SERGIO R. KARAS QUOTED IN GLOBE AND MAIL EDITORIAL ON CANADIAN EXPERIENCE CLASS

Reforms to Canada Experience Class are sensible - The Globe and Mail

September 16, 2012

Reforms to Canada Experience Class are sensible

Reforms to Canada Experience Class are sensible

Ottawa's decision to simplify an immigration program which allows international students with work experience to apply to become permanent residents is a sensible reform.
Canada must compete with Australia, the U.S. and other countries for highly skilled workers, and this program is an effective way to retain them.
The Canada Experience Class used to require applicants already in Canada to have two years of work experience to qualify, but the government is proposing this be changed to one year to facilitate a quicker path to residency.
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced yesterday that Canada just welcomed the 20,000th immigrant, an Indian who completed a Masters degree in Business Administration from the University of Toronto, to enter through this stream.
"The program acts as a graduated license that rewards those who have spent time and money studying and working in Canada," notes Sergio Karas, an immigration lawyer. One year of work experience should be a high enough bar.
And yet, even as the government works to woo these highly qualified newcomers, it should be mindful of the impact of brain drain on developing countries, including the Philippines and Mexico. If too many people who get an education abroad abandon their homelands, then how will emerging economies ever progress, and benefit from the expertise and technical capacity of their overseas workers? Programs facilitating an exchange of knowledge between the north and the south, and even allowing immigrants to temporarily return home as leaders, are ideas worth considering.
Another area of concern is the quality of education offered by some community colleges operating in Canada, which aim to take advantage of the higher tuition fees international students pay.
But notwithstanding these potentially troublesome areas, the Canada Experience Class is still an efficient and innovative way to ensure easy entry for highly skilled immigrants. It does not make sense to send such applicants to the back of the line.

GLOBE AND MAIL EDITORIAL QUOTES SERGIO KARAS ON IMMIGRATION SERIES

Canada must actively recruit the best and brightest immigrants - The Globe and Mail


May 4, 2012

Canada must actively recruit the best and brightest immigrants

From Saturday's Globe and Mail

Ottawa's reforms are a good start


The world has changed, and when it comes to its immigration system, Canada is not changing fast enough to compete in it. It is no longer possible to sit back languidly, as the best and the brightest queue on its doorstep. The global market for human capital is voracious. There may always be migrants wanting to come to Canada, but they may not be the ones that Canada needs. People with options are less and less likely to tolerate hidebound and cumbersome immigration process, waiting as long as eight years to have their applications processed. If you are ambitious, if you are skilled, if you are entrepreneurial, if you are educated, if you are impatient for success, you will look elsewhere. Increasingly, elsewhere is looking better.

Countries like Australia can now fast-track applications for permanent residency in less than a year. Nor is the competition coming only from developed countries. With growing prosperity at home, not every upwardly mobile citizen of China, India and Brazil sees re-locating overseas as the only path to success. In fact, the Chinese and Indian governments are using investment, tax and visa incentives to draw the highly educated children of Chinese and Indian immigrants to their ancestral homelands.

To ensure Canada remains attractive to the sharpest minds, the keenest entrepreneurs and greatest innovators, the country must move beyond an inefficient selection system and long waits. Why should people put their careers on hold, in order to come to Canada? "International competition is starting to heat up for the best immigrants, the Frank Stronachs, the people who will drive the economy," notes Arthur Sweetman, an economist at McMaster University.

A new Gallup poll shows that Canada is the third most popular destination for people looking to relocate, with the U.S. first, and the U.K. second. Some might say that top three isn't bad. But Canada fell a spot from 2010, the global survey of 452,199 adults in 151 countries shows. Despite the recession, the U.S. remains by far the world's most desired destination for prospective migrants. Why isn't Canada in first place?

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has enacted long-overdue reforms to streamline the selection system for economic immigrants. More points will be given for younger people with language proficiency who have prearranged employment.

He also plans to tackle the backlog by closing 100,000 files involving 300,000 people. This is a necessary measure - but one with consequences. It puts a stain on Canada's credibility, and more reforms are necessary to ensure the problem doesn't recur.

There is a need for a different kind of immigration officer to be sent to Canada's missions around the world: not someone with a shiny badge, armed with a long list of bureaucratic time-consuming checks that may end up impeding people with desirable educations, entrepreneurial instincts and in-demand skills from immigrating to Canada. Instead they should be people whose job it is to find and recruit talent. Canada needs headhunters.

Canada needs to open the doors for the right kind of migrant. Faster processing times would enable Canada to take advantage of global cyclical downturns. The current unemployment rate for Spaniards under age 25 is 50 per cent, the overall rate in the country is 25 per cent. Spain has an army of highly literate, technologically savvy people sitting idle, people who could, in some cases, literally walk in and fill vacant jobs here in the hi-tech, telecommunications, mining and petroleum sectors.

Instead of having a system flexible enough to seize on such opportunities, we have immigration lawyers with stories of clients - such as a couple from South Africa with MBAs - who become so frustrated, they simply give up on Canada.

Mr. Kenney is trying. Ottawa has expanded the provincial-nominee category, which favours immigrants with prearranged employment. However, the model has some weaknesses: Newcomers entering through the nominee stream are also less educated, and have lower salaries over the long term, than those who enter through the federal points system. This category of workers remains crucial to Canada's overall program, but it will not suffice.

Ottawa must do more to ensure newcomers can convert their foreign credentials and job experience. It must address discrimination in the labour market, and gate-keeping by professional associations. But first and foremost, Canada needs to change its mentality around immigration. It should be designed as much around whom Canada wants, as who wants Canada.

It is becoming a seller's market. As Sergio Karas, a Toronto immigration lawyer, says, "People from developing countries are no longer automatically migrating to Canada." Canada must learn to compete. Educated professionals, entrepreneurs, leaders, will not waste their most productive years trying just to get through the door. They know where they are wanted, and if they're not wanted here they will pack up their bags and go to where they are, taking with them all their potential and promise.

SERGIO R. KARAS QUOTED IN GLOBE AND MAIL EDITORIAL

I am quoted in today's Globe and Mail Editorial.

Canadian immigrants must support relatives they sponsor - The Globe and Mail

June 13, 2011

Canadian immigrants must support relatives they sponsor

From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

Supreme Court of Canada ruling is a welcome one

To maintain the integrity of Canada's immigration program, families who sponsor their relatives cannot renege on their legal undertakings to support them. Wives, parents and grandparents cannot arrive in Canada under the family reunification program, and then start collecting social assistance. That would invite abuse, shift the cost to the public purse, and unduly burden the system.

The Supreme Court of Canada's unanimous ruling that the federal and provincial governments have the right to recoup their losses from sponsors is a welcome one. "The risk of a rogue relative properly lies on the sponsor, not the taxpayer," wrote Mr. Justice Ian Binnie.

Canada's immigration program is already generous, allowing permanent residents to sponsor their spouses, children, parents and grandparents, as long as they support them for three years. In contrast, in the U.S., only citizens may initiate family sponsorships.

Three of the eight sponsors who brought the appeal argued they were victims of exploitation, and were abandoned by their spouses. However, the Supreme Court noted that all sponsors sign undertakings agreeing to be responsible for their spouses, regardless of changes in circumstances. "This is a wake-up call for sponsors to carefully consider the financial implications of a possible breakdown of a relationship," says Sergio Karas, a Toronto immigration lawyer.

The government, of course, must behave responsibly, and promptly notify sponsors if they are in default, so debts don't accumulate without their knowledge. The government can also negotiate the timing of repayment, if sponsors lose their jobs or face other temporary hardships. In Ontario, this principle of fairness is already written into the policy. It notes that certain cases of default are not referred for collection, including those involving domestic violence, or other extraordinary circumstances.

But being duped by a deceitful partner is not an excuse. Sponsors must weigh carefully their legal and contractual obligations before they agree to support another person. Once the relative arrives, there is no escaping responsibility.