Announcement of Foreign Credentials Referral Office

Engineers Canada welcomes the Government of Canada's commitment to improving employment outcomes for foreign trained professionals through the creation of the new Foreign Credential ReferralOffice. "We are ready to work with the federal government to help make the new office successful as we have found through our research that complete, accurate and early information and referrals are key to successful settlement," says Marie Lemay, P.Eng., Chief Executive Officer of EngineersCanada. "A single, central source of information is crucial to an immigrant's success." Engineers Canada and its members have significant experience working with international engineering graduates (IEGs). In 2001, of the 44 percent of skilled workers who identified an intended occupation at the time of immigration, 63 percent indicated engineering. Engineers Canada and its provincial and territorial licensing bodies have made substantial progress in helping integrate IEGs through the licensing process. The effort began with From Consideration to Integration (FC2I), a three-phase HRSDC-funded initiative designed to integrate IEGs into the Canadian profession and workforce without compromising public safety or lowering professional standards. Engineers Canada and the provincial and territorial licensing bodies are now implementing FC2I's recommendations.

Among the accomplishments of FC2I has been the creation of the International Institutions and Degrees Database (IIDD), to provide an accurate, current database of recognized international engineering degrees in progress; the Internationally-Educated Engineers Qualification (IEEQ) programat the University of Manitoba, to assist IEGs in meeting qualifications requirements; and the Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers language project, to develop appropriate language benchmarks for newcomers for use in engineering workplaces, courses and bridging programs. Engineers Canada supports the creation of the FCR office as another tool to assist IEGs. We are looking forward to working with the government as they develop their overseas strategy. In that context, we believe that:* educational qualifications of IEGs should be assessed by licensing bodies for Canadian equivalency as early as possible in the immigration and settlement process* the agency must not duplicate processes already in place * the agency should respect provincial and territorial jurisdictions and work with the licensing bodies to link assessments to licensure"We look forward to the government offering a single source resource to potential immigrants so that they can make informed decisions prior to immigrating to Canada," says Lemay.

For further information: Marc Bourgeois, Director of Communications, Engineers Canada, (613) 868-0267

Broken Promise on Foreign Credentials Recognition

The Conservative government's growing list of broken election promises expanded today with the scrapping of its plan for a Canadian Agency for Assessment and Recognition of Foreign Credentials, Liberal Citizenship and Immigration Critic Omar Alghabra said today. "With today's announcement, the Conservative government has broken a key election promise to new Canadians, converting their proposed foreign credentials agency into a referral office that will do nothing more than refer new Canadians to the provincial offices that have always recognized foreign credentials," said Mr. Alghabra. "This referral office will only duplicate the work of the In-Canada Portal, which was established by the previous Liberal government," added Mr. Alghabra. During the 2006 Election, the Conservative government promised to "create an agency for the assessment and recognition of credentials, to provide pre-assessment of foreign credentials and experience," but over a year later have now decided to downgrade this agency to a referral office at Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

"Even worse, this announcement is geared only towards potential immigrants currently outside of Canada. It does absolutely nothing for the tens of thousands of people who have already made their way to Canada, many of whom are now citizens, who are trained but cannot get their credentials recognized," said Mr. Alghabra. Statistics Canada has recently confirmed that our labour and population growth will soon depend exclusively on immigration, so ensuring the successful integration of immigrants is essential for the future success of Canada. "The Conservatives lack of a real plan ignores one of the most important challenges our country will face in the coming years," said Mr. Alghabra. "Unless we can rationalize the process for recognizing foreign credentials for professions and skilled labour we run the risk of ongoing labour shortages in critical areas like healthcare and construction." In April 2005, the previous Liberal government announced a commitment of $263 million to launch the Internationally-Trained Workers Initiative, to improve the integration of immigrants and internationally-trained Canadians into the work force. This plan was an important step in tackling the foreign credential recognition challenge. "It is a shame that this narrow minded Conservative government does not understand the tremendous opportunity to the Canadian economy that addressing the foreign credentials recognition challenge presents," said Mr. Alghabra.

Help for foreign professionals for accredition

by: Merita Ilo

Ajay Raukela is one of hundreds of thousands of immigrants who arrive in Canada every year hoping to be able to work in their professions. The 36-year-old mechanical engineer, who quit his job as deputy-general manager at an automotive plant in India last month before coming to Canada, said he has been unable to find out where "good jobs" are advertised in this country. "The best job I've been offered, that's somewhat related to what I used to do, is at a car shop . . . to change oil," he said. It is people like Raukela that the government hopes to help through the Foreign Credentials Referral Office - a new project that promises to help foreign-trained professionals have their credentials assessed and recognized even before they arrive in the country. "Too often I run into people who spent two to three years waiting to come to Canada," said Diane Finley, the minister of citizenship and immigration who announced the new project Thursday in Toronto. "Then they come here and it takes them two years to find out where to get their credentials assessed . . . then they find out they have to go to school for two years, by which time they can't afford it," she said. The project, which is expected to cost the government $32.2 million in the first five years, will help newcomers "navigate through the complex system of foreign credential recognition," Finley said.

The RFCO's branch offices have opened in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Halifax and Winnipeg and the government plans to have them up and running at 320 locations across the country by fall 2007. In an effort to attract foreign skilled workers the government has opened similar offices in China, India and the Philippines - a pilot project that Finley said might be expanded if results are positive. The services offered at the RFCO's offices include in-person and online information to perspective immigrants on how to get their credentials recognized, as well as detailed information on Canada's labour market and job availability. A new website - www.credentials.gc.ca - and a new search engine called "Working in Canada" have been set up to help newcomers identify occupations for which they might be qualified. The website lists all regulatory bodies in charge of recognizing those credentials as well as information on foreign affiliates of Canadian post-secondary institutions where newcomers can get their credentials assessed before they come to the country. Service Canada will also provide information to immigrants already in Canada by telephone at 1-888-854-1805.

Finley also announced $18.8 million over the next four years in federal funding for several provinces to enhance their online information about settling and working across the country. Ontario, which receives more than half of Canada's immigrants each year, will receive $10 million, followed by British Columbia with $2.6 million and Alberta with $1.2 million. Wai Young, the head of the Canadian Immigrant Settlement Sector Alliance, which represents 450 immigrant and refugee agencies, called the new project a step in the right direction. "Newcomers will now be able to actually go to one website in stead of surfing around," said Young, the daughter of a Chinese immigrant who came to Canada 40 years ago. But she urged the government to do more, because providing information to newcomers does not mean they are actually getting a job, she said. If the government does not help immigrants and refugees "unlock their potential" the future for Canada, where the population is aging and fertility rates are dropping, will be grim, Young said. She said lack of people and skilled workers have already forced some business in Alberta to reduce their hours of operations, while in Newfoundland whole communities have boarded up the houses and moved to the cities. Unable to get "the good job" he was looking for, Raukela, the Indian immigrant, attended Finley's announcement Thursday. Unsure what to make of the new government project, he said he would check out the website. "I am not giving up," he said. "I'll continue to search for a job as an engineer . . . until the savings run out," he said.

Canada unearths an Indian scam

Citizenship and Immigration Canada officials have discovered 42 wedding albums submitted with 42 different citizenship applications in which the guests in the photos were all the same. All the weddings had supposedly taken place at the same Wedding Palace in Chandigarh in India's Punjab region. "You'd have to believe that 42 weddings had the same guests," says Mendel Green, president of Green and Spiegel, who has been practising immigration law for 42 years. Seeing albums with all the same wedding guests and the same wedding hall is something with which his firm is familiar." Yes, people have brought fake photos to us," says Ravi Jain, a partner with the firm. "We have seen people posing in the photos. We have seen same wedding halls, same guests over and over again." Jain says some people are so bold to admit they have a "paper marriage." "They do so largely to get a visa because they can't qualify as skilled workers and the only way they can qualify is under the family class," he says.

Liberal MP Roy Cullen, who has 29,000 South Asians in his Etobicoke North riding, says many Indo-Canadians in his riding have expressed concerns over this "abuse" of the system. "They are telling me it is becoming like an epidemic and it is being seriously abused and so sometime back I spoke with former immigration minister Monte Solberg. I suggested to him - and I am soon going to write to his successor Diane Finley - that immigration rules could be amended to issue spousal visas on a probation of say three to five years and if at the end of this period the couple is still in marital relationship, they should be given permanent landed status." In addition to people getting illegal immigration status with these phoney marriages, Jain says Canadian immigration officers have also started "over-scrutinizing all family class applications, genuine marriages." "I have one case involving a pregnant woman and they are refusing that case," Jain says. "This woman in Canada was divorced before. She went to India to marry a guy who was never married before. She got pregnant by him. "Immigration has refused a family class visa to the Indian person, arguing an Indian, who has never been married before, would never marry a divorced woman." Immigration officials believe that this Indian man must have paid the Canadian woman $10,000 to $15,000 just to get the Canadian visa.

"That's the theory of the Canadian visa officer who refuses to give him the visa, which is ridiculous," Jain says. "It's just awful and doesn't send a good message to the Indian community in Canada that people are using women in the community basically like the prostitutes." Toronto's Ramesh Maharaj married an Indian woman, Sudha Arora. They were both divorced and, according to their own beliefs, part of their Hindu religious marriage vows, didn't perform Saptapadi (taking seven steps round the sacred fire) a second time. It was not termed a legal marriage. Stephen Green, also an immigration attorney at Green and Spiegel, dealt with one case in which the Indo-Canadian woman was slightly physically handicapped. She married an Indian man with no physical limitations. That too was termed a phony marriage: "How can an Indian man ever marry a physically handicapped woman?" These are two extremes. "Yes, absolutely phony marriages are taking place largely to get visa and those cases should be investigated and refused," Jain says. "We know Immigration is aware of this." Statistics show about 60,000 Canadians marry overseas each year and file international spousal sponsorships. About 15% are rejected by Canada Citizenship and Immigration. In the case of India, the rate is 23%.

Report on Problems of Immigrants Published

by Neil Armstrong

While most new immigrants agree that life in Canada has lived up to their expectations, many indicate that their greatest difficulty is finding an adequate job (46 per cent), even after four years in Canada. Many also list learning English or French as a difficulty (26 per cent). Recently, Statistics Canada released two new reports from the third and final wave of the 'Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada'. It was designed to study how newly arrived immigrants adjust over time to living in Canada. Eighty-four per cent of new immigrants were positive about their decision to come to Canada; 32 per cent settled permanently for the quality of life; 20 per cent to be close to family and friends; 18 per cent for future prospects for their family in Canada; and nine per cent for the peaceful nature of the country. Some 12,000 immigrants aged 15 and over were interviewed between April 2001 and May 2002, about six months after their arrival. In 2003, about 9,300 of the same immigrants were interviewed again, about two years after their arrival. Two years later in 2005, about 7,700 of the same immigrants were interviewed a third time, four years after their arrival. Although 15 per cent of economic immigrants - those selected for their education and professional skills - reported that their expectations of life in Canada had consistently been exceeded, only one third of family-class immigrants and refugees reported a similar feeling.

Experienced problems
The study found that between seven and 24 months after arrival, 62 per cent of all new immigrants aged 25-44 had looked for a job,and that during the period, between 25-48 months after arrival, 53 per cent had done so. The majority reported that they experienced problems or difficulties when searching for employment. The difficulties cited were lack of Canadian work experience (50 per cent); lack of contacts in the job market (37 per cent); lack of recognition of foreign experience (37 per cent); lack of recognition of foreign qualifications (35 per cent); and, language barriers (32 per cent). In Ontario last month, a group of new immigrants gave the province's new Fairness Commissioner, Dr. Jean Augustine, an earful about the lack of recognition of their foreign experience/qualifications and the requirement for them to have Canadian experience. New Democratic Party (NDP) MPs Bill Siksay (Burnaby-Douglas) and Olivia Chow (Trinity-Spadina) are calling on the federal government to review the current immigration system, especially the selection process of skilled applicants. "We are breaking a promise to new Canadians when they are unable to use their education and work experience in Canada," said Siksay, NDP's citizenship and immigration critic. "This creates serious problems, including the need for secure employment, steady income, and a stable quality of life. We must not turn our backs on immigrants at one of the most difficult times in their lives, the period when they are working to establish themselves and their families in Canada." Among the immigrants who were admitted to Canada in the economic category, almost half (45 per cent) said finding employment was the greatest difficulty they faced while 15 per cent said it was learning English or French. Twenty-six per cent of refugees said finding employment was their greatest difficulty, and 30 per cent said it was learning English or French.

Languages
The second report - 'Knowledge of Official Languages among New Immigrants: How Important is it in the Labour Market?' - analyses the relationship between knowledge of the two languages and the chances of immigrants to find an 'appropriate' job. The survey showed that the employment rate of immigrants aged 25-44 increased with higher levels of self-reported proficiency in spoken English for each of the survey's three waves. Immigrants who reported that their level of spoken English was good or very good were more likely to have a high-skill job, a job in the intended field, a job similar to one held before emigrating, and a job related to training or education. It found that they also had higher wages, compared to immigrants whose spoken English level was not as good. This was true six months, two years and four years after immigrants' arrival in Canada. However, the relationship between the self-reported ability to speak French and the chances of having an 'appropriate' job was not as strong, nor as persistent, the report indicated. In Quebec, the hourly earnings of immigrants who spoke English very well were generally higher, regardless of the level of French, than those of immigrants who did not speak either official language well.