1. The New Immigration Bill in Canada in the year 2000. (1 April 2000)

The Immigration and Citizenship Minister, Elinor Caplan, has introduced a new Bill to amend the Immigration Law in Canada on 6th April, 2000. Many of the new changes are for the better and will improve the procedures. The Minister and the Liberal Government have declared the intention to increase the inflow of immigrants to Canada from about 180,000 presently to about 290,000, which is about 1% of the Canadian population. The Federal Cabinet sets the targets each year for the immigrants that would be allowed in the country each year. The immigration is intended to reach 290,000 in a population of about 29 million in Canada. How the immigration officials stationed in many countries making many decisions on many prospective immigrants can come up with the correct number remains a mystery. It is not surprising that in these few years, the vast bureaucracy of the Immigration Department has fallen far below the targets set by the government. The fact that the government has set aside additional funds will certainly help to alleviate the numbers problem.

Canada, with vast expanse of land, needs more immigration to support its aging population than to fill the empty space. Like other economically advanced countries, the Canadian population expects to live longer life spans. This puts a strain on the Pension Plans supported by the younger working age persons. If Canada does not increase immigration of younger working families, the standards of living can decline. The need for Canada to have the immigrants in the working age group is reflected in the highest points being awarded to those in the age group of 22 to 44. The flow of immigrants into Canada of educated and working age people is tempered by the outflow of Canadians to countries like the United States, where the present economic boom, bolstered by the technological wizardry, is luring Canadians by offering high paying jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities, which only a larger, booming economy can offer.

Canada sets out to achieve the mission to attract the “best and brightest” of the world by further restricting the refugee class of immigrants and their present rights of appeal and correcting some of the old rules of selecting the immigrants by rigid classifications of occupations. A large compendium of classifications of occupations in Canada was designed to classify and describe just about every possible job that is performed in Canada. The selection process is centered around choosing the candidates abroad from countries which have a less developed economy. The local Canadian human resources offices in various parts of Canada prescribed to the immigration office the jobs that required personnel. The Canadian employers who are left out of the process of selection of immigrants demand "Canadian Experience," which most newcomers by definition do not have. To add to that problem, the professional bodies, which are controlled by the provinces, do not accept foreign qualifications. It is, therefore, not surprising that there are Ph. D.s and qualified engineers who drive taxis in Toronto and work at menial jobs they were never trained for. This results in enormous loss to Canadian economy as well as self-esteem to the immigrant.

The new rules, hopefully when proclaimed by regulations, will alleviate some of these problems by having selection criteria for new immigrants which will emphasize the education of the immigrants and their “transferable” skills for occupations in Canada. The new rules will permit the students who have completed their education in Canada to apply for immigration while they are within the country, instead of going back to their home country and applying from there as required by present rules. Canada has one of the highest standards of living in the world and is considered by the United Nations for several years as the best country to live in. Canada needs improvement in the immigration procedures, which will attract the best and the brightest from the world to contribute to achieve a higher standard of living in Canada and fulfill the mission of the Canadian Society to create a society which is democratic, humane, and compassionate to all groups of people.

After the shiploads of Chinese refugee claimants arrived on Canadian shores last year, the government was under pressure to tighten the refugee claims rules to stem the flow of entry into Canada from the back door. Canada has a high standard of living and a strong reputation for being a haven for refugees and it has led to people arriving to Canada with flimsy refugee claims. The new legislation, if passed into law, will create fines of up to $1 million and life in prison for ship captains bringing illegal immigrants to Canada. In dealing with the Refugee Claim Rules, the government may be overreacting to the Chinese boats arriving in British Columbia last year. In curtailing the appeals and restricting the “criminals” from gaining entry as refugees, there will no doubt be marginal cases of genuine refugees who will be sent out to go back to their country and face the very regimes they were trying to escape. Many genuine refugees in their home countries languish in jails as "criminals" because the judicial process in some countries is subject to the political whims of the ethnic leaders. Religious minorities in some countries are more likely to end up in jails under various offences simply because they do not belong to the mainstream religion of that country. The refugees deserve a compassionate and humane acceptance in a small world that has no longer new lands to settle.

For refugees, it is often difficult, if not an impossible task, to obtain a passport legitimately in their home country. The government in control in such countries will not issue a passport. If the persecuted person appears before a government official, he is likely to be apprehended. So, he is usually forced into obtaining a passport "illegally" to travel. An “illegally” obtained passport to enter Canada will define him as a criminal in Canada and will not be able to gain entry under the present Canadian Law.

The changes proposed in Bill C-31 are only proposed legislation as of April 2000 and the bill will be debated in the House of Commons and in the Committee before it is proclaimed as law.bMinister Elinor Caplan will have the task of carrying it through the Canadian Parliament. She has the political determination and has the political experience to bring the bill into a law. Before being in Federal Politics, she was a Minister in the Ontario Government. She has the support of the Liberal Government and the minorities and she gets along well with them. The Canadian economy is booming after a long recession in the nineties and the GDP is growing at unprecedented rates. The political climate and the Canadian public opinion will be favourable to pass the bill into a law. Iran now accounts for about 7,000 immigrants coming to Canada each year and 7th on the list of the major sources of immigration for Canada. This is time for the Iranian community to air their views on immigration to the Minister. The Iranian community is settling well in Canada and beginning to play an important role in the political life of Canada.

South Asians of Indian origin have begun to play an important role in the politics of Canada. Ujjal Dhosanj, who was born in India, is today the Premier of British Columbia. Mr. Herb Dhaliwal, who is of Indian origin, is the present Federal Minister of Fisheries. There are other South Asian Members of Parliament in Ottawa, like Gurbax Mahli. The Federal Minister Elinor Caplan knows the South Asian community well. The South Asians make up almost 25% of the total immigration now to Canada and provide important skills to Canada particularly in the computer field. South Asians have in the last 25 years succeeded well in many different endeavors of Canadian life ranging from doctors and lawyers to scientists and entrepreneurs. This is the opportunity for the South Asians to make their voices heard and participate in the challenge to make their chosen homeland in Canada, a better country to live in through the debate that will ensue on the new changes in immigration.