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Orginally posted by LSD

Rethinking immigration goalsCAROL GOARCanada brings in approximately 14,000 engineers a year under its highly selective immigration rules. Roughly the same number of engineers graduate annually from Canadian universities. The country has more engineers than it can possibly employ. Meanwhile, trucking companies are desperate for drivers; slaughterhouses can't get enough meat packers; and construction bosses knowingly hire carpenters, drywallers, electricians and heavy equipment operators who are in Canada illegally. None of these workers qualifies for entry under the government's strict admission criteria. If ever there was a made-in-Ottawa problem, this is it. The good news is that Immigration Minister Joe Volpe knows about it and has a plan to fix it. The bad news is that it probably won't see the light of day. The Liberal minority government is in its death throes. And Volpe has scarcely spoken about — let alone done anything about — the mismatch between Canada's needs and his department's policies. But one recent afternoon, the 57-year-old Italian immigrant sat down for an hour or so and talked about what needs to be done. Volpe left no doubt that he considers the current regime, put in place by former immigration minister Denis Coderre in 2003, elitist and ill-conceived. Not only does it keep out the kind of immigrants who built this country; it squanders the skills of those who get in. "We secure — some would even say we steal — someone else's investment, then we don't even use it in Canada," Volpe said. "Let's do a mea culpa. We weren't ready for these people. We've got to put our political and moral muscles to work to make sure their talents can be utilized. "At the same time, we've set the bar so high we aren't getting the people we need to fill the gaps in our workforce. We have skill shortages all over the country. You can't possibly draw up an appropriate immigration program if you don't know what the labour issues are." Volpe then outlined his five-point plan to get the immigration system back into alignment with Canada's needs and traditions. Chances are it won't survive the political turbulence of the coming weeks. But it would be a good starting point for whoever ends up in charge of the nation's entry gates. First, he would change the admission criteria. Volpe didn't say precisely how he would reconfigure the rating system, but made it clear that university degrees and fluency in English or French would no longer be given priority over jobs skills that are in high demand. Next, he would "regularize" undocumented workers. Granting an amnesty to the roughly 200,000 immigrants working illegally in Canada would be "like cracking eggs," Volpe acknowledged. But allowing a culture of casual lawbreaking to become entrenched would be worse. Third, he would make it easier for immigrants to rebuild their family networks in Canada. This, too, can be controversial, as Volpe discovered last month when he tripled the number of parents and grandparents allowed into the country. "But if we want skilled workers, we have to offer them a psychologically healthy environment," he insisted. Fourth, he would encourage communities outside the Golden Horseshoe to sell themselves to immigrants. If Canada is to keep its smaller centres alive and sustain the growth of flourishing communities in the West, it will have to tap into newcomers' sense of adventure, Volpe said. "An immigrant, if he represents nothing else, is a personification of entrepreneurship and risk-taking." Finally, Volpe would combine immigration and human resources into a single federal department (as they were until 1993) that can match the country's current and future labour needs with its international recruitment programs. "What this country needs is a demographic policy rather than an immigration policy," he said. Canada has seldom had an immigration minister whose vision extends beyond the next crisis, upheaval or election. Most politicians are content merely to manage the troubled portfolio. "There's a lack of critical thinking by the senior people in that department," said Phil Mooney, a Burlington immigration consultant. "Volpe strikes me as somebody who really wants to move." He hasn't made much headway in his four-month tenure and he is quickly running out of time. But Volpe will leave behind two valuable assets: an accurate diagnosis of what is wrong and a good set of tools to begin the repairs. Carol Goar's column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

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My dear friends/compatriots

For those of you who do not know me from this website, I am taking the time to write to let you know that it is not only immigrants who are suffering.

I am a white anglo saxon Canadian speaking both official languages perfectly. I was in the 4th year of a Phd program and told by my seniors that I would soon have a position wherever i wanted, as many professors were nearing retirement age. Then suddenly, the gov't changed its hiring practices and decided to employ a number of professors according to commercial reasons (i.e. the headcount) and not the previous quota system. As a result, when professors retired, they were not replaced.

I found myself in a dead end. Luckily (or so i thought), i had a back-up profession: journalism. I had published over 50 articles in English and French. But that very year I was told that there was now a new JOURNALISM degree. I found that media organizations would not even accept freelancers without a journalism degree.

I then began at a call center of an insurance company for $10/hour doing shift work. Two weeks 9hr-17hr, two weeks 17hr-1hr and then two weeks 1hr to 9hr. They also wanted me to go back to university to study insurance. With thousands in debt from studies and already 10 years of university education under my belt, obviously, i was not enthused.

Finally, I decided to leave this frigid wasteland forever. I lived for years in Eastern Europe and Africa and I now live in South East Asia where I work in a consulting company. I took an MBA, learnt the local language, married a local girl and will spend the rest of my days here. After a decade of searching, I have finally found my place in the world. My whole life has been a struggle. LIFE IS A STRUGGLE.

My point is, the lack of morals and disillusionment of the youth you see in canada is symptomatic of a general decline in society; they know they have no future; they know or at least suspect that the world is based on slavery and corruption and thus their attitude reflects this. This situation is not unique to Canada; it is the way of the world, I fear.

i suspect, in fact, that the world has always run on slave labor and duping innocent people. Now there are just different names: it used to be called slavery, but now we say "wage disparity"; it used to be 'human trafficking" but now the politically correct term is 'immigration'. The world is ruled by thugs. Don't forget this...

May God give you strength.

God bless you Chris

for your excellent testimonial.

You will be very happy abroad.

Foreign countries tend to respect and value human life.

Canada beats us down and expects us to take it because 'it's the great Canada"

I have one request, could you PLEASE post your message here:

http://www.canadaimmigrants.com/forum.asp

it would help many others

thanks to you once more

Canuck3000 (soon to be ex-canuck!)

One thing that I have found, canuck [some will understand this, some will not] in the so-called 'developing countries', there are riches that are no longer possessed in the West.

for instance, in Indonesia, there IS family; there IS a community.

in this respect, the most important respect, in Indonesia, and i suspect in India as well, we are rich indeed; richer than anyone in canada.

all the best

Hello Chris,

I applaud your decision to leave Canada.

I am also leaving Canada permanently in just 9 days on May 27!

I would have left sooner, but it took me a few years to secure a good job and visa in the U.S.

I have visited 11 countries in my lifetime and you are correct, people in other countries may earn less money, but they are happy.

They have a culture, they have pride and a sense of dignity about them.

Here in Canada, it is walking zombies.

A crazy and perverse rat race, survival of the fittest.

An old man can drop to his knees suffering a heart attack in downtown Toronto and NOBODY will come to his aid.

Please spread your message.

Here are some other forums:

http://thevoiceofcanadianimmigrant.blogspot.com/
http://www.canadaimmigrants.com/forum.asp
http://www.canada-city.ca/canada-immigration/index.php

Hi Chris, I second the cannucks remarks. There is a world wide disillusionment that there is a promised land, as long as it is away from where they currently live.

Comments like yours are needed to drive this home into peoples minds. Immigration is the thesaurus definition of slave labour these days. But people are a resource to a company and the elements of supply and demand do enter into the equation. It governments that use this mobility to their advantage.

The UK quality of life is dramatically slipping, immigration is to high here. I’m looking at alternatives to where my skills are demanded, I might even consider selling up here and go back to India (even though I was born here).

Life is not supposed to be EASY. If it was everyone would be happy and this goes against the Jin and Yang principles.

Keep up the good work in Indonesia.

chahal, canuck, thanks for the kind words.

the fact that there seem to be as many canadians as americans looking for work in asia is an eloquent one, considering the population disparity between the two countries.

it IS strange that there are so many young, educated canadians looking for work overseas and canada is accepting so many immigrants. it does make one wonder.

keep your focus and remember what really matters... stay in the rat race long enough and you become a rat... i believe you have to make a stand at some point and commit yourself, but there is a difference between persistence and knocking your head against a wall. each person must make the decision himself. I spent YEARS in eastern europe learning Polish and Russian and finally just had to let go because i finally had to admit that there was no future there for me.

each person must constantly evaluate what he wants in canada and whether his goals are realistic...

good luck