive permanent residency.

The percentage of citizenship test takers who failed their exam nearly quadrupled from 2009 to 2011 due to a March 2010 change that raised the passing grade of the test and increased the number of topics it covered.

More Countries Listed As ‘Safe’ Designated Countries of Origin

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The addition of Chile to the Canadian government’s list of designated countries of origin was announced during a meeting between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Chilean president Sebastian Pinera (Government of Canada)

As part of the effort to combat bogus asylum claims, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) announced on Thursday that two more countries have been designated as ‘safe’ countries from which asylum claims will be given an expedited treatment.

CIC created the list of designated countries of origin (DCOs) in December 2012 to stem the tide of welfare seekers from European countries, primarily Hungarian Roma, that were taking advantage of Canada’s generous asylum claims process to live on the country’s social services for years until finally being deported.

In its report on the phenomenon, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) found that claimants would delay their deportation through a lengthy process of appeals, before finally abandoning their claim or having it rejected for lack of evidence.

The list originally contained 27 countries, that included most EU member states. Eight more countries were added in February, and with the addition of Chile and South Korea on Thursday, the total number of countries has come to 37.

Countries are considered DCOs if they are democracies with strong legal protections of human rights, and if at least 60 percent of asylum claimants from the country had withdrawn/abandoned their claim, or at least 75 percent of claims by claimants from the country were either withdrawn or abandoned by the claimant or rejected by the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB).

Chile’s induction into the DCO list coincided with Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s meeting with Chilean president Sebastian Pinera, and the signing of a Canada-Chile trade agreement.

Think Tank Promotes Immigration As Development Aid

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Young women in Ghana. Seventy percent of respondents in a CIGI survey of Canadian immigrants from countries in Southern Africa said they remit money to relatives in their country of origin

The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), a think tank established by the founder of Canadian firm Research in Motion, Jim Balsillie, released a study this week that finds immigration source countries benefit from the migration of their skilled workers to the developed world due to the foreign remittance, investment and philanthropy that their emigrants give back.

The study proposes redefining immigrant communities as “diasporas”, to emphasize the links immigrants maintain with their countries of origin, and help dispel the belief that the emigration of skilled workers from a country is a “brain drain” or “poaching”, and instead frame migration as a development tool that helps immigrants, developed countries, and developing countries.

The researchers’ primary area of focus in the study was Canadian immigrants from Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries, and they found that 70 percent of survey respondents from these countries, with the exception of those from South Africa, reported remitting money back to their home country.

Over half of survey respondents had given serious consideration to moving back to their home country, despite rating Canada favourably, demonstrating the strong links they have to their countries of origin.

The study noted that global remittance, at US$440 billion in 2010, is three times more substantial than official development aid as a source of income for countries “and almost as large as foreign direct investment”.

The diaspora communities that had the highest rates of individuals providing foreign remittance were those from the Philippines (60 percent), Haiti (60 percent), Jamaica (50 percent), and Nigeria (47 percent). The communities with the lowest percentage providing foreign remittance were those from South Korea (5 percent), the United Kingdom (7 percent), France (9 percent), Iran (11 percent) and Iraq (15 percent).

Diasporas and foreign direct investment

Besides remittance, the study says diasporas benefit the developing world as sources of investment, with a recent OECD study finding a one percent increase in the size of a diaspora population leads to a 0.1-0.25 percent increase in foreign direct investment in the country they originate from.

The researchers also found that nearly half of survey respondents in Canada’s SADC diaspora had engaged in economic activity in their country of origin since migrating to Canada, including 25 percent who had exported Canadian goods to the country and 11 percent who had invested in a business there.

Combined with studies estimating that 70 percent of China’s and 26 percent of India’s foreign direct investment during particular time frames originated from their respective diasporas, the researchers conclude that immigration could potentially have a major impact on foreign investment into the developing world.

Seeing immigration in light of the economic benefit it provides to its source countries can dramatically change the debate on the immigration of skilled workers into Canada say the study authors, by leading to immigration being linked with Canada’s official development policy, while shedding it of its negative image in the developed world as a zero sum “brain drain”. (This story was first broken by Postmedia News)

Immigration Reduces Canadian Bilingualism Since 2001

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The percentage of Canadians that report being bilingual declined from 17.7 percent in 2001, to 17.5 percent in 2011, according to Statistics Canada

The influx of immigrants accounts for a slight decline in Canadian bilingualism over the last decade, according to Statistics Canada.

Approximately 17.5 percent of Canadians in the 2011 Census reported being able to speak both English and French. This was down from a peak of 17.7 percent in 2001.

In 1961, the rate of French-English bilingualism was only 12.2 percent, and over the next several decades increased, until the 2001 peak. The increase was largely a result of the instatement of official bilingualism by the government of Pierre Trudeau in the 1960s.

The set of legislation enacted required federal government services to be offered in both French and English, and that both languages be given equal standing in communication with the federal government.

The Consumer Packaging and Labeling Act of 1985 further promoted bilingualism by requiring all packaging in Canada to display both French and English text.

Over the last decade however, as immigrants pushed the total population up, the bilingual population did not increase fast enough to maintain the proportion attained in 2001.

This was a consequence of immigrants outside of Quebec being less likely than native-born Canadians to be bilingual.

As a result, even as the population of bilingual Canadians increased by approximately 600,000 since 2001, to 5.8 million in 2011, their share of the population declined slightly.

Capital City Ottawa Voted as Canada’s Most Boring City

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Downtown Ottawa. Canada’s capital city was voted as the country’s most boring in last week’s “Boring Awards”

(Via Global BC) Canada’s capital city, Ottawa, beat out five other nominees to be voted as the country’s most boring city in the annual “Boring Awards” ceremony held last Tuesday.

Other cities nominated for the most boring title were: Laval (Quebec), Lethbridge (Alberta), Abbotsford (British Columbia), and Brampton (Ontario).

Despite being the most boring, Ottawa is also the “richest” large city in Canada according to a 2010 study by Statistics Canada, which found that it had the highest median gross family income of the major metropolitan areas in the country.

Lucrative jobs in and close to government provide the city with a steady source of consumer spending that supports a range of industries and helps it maintain an unemployment rate of 6.1 percent – below the 7.2 percent national average.

Combined with relatively affordable housing, the city was found to provide the best quality of life by the Money Sense ‘Canada’s Best Places to Live – 2012′ index.

B.C. Spends Less On Health, Has Healthiest Population in Canada

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Vancouver General Hospital in British Columbia, Canada. B.C. is ranked as having one of the best health care systems in Canada thanks to high ratings on the health-related lifestyle habits and health outcomes of its residents (Arnold C.)

British Columbia has the healthiest residents among the Canadian provinces according to a new Conference Board of Canada (CBoC) study.

The B.C. provincial government spends less than almost all other Canadian provinces on health care, but still comes out on top in the health care ranking thanks to the healthy lifestyles of B.C. residents, who have the lowest smoking rates in the country.

The CBoC report rates provincial health care system performance according to a total of 90 indicators within four categories: Lifestyle Factors, Health Status, Health Resources, and Health Care System Performance.

Lifestyle Factors measures the behavior of a province’s population that affects health, including the rate of smoking, heavy drinking, obesity, fruit and vegetable consumption and physical activity.

B.C. has the best score in both the Lifestyle Factors and Health Status categories, which was enough to earn it one of only three As granted in the Overall Performance rating.

The other provinces scoring an A in Overall Performance were Alberta and Ontario. Both provinces have more government spending on health care than B.C., and both received a higher score in Health Care System Performance, which measures disease screening, waiting times and accessibility for procedures, effectiveness of treatments and the appropriateness of treatments.

Residents of Alberta and Ontario fell short of British Columbians in their health status however, with lower birth weights, higher infant mortality, and more years of life lost to illness.

TD Report: Asia No. 1 Source of Immigrants to Canada, But Share Shrinking

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Traditional entrance gate to Montreal’s Chinatown. 63.4 percent of immigrants live in Canada’s three largest metropolitan areas: Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver according to the 2011 National Household Survey (Quinn Dombrowski)

A new TD analysis of the recently released 2011 National Household Survey (NHS) shows Asia is the largest, though shrinking, source of immigrants to Canada.

While 60 percent of immigrants originated in Asia, which includes the Middle East, in 2005, by 2011 that number had declined to 56.9 percent.

The three largest source countries for immigrants were all Asian: the Philippines, China and India. The Philippines saw its immigrant number nearly double from 2005 to 2011, while the share of immigrants from India and China declined, from a combined 27 percent in 2005, to 21 percent in 2011.

Among the major regions, the two that saw the biggest growth since 2005 were the Africa region, and the Caribbean and Central/South America region, which are now the origin of about 25 percent of Canadian immigrants.

The TD analysis also looked at where immigrants are settling. They continue to settle primarily (91 percent) in Canada’s largest 33 metropolitan areas, with the Big Three, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, continuing to lead the way.

The prairie metropolises of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba saw a small increase in their immigrant populations relative to the Big Three, likely as a result of the strong demand for labour seen in these provinces.

A final demographic measure looked at by the TD report was the change in the visible minority component of the Canadian population. The percentage of Canadians classified as visible minorities increased from 16.2 percent in 2005 to 19.1 percent in 2011, according to the NHS.

The three largest visible minority groups are South Asians (which include Indians, Pakistanis and Sri Lankans), at 1.6 million, Chinese, at 1.3 million, and blacks, at 945,000.

70 percent of visible minority immigrants live in one of the three largest metropolises; Montreal, Toronto or Vancouver.

More American Visitors to Canada in March

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The Canada-U.S. border crossing at Osoyoos in British Columbia’s Okanagan valley (Joe Mabel)

Via the Victoria Times Colonist, new data from Statistics Canada shows the number of visitors to Canada from the U.S. is increasing.

The number of trips overall to Canada increased 2.6 percent in March from levels in February, and most of that was attributed to a 3.2 percent increase in the number of trips from the United States, which is the primary origin of foreign visits to Canada.

American residents made approximately 1.7 million trips to Canada in March, including over one million overnight trips, the highest number since February 2010.

Trips from countries other than the U.S. to Canada increased by only 0.2 percent in March from February. Trips from Mexico saw the biggest decline, with 8.9 percent fewer trips made from that country in March than in February.

For their own part, Canadians traveled abroad 1.7 percent less in March than February, and most of the decline was due to a reduction in trips to the U.S.

Vancouver Sun: Hong Kong Immigrants Returning to Asian Homeland

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Many Canadians of Hong Kong origin find they can earn and save more in the South East Asian metropolis, which has one of the lowest tax rates in the world, than in Canada (Samuel Louie)

A story in Saturday’s Vancouver Sun reports that an increasing number of Canadian citizenship of Hong Kong origin are moving back to the South East Asian city, according to demographic data:

Statistics Canada’s numbers tell the tale. Despite Canada’s rapid population growth in the past 15 years, there are now 32,000 fewer Hong Kong-born residents in Canada than there were in 1996.

The 2011 National Household Survey, released last week, shows 209,000 Hong Kong-born residents in Canada (about one third of them living in Metro Vancouver). That compares to 241,000 who lived here in 1996.

Their total numbers in Canada have been dropping despite 1,000 to 2,000 new Hong Kong immigrants a year continuing to trickle in. Even accounting for deaths, it is clear that thousands of Hong Kong citizens each year have been leaving Canada.

The draw, according to Vancouver Sun columnist Douglas Todd, is money, which they can earn more of in Hong Kong, and family, who they seek to reunite with.

Hong Kong’s steady economic growth over the last three decades and vibrant free market have given it a better income-earning potential for some professions than Canada, making it a preferred place to live for some Canadian citizens, like Edward Shen:

“(In Hong Kong) I am perhaps working about 60 to 70 per cent of what I was in Vancouver, but saving up more than I used to, given the much lower tax rate (17 per cent flat tax),” Shen wrote in an email.

“Most Hong Kong people know that there is no big money to be made in Canada, even less so in Vancouver. Vancouver in many people’s eyes is a place for retirement of rich people, as they find the living standard in Vancouver very high. Which is true. People who want to make money choose Toronto over Vancouver.”

Hong Kong has a top marginal income tax rate of 17 percent and no capital gains tax.

Todd also suggests that many of the Hong Kong nationals only immigrated to Canada to acquire Canadian citizenship, with no intention of staying long-term, and points to a recent study conducted by the Citizenship and Immigration Canada funded Metropolis research body which found that some Chinese immigrants describe the three year residency requirement for becoming a Canadian citizen as “immigration prison”, which they must endure before they can repatriate back to their home country.

These repatriates are a new type of “international class of citizens”, according to Richard Kurkland, an immigration lawyer interviewed for the story. They are well-off, and like to have the mobility and insurance of having citizenship in more than one country.

The risk, according to Kurkland, is that if the country where these Canadian citizens live faces some type of catastrophe, it will be the responsibility of Canadian taxpayers to pay to get them out, as happened when some of the fifty thousand Canadian citizens living in Lebanon were airlifted out of the country during the 2006 Hezbollah-Israel war.

Similar to the Lebanon experience, Hong Kong residents holding Canadian passports could return in large numbers and burden the country’s social programs if China imposes more restrictions on the semi-autonomous jurisdiction, Kurkland warns.

Muslim Immigration Fueling “Islamic Banking” in Canada

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Criticized by some, and welcomed by others, Canada’s small Islamic banking sector is growing as Canadian Muslims look for financial products that are consistent with their religious values

Amid the headlines in recent weeks of a group of Muslim extremists plotting a terrorist attack in Canada, a look at some of the mundane ways in which Canada’s growing Muslim communities are having an impact can be a refreshing reminder that the bad apples are few and far between, and that the majority of Muslim-Canadians are ordinary individuals who strive to lead productive lives and contribute positively to their country.

The rising profile of the “Islamic banking” industry is one of these ways, and on Friday the Hamilton Spectator published a story detailing its exposure in Canada and how it works:

If Islamic finance prohibits charging interest (riba), how do they function? Ensuring fair play is at the core of Islamic banking. As such, the principle of “risk-sharing” is a critical component. In essence, the Islamic bank becomes a business partner with the customer. For example, a car lease is appropriate because the bank has a stake in the ownership of the car. There are two principle financing arrangements offered to borrowers: murabaha (instalment sale) and ijara (redeemable lease). In the murabaha example, the bank buys the asset (e.g. large screen television) and then resells it to the customer at a higher price while the customer still uses it.

Islamic banking has been growing at 10-15 percent a year globally over the last decade. It forbids profit through interest, speculation, uncertainty, exploitation, and funding activities prohibited to Muslims, including consumption of pork, gambling and alcohol.

Various work-arounds are used by Islamic banks to earn a profit while complying with the prohibition to charge interest, like providing capital through purchases of equity instead of debt. Often these arrangements make the financial instruments in effect very similar to interest-based lending, leading some to criticize it as dishonestly advertised for profit, or to promote Islam.

The sector’s supporters say it provides a means by which people can bank in accordance with their values by avoiding lending at very high interest rates or providing funding to activities they are religiously and/or ethically opposed to, like the production of pornography or alcoholic beverages.

Canada’s Islamic banking sector is still relatively small compared to that of other Western countries. The recent bankruptcy, along with reports of corruption by its top executives, of UM Financial, which billed itself as a sharia-compliant mortgage issuer, has been a setback for the sector, but it is likely it will continue to see growth in the coming years given the rising population of Canadian Muslims, which now number nearly one million.