an alliance of university, community, and government partners dedicated to fostering welcoming communities and promoting the integration of immigrants and minorities across Canada
The Media Roundup provides links to recent and archived articles, in both English and French, on immigration and diversity appearing in the national and local news. Some international content is also included. Articles are updated weekly.
TVA Nouvelles – Projet pilote de réseautage-jumelage interculturel
Une nouvelle initiative d’intégration des personnes immigrantes est mise de l’avant par le Service d’aide aux Néo-Canadiens de Sherbrooke. Le projet pilote de réseautage-jumelage interculturelpermettra de constituer une banque d’employeurs et de familles prêts à soutenir les nouveaux arrivants. «Nous croyons que mettre réseautage et jumelage ensemble c’est unique au Québec», affirme le président du conseil d’administration du Service d’aide aux Néo-Canadiens. Pour ses 60 ans, le Service d’aide au Néo-Canadiens bonifie une formule qui a fait ses preuves dans le passé. Une ressource sera engagée et verra à soutenir les personnes immigrantes dans la création d’un réseau social et professionnel. Des familles seront jumelées, alors que des employeurs seront accompagnés lors de l’embauche de personnes immigrantes.
Metro News – Canada Doesn’t Always Get the Immigrants it Wants
Sociology professor Jeffrey Reitz, of the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, thinks Canada has the wrong focus. Instead of looking at the jobs that potential immigrants can start as soon as they enter Canada, the country should be looking at immigrants’ skills, he says. He studied trends in the success of immigrants with university degrees and discovered that educated newcomers are facing increasing difficulty in landing professional or management jobs. He found that 70.7 per cent of educated, Canadian-born men were in a high-level occupation in 1996, but only 50.4 per cent of immigrant men with similar background could say the same. By 2006, that figure for Canadian-born men was similar, but for immigrants it was down to 43.5 per cent. […] Reitz wants more services set up to validate the qualifications that immigrants gain overseas, so they can find a job more easily. […] He also spoke highly of mentorship programs and “bridge training” offered by groups like the Toronto Immigrant Employment Council.
Citizenship and Immigration Canada News Release – Offering “Express Entry” to Qualified Economic Immigrants
Canada’s Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander today announced that Canada’s active recruitment model for economic immigration will officially be called “Express Entry.” Set to launch in January 2015, “Express Entry” is a major step forward in the transformation of Canada’s immigration system into one that is fast, flexible and focused on meeting Canada’s economic and labour needs. “Express Entry” will allow for greater flexibility and better responsiveness to deal with regional labour shortages, and help fill open jobs for which there are no available Canadian workers. “Express Entry” candidates who receive a valid job offer or nomination under the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) will be quickly invited to apply for permanent residency – a key distinction between “Express Entry” and the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, which is only used to fill temporary labour and skill shortages.
National Post – Born Canadian? Citizenship of Babies Born Using New Fertility Methods Sometimes Unclear
Malkiat Kandola always assumed that when his wife gave birth in India through in-vitro fertilization, their baby would automatically become a Canadian citizen, like the Vancouver-area truck driver himself. But an immigration officer ruled otherwise, and now the Federal Court of Appeal has upheld that decision in a “groundbreaking” case that raises intriguing questions about the intersection between modern fertility treatment and immigration. Because the embryo used in Ms. Kandola’s IVF treatment was made from sperm and eggs donated by others, the child, now four, had no genetic connection to either parent. And without those blood ties, she could not become a citizen by birth, the court concluded in a 2-1 split decision. It is one of a number of complex immigration scenarios that lawyers say are popping up as Canadians turn increasingly to new technologies and services to build families, often doing so outside of the country.
New Canadian Media – Will the Fair Elections Act Hurt New Canadians?
Canadian immigrant service providers are worried that the Conservative government’s proposed election bill will potentially impact the voter participation rate of new Canadians and ethnocultural communities in future elections. Currently, citizens who don’t have proper identification can vote if someone else can vouch for their identity. If the new bill passes, vouching would be banned – a problem for new Canadians who want to vote but may lack proper identification simply because they’re new to the system. […] Even with vouching in place, a report by Statistics Canada found that new immigrants are less likely to participate in elections than more established immigrants. Data from 2011 indicated that only 51% of recent immigrants voted, compared to 66% for more established immigrants. The numbers also differ greatly among various ethnic communities and among genders.
Toronto Star – New Ontario Bill to Protect Migrants is Doomed: Study
Just as Ontario is pondering new legislation (Bills 146 and 161) to expand the current protection to all migrant workers, a new study released by the Metcalf Foundation Tuesday said the proposed changes are doomed to fail if the province does not address current loopholes in the system that have allowed the exploitation to continue. […] According to the Metcalf Foundation report, such practices are still rampant as two-thirds of the 200 live-in caregivers surveyed said they had been charged recruitment fees despite the labour protection law Ontario introduced in 2010. Despite the government’s intent to better protect live-in caregivers with the 2010 legislation, the study found that provincial officials have only managed to recover $12,100 in illegal fees from recruiters and there are only eight ongoing investigations against them.
