Canada falls behind in integrating immigrants

When Anu Mathur immigrated to Canada in 2010, the thing she remembers most clearly about the first few months here was the lack of support.

“It’s the loneliness I can recall,” she says. “It took me a long time to overcome.”

Mathur says a major shock was being away from her family.

“Family support was something that was just over the phone and it was very minimal,” she says.

Mathur came from India in 2010 and is now working as a registered nurse in Ottawa.

She says having family support would have completely changed her experience as a newcomer.

Under the former Conservative government, family reunification was severely restricted. In 2011, the Conservative government placed a two-year freeze on applications for parent and grandparent sponsorship.

Once reinstated, only 5,000 new applications per year were accepted. The maximum age of dependants sponsored to Canada was also lowered to 19 from 22.

In May of this year, the Migration Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) revealed Canada dropped out of the top five countries in integrating immigrants. MIPEX, a Brussels-based think-tank, rates and compares countries based on their immigration polices.

MIPEX bases the ranking on 167 indicators, assessing how government policies treat immigrants in eight areas: labour market mobility, family reunification, education, political participation, permanent residence, access to nationality, anti-discrimination and health.

Sweden and Portugal are leading in the ranking. Both these countries provide fair access to citizenship and have strong anti-discrimination laws.

In Canada, restrictions to family reunification were cited as one of the key reasons for the drop in ranking.

While known internationally as a country of equal opportunities for immigrants, the MIPEX result shows these small restrictions have set Canada behind.

Family reunification

The new Liberal government has promised to loosen the restrictions on family reunification.

It has also promised to double the budget for family class immigration processing and increase the age of dependants allowed to come to Canada to 22.

Specifically, the Liberal government has pledged to double the applications for parent and grandparent sponsorship per year to 10,000.

Usha George, a professor at Ryerson University specializing in newcomer settlement and integration, says the presence of parents and grandparents can be crucial when settling in a new country.

“Quite a number of times these parents and grandparents actually provide essential services like child care,” she says. “The cost of child care here is so prohibitive that the mother ends up staying home.”

George says the availability of child care allows newcomers to enter the job market, helping the process of integration.

Regina Roldan, a personal support worker in Ottawa, immigrated to Canada from the Philippines 17 years ago.

Regina Roldan, 55 
[Photo © Deqa Ahmed]

Roldan, 55, agrees that family support to help with child care would make settlement easier for newcomers.

“You can work peacefully, you don’t have to worry about your children,” she says.

When Roldan arrived in Canada, she experienced a lot of difficulty finding work while trying to care for her daughter. She says she ended up sending her daughter back to the Philippines and bringing her back to Canada when she was able to find work.

Economic immigrants

However, Andrew Griffith, former director general at Citizenship and Immigration Canada, says the immigration system under Stephen Harper’s government did not significantly change integration patterns.

Instead, he says the former Conservative government simply shifted the way immigrants are selected.

The Conservative government placed a greater emphasis on economic immigration, while shifting the focus away from the family class and refugees, says Griffith.

While family class immigrants arrive in Canada based on sponsorship, economic immigrants can come to Canada under a variety of programs that assess their skills or employability.

But Griffith says the foundation of Canada’s immigration system did not change under Harper.

“Canada still remained under the Harper government, an immigration-based country,” he says.

Howard Duncan, executive head of the Metropolis Project, says the changes the Harper government made to the immigration system were simply administrative. The Metropolis Project is a public policy research group that focuses on migration and immigration integration.

Duncan says the Conservatives tweaked the immigration system to ensure individuals selected would best match the conditions of the labour market. This was done through the creation of the express entry system in January.

The express entry system looks to match the abilities of highly skilled immigrants to the needs of the Canadian economy.

“The idea that immigration should serve economic goals primarily is nothing new, it’s been like that for 100 years,” says Duncan.

But Dana Wagner, senior research associate at the Global Diversity Exchange, says the former Conservative government’s focus on economic immigrants disregarded the usefulness of family class immigrants.

“Part of this market-driven model is really focusing on selection and who we bring into Canada,” she says. “Family members aren’t always considered as valuable contributors to our workforce and to our economy even though they are.”

Still, Wagner says it is unfair to assume the Conservatives left the immigration system damaged since supporting economic immigrants is also important.

“The Conservatives do deserve credit,” she says. “They did a lot of good, too.”

Employment

The issue of family reunification aside, Wagner says employment is one of the biggest indicators of settlement. According to Wagner, employment for newcomers is a key problem the Liberals have yet to address.

“There’s this dark underbelly to Canada’s immigration system and it is that we have a race dimension to poverty,” she says. “It is often new immigrants and women who are visible minorities who perform worse in the labour market.”

Moving forward, Wagner says the Liberals need to develop a national immigrant and refugee employment strategy.

Regina Roldan agrees that the Liberals still have a lot of work to do.

“They make promises with these things like immigrants, refugees, health care,” she says. “I just hope the Liberals will not forget their promises because that is the reason we Canadians voted for them.”

Header Photo © Deqa Ahmed