CANADA: Govt to ease immigration requirements for essential workers, graduates, others

THE Canadian government has announced an innovative pathway to permanent residence for over 90,000 essential workers and international graduates who are actively contributing to Canada’s economy.

The Minister for Immigration, Marco Mendicino, made the announcement on Wednesday, April 14, in a press release.

He said special public policies will grant permanent status to temporary workers and international graduates who possess the skills and experience the Canadian government needs to fight the pandemic and accelerate it’s economic recovery.

He said, “The focus of this new pathway will be on temporary workers employed in our hospitals and long-term care homes and on the frontlines of other essential sectors, as well as international graduates who are driving the economy of tomorrow.”

According to the announcement, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will begin accepting applications from May 6 under the following three streams: 20,000 applications for temporary workers in healthcare; 30,000 applications for temporary workers in other selected essential occupations, and 40,000 applications for international students who graduated from a Canadian educational institution, totalling 90,000 applications.

The other three streams for French-speaking immigrants will have no intake cap.

The Minister noted that the streams will remain open until November 5, 2021, or until they have reached their limit.

He added that the new public policies apply to workers in 40 healthcare occupations, as well as 95 other essential jobs across a range of fields, like caregiving and food production and distribution.

“To promote Canada’s official languages, three additional streams with no intake caps have also been launched for French-speaking or bilingual candidates.

His words: “Communities across Canada benefit from French-speaking and bilingual newcomers, and this pathway will contribute to the vitality of these Francophone minority communities.

“As we continue the fight against the pandemic, immigration will remain critical to our economic recovery by addressing labour shortages and adding growth to our workforce.

“With an accelerated pathway to permanent residency, these special public policies will encourage essential temporary workers and international graduates to put down roots in Canada and help us retain the talented workers we need, particularly in our health-care system.”he added.

The program is part of the Canadian government’s plan to ramp up immigrant numbers this year from the existing pool of foreign workers, as travel restrictions prevent inflows of people into the country.

Prime Minister Trudeau said his government plans to give immigration status to 401,000 people this year, more than double last year’s levels.

“It’s an incredibly important step in delivering on our 2021 immigration levels plan, which we are determined to achieve,” Immigration Minister Mendicino said in a phone interview.

He added, “We are ahead of where we planned to be in the year.”

The Canadian government’s move is coming weeks after the UAE decided to offer citizenship to select foreigners and professionals including “investors, doctors, specialists, inventors, scientists, talents, intellectuals, artists and their families.

The move is a significant change in direction for a country whose economy relies heavily on expatriates, for whom residency is typically contingent on their employment visas.

Citizenship is not usually offered to foreigners in Gulf countries. It was usually only offered to the wives of Emirati men and the children of Emirati fathers. The children of Emirati mothers who are married to foreigners do not automatically get citizenship but must instead apply for it, a process that can take years.

It’s believed that through the move the government is trying to inspire foreigners that ‘if you give as much as you can to this country, you can call it your home”.

The United Arab Emirates announced that Emirati nationality will now be officially attainable for foreigners, in a major first for the Gulf state.

The UAE government gave a similar reason the Canadian government is giving for its decision by saying, “the government aims to retain top talent as the coronavirus pandemic forced tens of thousands of expats to leave in the last year. Nearly 90% of the UAE’s roughly 10 million inhabitants are foreign nationals.”