INDIA challenges CHINA

Canada has lost its luster among immigrants from China, but newcomers from India are on the rise, according to officials, a demographic shift likely to dramatically impact Canada’s political and economic course. “For years, China has dominated. But this is about to change and the impact on Canadian culture, economy and politics will be huge,” immigration lawyer Richard Kurland, who analyzed the data told. Immigrants from India, the world’s largest democracy, are typically “highly politicized” while new immigrants from China have tended to keep to themselves, he said. A shift in immigration from China to India would mean greater participation in Canadian politics by Indian expatriates who maintain family links in their birth country and propose “closer economic and political ties with India,” he said. As well, Canada can expect “a cascade of savings in settlement and integration costs because Indian immigrants usually speak English and can hit the ground running,” he said.

In January 2006, Canadian embassy officials in Beijing processed 25,468 immigration applications, nearly half the number received the same month a year earlier, according to Citizenship and Immigration Canada. The number of applicants from Hong Kong decreased from 47,838 to 38,516 in the same period. Requisitions received in New Delhi, meanwhile, nearly doubled from January 2004 to January 2006, to 132,693. A total 664,684 applications were processed in January 2006. The numbers include economic immigrants, refugees and folk sponsored by family members in Canada, said immigration department spokeswoman Marina Wilson. China remains the top source of immigration to Canada with 42,000 immigrants in 2005, followed by India (33,000) and the Philippines (17,000), but the number of applications logged signals an imminent reversal, she said, as applications filed now are processed over the next five years.