Canada immigration/refugee levels Droped last year
Chi Shen
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from: The Standard (St. Catharines - Niagara)
Drop in immigration levels blamed on system `shambles': Canada accepts far
fewer immigrants, refugees than planned
Andrew Duffy
Thu 15 Jul 1999 Edition:
OTTAWA - New statistics show Canada accepted fewer immigrants and refugees
last year than at any time in the past decade.
A total of 174,100 newcomers arrived in Canada in 1998, representing a
year-over-year decline of 20 per cent, and the lowest immigration level
since 1988.
Numbers are down across all classes of immigration, particularly in the
skilled worker and business categories, according to a document quietly
released by Citizenship and Immigration Canada earlier this month.
The Immigration Overview, published by the department's planning and
research office, shows the Liberal government missed its overall target by
23 per cent.
Federal immigration officials blamed the shortfall Wednesday on the
lasting effects of the Asian flu.
``We really believe the lower levels are primarily due to the effects of
the economic downturn which were hard to predict,'' said spokesperson
Huguette Shouldice.
At least 15,000 visas were issued last year that were never used, she
added, presumably because the prospective immigrants could no longer afford
to leave for Canada.
But Toronto immigration lawyer Mendel Green said the numbers prove the
government's business immigration program is a shambles.
``They haven't put the machinery in place to effect the immigration policy
that the Parliament of Canada has approved --that's why they're not meeting
their numbers,'' he charged.
The system is plagued, he said, by a shortage of qualified overseas visa
officers and complicated security checks that cause long processing delays,
especially for economic immigrants.
``It shows a total insensitivity to the economic benefit of business
immigration and skilled workers, and it's Canadians who are losing the
benefits of it,'' Green said.
More than $4 billion in capital has been injected into the Canadian
economy by the 20,000 immigrants who have arrived as investors since the
program was launched in 1986. At the same time, the number of skilled
workers entering Canada has played a key role in counteracting the effects
of this country's brain drain to the United States, Green said.
The number of business immigrants fell sharply in 1998 over previous years.
Last year, Canada attracted 13,778 business immigrants -- wealthy
investors and proven entrepreneurs --compared to 19,278 in 1997 and 22,459
the year before that. The numbers were 35 per cent below the target set by
Robillard.
Skilled workers also found reason not to emigrate to Canada last year as
the federal government missed its target by 24 per cent.
Robillard had hoped to attract as many as 106,000 skilled workers and
their families -- people with engineering, computer and technical skills --
but only 81,146 arrived.
Shouldice said efforts to attract business immigrants and skilled workers
were complicated last year by a shift in the source of immigration.
In recent years, Canada had concentrated its overseas resources in Hong
Kong --once the major source of immigration --but the self-governing
territory is now fourth on the list.
China is now the primary source country; it was responsible 11 per cent of
the total number of immigrants to Canada last year. India and the
Philippines are second and third on the list. Hong Kong is fourth and is
followed by Pakistan, Iran, Korea, the United States, Russia and the United
Kingdom.
Visa officers find it more difficult to obtain documentation in places
like China and Pakistan, as compared to Hong Kong, and the processing of
applications has slowed as a result, Shouldice said.
Many of the immigrants who arrived last year --50,861 people --were
sponsored by other family members already accepted here as permanent
residents.
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