Canada is planning to offer more permanent residence pathways to all the foreign nationals who are already in the country.
Following the statement that Canada is looking to welcome over more than 400,000 every year for the upcoming next three years, Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino said Bloomberg that the federal government is going to announce this very soon.
Why this change is necessary
Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino has expressed that Canada needs to analyze the reason that how it can speed up pathways to permanent residence for international students, temporary foreign workers, and asylum seekers already staying in the country. This is very important to diminish the economic challenges. Canada is presently facing lower immigration levels that are due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The reduction in the Canadian immigration levels has resulted in a reduction in population, labor force, and also the economic growth.
Permanent as well as temporary residents have slowed down this year. After a rise of more than 1, 90,000 temporary residents in the year 2019, only the first of that number has seen that number reduced to 18,221. Whereas Permanent resident’s numbers are 60 per cent down each year based on the government record from August.
Canada set to fall short of the 2020 immigration target.
According to the current speed, the Canadian government is all set to welcome just 200,000, which is very much lower than the target of the Canadian government set before the coronavirus pandemic. This figure has already dropped Canada’s population growth, which was not more than 0.1 percent in the second quarter of the year 2020, which is usually very low. Canada’s population generally grows by one per year.
Mendicino said Bloomberg that converting temporary residents to permanent will result in Canada’s short-term needs to react to the coronavirus. He also added that it would also help in addressing Canada’s long-term demographic challenges, which include a rise in population and a low birth rate. These two aspects mean that more and more gaps will be developed in the labor market as the older generation retires. With a lack of natural growth rate, Canada will require in order to preserve the population and make sure that the open positions in the labor force are filled.
The Canadian government is planning to look for the foreign talent who are already in Canada with the motive to find the asylum seekers, students, and workers who have the ability that merges with the essential services in the economy, Medicine conveys this to Bloomberg.
He also told that the students from the other countries are beautiful as potential counter forces to the effect of a fading population. Due to this, the government is making it simpler for them to work in Canada.
For example, Canada is granting online study at a Canadian nominated learning institution between May 2020 and April 2021 to move forward to the Post Graduation Work Permit (PGWP) eligibility. The PGWP is covered among all the international students as it allows them to acquire the Canadian work experience they usually required to be entitled to the range of economic class immigration programs. These programs usually include Express Entry’s Canadian Experience Class, the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP), and the Quebec Experience Program.
The Canadian government has also opened up its borders recently for the students who are entitled to classes at post-secondary’s that have coronavirus readiness plans.
The benefits of the Canadian experience
There are two considerable benefits for providing more PR pathways to the existing students, foreign workers, and asylum seekers in Canada. As in the short run, this will counter out the temporary refusal in immigration caused by the COVID-19. In the end. it will undoubtedly contribute to Canada as immigrants with Canadian experience aimed to have healthy labor market outcomes.
The combo of having Canadian education, work experience, social and professional networks, and fluency in English and French will lead to immediate labor market integration and high wages in the long term.
This has been demonstrated in various studies organized by Statistics Canada, Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), and many other researchers. As a result, the IRCC, provinces, and territories under the PNP utilize selection norms and Quebec gives the options to candidates with Canadian work and study experience.
What could changes look like?
The immigration minister didn’t hint at what changes may be required, but some of his options may include one or more of the following:
- launching new federal pilot programs
- holding program-specific Express Entry draws
- modifying Express Entry’s Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) to offer more points for Canadian experience
It needs to change the eligibility criteria for federal programs (e.g., reducing the work experience requirement for the Canadian Experience Class).
Expanding the dimensions of temporary work permit durations to grant applicants much more time to gain the Canadian work experience they are required to be entitled to apply for the immigration program such as the Canadian Experience Class.
The minister and IRCC haven’t provided any other explanations on what reclaim they have in mind, so stakeholders is advised to wait for the official words from the federal government.