thourb said:
It is a deliberate decision on the part of the Canadian government to offer a proportionately high number of points to those who are young. People under 30 are going to contribute to the Canadian economy for longer, pay more taxes, generally be healthier and will be less reliant on state aid. Older people will contribute for a shorter period of time and are more likely to experience health issues and become a burden to the state. Of course, I'm generalising here and Canada needs a mix of both youth and experience, but if their justification for increased immigration is focused on economic grounds they are going to want to have more younger immigrants as collectively they will be more beneficial to the economy in the long term than older applicants.
In relation to official language proficiency, I don't have access to all of the statistics that CIC do, but I'd be willing to bet that those with higher language scores - on average - have a better chance of getting a job and integrating into the community than those with "a language test that is not that shiny". Of course, due to the fact that CIC are working with a finite target of around 300,000 immigrants per year, any change in the immigration system which benefits one group is going to disadvantage another. It's all a question of finding the right mix of people. Clearly 600 points for LMIA is having an adverse effect on people with very high human capital and is far too skewed in the direction of those fortunate enough to secure a job offer. Likewise, having anything more than 200 points would likely have little net effect on who is nominated, due to the fact that most people who are eligible for FSW have a score of 300+.
I'm personally of the view that a score of 100-150 "bonus" CRS points for LMIA is a good target for CIC to work with. For those with CRS around 300 it makes them competitive (and they will have further chances to increase their CRS by getting better language results) and those with around 350-400 points it will near guarantee them an ITA.
1. Part of the FSW score itself is score for ties with canada and arrange employment (up to 20 points in total). with that you can enter even with lower basic points. But on the spot you will get additional points for LMIA.
2. Major reason why to give decent amount of points for younger applicants is less romanting. Younger people will not bother social system so much as they tend to be more healthy (and they will choose those healthier), they tend to work more and be less picky and demanding. And most importantly they are more flexible and it will be easier for them to return back to their country of origin after some years spent working in Canada (why else to be so lenient as to let people have double citizenship). They did not cost a thing Canada (all their education was paid by somebody else - country of origin or it was their own budget). And for Canada it preferably does not want to see that many of them to really settle down and burden social system.
3. In comparison people in mid 30th or older will be less prone to change again (usually they are already settled down and they do not want to repeat that proces any time in the future again). Some of them will leave very soon, while most of them wants to stay for good. They are also more aware of their value, thus is not that easy to exploit them as cheap paid labour (in their own profession of course). So it is clear, that they are not that wanted to immigrate. So they are higher potential for the social burden later once they become old.
4. Language test - seeing it myself and seeing lot of people hunting down just 0,5 point in order to get the needed score (including people, that were actively working with the language in their profession - like Journalist, English literature professors and such...) shows to me that there is very little difference between CBL 7 and CBL 9 user when it comes to dealing with real life or their profession. However I do understand that they need somehow differentiate among that huge amount of potential applicant even if it is for the sake of statistics rather than anything else.
Interestingly enough for programm Mobilite francophone, you need to prove to have French level CBL7 to be considered for this stream. And yes that is what a French native can achieve when tested without extra effort of specific preparation.
Interestingly enough around 50% of your CRS score is influenced by your language skills (1st and 2nd language + transferability + spouse language can give you up to around 250 points).
A the same time in most of the provincial programs, language is only around 20 to 25% and the most important part is played by combination of your work experience and related education. at the same time age penalties are usually used only after you are 35 or older (it does take time to finish university and get 6 to 10 years of relevant work experience).