Canadian Immigration News

The Library Settlement Partnerships program, a three-way partnership between Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), settlement services providers and public libraries, has been introduced to 11 communities in Ontario.

Last week, the Liberal shadow Cabinet held a quasi-emergency meeting in which the need to go to the polls as soon as possible was debated and recognized. According to Liberal sources, the general consensus was that the Conservative immigration reform plan would be the trigger for an election and that Canadians should go to the polls as early as June.

In their second week of campaigning for next month’s federal election, the party leaders have been sharing their platforms for Canadian immigration. Stephane Dion, leader of the Liberal party, recently announced that, if elected, the Liberal party would allocate $800 million to modernize and streamline the Canadian immigration system.

On March 14, 2008 Canada’s Conservative government proposed amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA). If passed, these changes would give the Minster of Immigration (the Minister) more power to control the number and type of people allowed into the country and the speed with which they may enter Canada.

Canadians speak over 200 languages according to the latest language reports from Statistics Canada's 2006 census. For the first time in Canadian history, allophones (people whose first language is neither French nor English) represented 20 per cent of Canada's population.

Statistics Canada recently released the latest age and gender statistics based on the 2006 census. The results show an aging population in which the fastest growing portion of the population (aged 55 to 64) will soon be exiting the work force.

Specialized English and/or French language training programs, tailored for the profession in which newcomers plan to work, are becoming increasingly common.

Since its inception as a pilot project in 2003, the Off-Campus Work Permit Program has only been available to international students at public Canadianuniversities and colleges. Nationally launched in April 2006, the initiative has already benefited over 8,300 international students by giving themCanadian work experience and financial independence.

The fourth World Migration Report, entitled 'Managing Labour Mobility in the Evolving Global Economy' was recently released by the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration (IOM).