Nowhere were the international repercussions of this catastrophe more acutely felt than in Canada. Before the earthquake more than 100,000 citizens of Haitian descent lived in Canada, primarily in Quebec, and a further 6,000 in Haiti itself. It was with this shared political and cultural history in mind that our country initially led global efforts for emergency relief. Perhaps most importantly, Citizenship and Immigration Canada enacted an unprecedented plan to expedite Permanent Residency processing for thousands of Haitians waiting to receive word of their applications. Unfortunately, though this plan held the promise of reuniting countless families stricken by tragedy, it has failed to fully deliver on this promise.

Traditionally, family class sponsorship – the sponsoring of one’s close family in Permanent Residency applications – is a long process that can take one or more years. Despite critical losses of staff and infrastructure in Haiti, Canadian government officials pledged to expand the process in several ways. Firstly, Quebecois Haitians were allowed to broaden sponsorship restrictions to include adult siblings, nieces and nephews, and aunts and uncles. Secondly, adoption proceedings already in queue were immediately ratified, allowing Canadians to bring 217 children to their new homes within days of the quake. Additional measures were put in place to allow Haitians in Canada temporarily to extend their stay and secure open work permits.

These measures were initially greeted with praise from local and international communities, as well as hope from within Haiti. In the weeks following the disaster, the Canadian embassy saw hundreds of hopeful immigrants crowd its doors, passports in hand. Educated Haitians pledged to contribute to Canadian society. “I am a marketing professional, I speak English and French, and my family is in Canada. I think Canada should welcome me,” said Jean-Louis Claude Stuart as he stood near the embassy gates.

Two years later, it is doubtful that Jean-Louis’ hopes were realized. A month after the earthquake, only 22 permanent residency applications had been processed. Citing reduced efficiency and a backlog of refugee claimants, Canadian officials have been unable to date to accommodate the high volume of requests for expedited processing. Quebec Minister of Immigration Kathleen Weil stated that over 3,000 Haitians have arrived in Montreal each year under the auspices of the expedited program, but that a further 5,000 are still waiting to receive word on their applications. Detractors have criticized the immigration program as classist, arguing that the standard income requirements of sponsoring family members should have been waived for Haitians, many of whom are working class and thus did not qualify. “They’re saying if your family has enough money, you can bring them here. Does that mean […] the people with more money were in more necessity than others? What kind of priority is that?” stated a Haitian resident of Montreal.

In the face of these setbacks, the Canadian government has been keen to underscore its continued commitment to Haitians in both countries. The Canadian International Development Agency is quick to point out that Canada has pledged $1 billion to assist in further development (though much of this figure encompasses debt relief and aid already pledged before the quake). On January 10th, 2012, the government announced a new $20 million effort to relocate some 20,000 refugees from the area surrounding the rubble of the presidential palace in Port-au-Prince.

Compared to foreign aid, expediting immigration procedures has the ability to directly transform not only the lives of qualified Haitians, but those of their friends and family members as well. It is also a much more transparent and straightforward process, requiring none of the extensive oversight of funds needed when conducting work in a developing country. Moreover, the need to wade through international red tape, coordinate with global organizations, and risk uncertain returns on one’s contributions is greatly diminished. Indeed, the Haitian population has already proved to be a vital part of Canada’s cultural mosaic, and new arrivals would be welcomed into a well assimilated and established community. In this sense, there is the chance for a high degree of positive return on the time and money needed to accelerate application processing.

Canada already has intricate and refined immigration systems in place. To not take advantage of these in order to assist eligible Haitians runs the risk of appearing apathetic in the public sphere. This will not go unnoticed by Canadians, who through donations have shown their continued concern for Haiti. Moreover, by reaffirming its ties with Haiti, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, Canada could continue to position itself as a leader of economic and social development throughout the Americas. If Canada acted more effectively on its promise to welcome Haitians to Canada, it would not only gain respect of the international community, but the lasting gratitude of thousands of prospective residents.

Most will also agree that our dependence on newcomers will intensify in the years ahead. Our aging population continues to retire in ever larger numbers. Already, we face specific labour shortages in different parts of the country and this phenomenon will expand, both by location and industry, going forward. Whichever way you cut it, our continued prosperity depends to some extent on workers who are not yet in Canada. How they come here is worth consideration.

Until recently, Canadian immigration policy targeted economic immigrants (permanent residents) to fuel our country’s growth. However, in the past few years a significant shift has taken place. Starting in 2006, and for every year since, Canada has admitted more temporary foreign workers than economic immigrants. We are now choosing to fill labour shortages with guest workers ahead of permanent residents. This change in direction will have consequences.

There are big differences between immigrants and foreign temporary workers. Immigrants come to Canada with the idea of laying down roots. They are committed and become part of the Canadian fabric as they make their way towards citizenship and full participation in our society. Guest workers are brought into the country and stay here legally only as long as their Canadian employer wants them. While it’s true that some foreign workers may qualify to upgrade their status to permanent residency, the majority of them never get the chance. Many work permits are valid for a maximum of four years and then guest workers are gone… or they’ve gone underground.

What’s happened is that our government has delegated the selection of newcomers to the private sector and more particularly to employers. The problem is that “what’s good for General Motors isn’t necessarily good for Canada.” Companies owe a duty to and look out for the interests of their owners. They like cheap labour and often think short term. Serving the public interest? That’s what good governments are supposed to do.

Is that a bad thing? I guess the answer depends on whom you ask. It’s safe to say that Mayor Ford of Toronto and many of his supporters are not losing any sleep over this relatively recent downward trend. On the other hand you have to wonder what Toronto would look like today without the major influx of international and provincial migrants over the last 30 plus years. It’s difficult to imagine any metropolis retaining its world-class stature once it ceases to be a magnet for the best and brightest.

On a practical note, the funding that the federal government provides to Ontario to help settle new arrivals has and will be adjusted according to the province’s reduced intake. In 2009/10 the amount was $390 million. In 2010/11 the sum was reduced to $346 million and next year it is projected to be lower still, at $315 million. We’re not talking about “chicken feed” here.

Ontario’s Minister of Immigration has warned that the disappearance of cash will hurt newcomers to his province but it’s difficult to find fault in the federal government’s position that settlement allocations across Canada be based on the share of newcomers that provinces and territories are able to attract. Besides, since 2005 the federal government has increased its funding to the provinces for immigration settlement almost threefold. The average per-immigrant amount that the Canadian government invests to help immigrants in the provinces outside Quebec stands at almost $3,000. By the way, Quebec has negotiated a separate funding agreement with its federal counterpart and will receive, at a minimum, in excess of $5,000 for each immigrant who settles in that province next year.

I’ll tell you where Ontario does have a legitimate beef with Mr. Harper’s government. Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) is to blame for the decline of immigrants to Ontario by slowing down, almost to a crawl, the processing of permanent resident visa applications submitted under the Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) category prior to February 28, 2008. Most of those applicants were and are destined for Ontario. When they will arrive is anyone’s guess. CIC has indicated it hopes to work through the backlog by 2017… maybe.

This all happened because in 2008, the Federal Minister of Immigration gave himself the power to prioritize the processing of permanent resident applications. Promises were made that existing applications would not be affected. But as you won’t be shocked to learn, this commitment was not kept. CIC immediately began prioritizing applications under the various provincial nomination programs and the Canadian Experience Class while at the same time choking off the intake of new FSW applications and neglecting FSW applications already in queue.

Look, I hate to say I told you so but… see my October 2008 blog. Anyone, at the provincial level of government in Ontario who didn’t see this coming simply had his/her head buried in the sand. Section 95 of the Constitution Act, 1867 makes the provinces partners with the federal government in immigration matters. Our central government has no appetite for the continuation of an Ontario-centric immigration policy. They have made no secret of that. So again the first question for Ontarians to decide is whether or not they want to remain the destination of choice for new arrivals. If, on the whole, immigration is seen as positive then Ontario will have to do its own bidding to gain a fair share of the international talent beyond our borders.

Under the proposed regulations couples will have to prove that they have lived together for a defined period (two years or more according to the Minister) after arrival in Canada before the sponsored spouse gains permanent resident status. In my opinion, this new American-styled conditional visa will cause more harm than good.

The first thing to realize is that no fraud prevention system is infallible. Any process that has legal Canadian residency as its outcome is going to be the target of abuse, at least to some extent. At the present time we rely upon visa officers and intelligence officials at Canadian missions abroad to weed out fraudulent applicants and to uncover sophisticated schemes. From the accounts I’ve read they do an excellent job and if more of them are needed to control the fraud then that is where our limited resources should go. It will prove more cost effective to wage this fight before these con artists reach our shores. The government will tell us that they now plan to fight schemers both inside and outside of Canada, but human nature being what it is, more applicants about whom visa officers have doubts will be granted entry to Canada given that another line of defence supposedly exists. Remember that it costs a lot more to try and remove someone from Canada than to refuse them entry in the first place. Consider that the new regulations will supposedly contain an escape clause from the cohabitation requirement in the case of abuse. This will inevitably lead to a “he said, she said” fiasco that in the end will benefit mostly the lawyers. And what about the young bride who feels she has to tolerate an abusive relationship for a number of years because her spouse threatens to have her deported if she gets out of line? You want more complications? Canadian children might become part of the picture. Needless to say, enforcement officers and the courts will have their hands full.

There are two kinds of fraudulent schemes that occur. The first type usually involves cash and must have a willing Canadian co-conspirator as the sponsor in order to succeed. The government does not need to change the existing regulations in order to stop this illegal activity. Simply, increase the penalty on conviction to something closer to the U.S. model of a $250,000 fine and five year imprisonment. Publicize this well and watch the would-be Canadian participants vanish.

The second type of fraud involves unwitting Canadian sponsors and will likely prove more difficult to eradicate under the current law. In this scenario the unsuspecting Canadian gets taken advantage of by the sponsored spouse, who bolts the relationship soon after the coveted permanent resident card is obtained. These situations run the gamut; from culturally accepted arranged marriages to the lovestruck paunchy middle aged guy who believes that the young beautiful Eastern European babe whom he connected with online really wants to settle down with him in Sudbury. No doubt these relationships come with sadness for the Canadian sponsor. This is especially the case because sponsors sign an undertaking, valid for 3 years, in which they agree to reimburse the government in the event that their sponsored spouse ends up on welfare.

Still it makes more sense to beef up the existing safeguards than to embark on a new program that will surely cost significantly more to administer. Bringing the heavy lifting to Canada will only exacerbate tensions that already exists between Citizenship and Immigration Canada and the Canada Border Services Agency. I say punish corrupt Canadians meaningfully and educate naive Canadians about the potential pitfalls of spousal sponsorship. After that … buyer beware. Those who choose to engage in risky behaviour can’t expect the government to spend more taxpayers’ money than is necessary in order to extricate them from their precarious circumstances

In the end, I’ll be surprised if the new regulations don’t come into force. For the government the optics are too good to pass up. The regulations appear to fit with the Conservatives’ tough on crime agenda. Their core supporters will applaud any effort to straighten out the crookedness they perceive everywhere in the immigration system. And finally, the government gets to curry favour with some of the cultural communities, whose  votes they very much desire.

Just don’t say  I didn’t tell you so.

It’s been said that Ireland’s chief export is people and there is a tradition of Irish immigration to Toronto that dates back some 200 years. So it’s no surprise that an ailing Irish economy has given rise to an inpouring of work-hungry young men to Canada’s Queen City in search of better opportunities.

Make no mistake, this is all legal and above-board thanks to Canada’s generous International Experience visa program, which allows recipients to travel, work and live temporarily in Canada. And although this particular visa cannot be extended beyond one year it can, under the right circumstances, morph into Canadian permanent residency. If you are interested in learning more about the International Experience Canada visa program you can check out the latest edition of CICNews.

By all accounts this is a “win-win” situation. The newspaper reports that virtually all of the Irish visa holders find work within days of their arrival in Canada. And as far as Citizenship and Immigration Canada is concerned, this must all be good because since 2008 Ottawa has doubled the number of these visas offered to Irish citizens. About 5,000 will be issued this year.

Two observations come to mind. The first has to do with the commentary section that followed the Globe and Mail story. What readers had to say was overwhelmingly positive. A few examples follow:

“Welcome to the Irish!!! Come one, come all!!!”

“Welcome to Canada. May you have a wonderful life in our great country.”

“Canada needs immigration. It is only smart to try and bring in immigrants that need less costly support to get them started.”

Usually, newspaper articles that focus on immigration get a somewhat mixed response from those who bother to post their opinions. A common theme centers on new arrivals taking jobs that would otherwise go to Canadians. And that’s one of the milder complaints. Yes, it’s probably true that the majority of Canadians don’t harbour such negative feelings, but as a rule they don’t bother to contradict the naysayers. In this particular situation there was very little griping and lots of cheers to the idea of Irish immigration. I wonder what the comments would have looked like had the story been about a similar bunch of unemployed tradespeople from India.

The second point I want to make concerns the International Experience visa program, itself. Canada grants privileged entry to the young, and in some cases I’m sure, shiftless citizens of select countries. Noticeably absent from the list of the lucky are all of the countries that make up South Asia. Keep in mind that it’s no small number of these visas that are issued each year. Last year, more than 35,000 individuals were able to come live and work in Canada within weeks of applying. More than that, as I mentioned above, these “temporary workers” were put on a path in Canada that can lead to permanent status. Is that fair to the thousands of qualified South Asian Skilled Worker applicants, who have been waiting for years just to have their applications assessed? Here’s a suggestion for our policymakers. Put a moratorium on the International Experience visa initiative and give those 35,000 slots to the people who remain patiently in line to start new lives in Canada.

Cracking Down on Crooked Consultants

Legislation came into force on June 30, 2011 making it illegal for anyone to operate as an unauthorized representative, for a fee, at any stage of a Canadian immigration application or proceeding. Authorized representatives must be a member in good standing of a provincial bar (a licensed lawyer), a Quebec notary, or the government body for immigration consultants as designated by the Minister of Immigration. The Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council (ICCRC) is the new body that the Minister has designated for this purpose. Unauthorized representatives who accept a fee for Canadian immigration services are liable, on conviction, to a fine of up to $100,000 and/or imprisonment for up to two years. Applicants who pay an unauthorized representative and fail to disclose this information to the Canadian Government may have their applications returned or refused.

This legislation is clearly meant to educate consumers about the fact that there are many unscrupulous “ghost” consultants out there and that ultimately the applicant is responsible for choosing a properly authorized representative. In addition, the Government had lost confidence in the ability of the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants (CSIC) to regulate the activities of its members and so it was replaced under the new law. It remains to be seen whether the newly designated body, ICCRC, has any more luck in reining in its members. Personally, I have my doubts.

Revoking Fraudulent Citizenship Status

Last week Mr. Kenny confirmed that as many as 1,800 Canadians could be stripped of their citizenship because they were allegedly obtained through fraud. This follows a three-year joint investigation carried out by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) and the police. Notice of the Government’s intention to revoke citizenship is being sent to each of the accused individuals and they will have 30 days to file a contestation in Federal Court.

The reality is that some foreign nationals do not want to live in Canada but desire a Canadian passport so they can hop on a plane and come to Canada when all hell breaks loose in their country of residence. To their chagrin, Canada requires three years of residency to qualify for citizenship and it often happens that these Canadian citizens of convenience use fraudulent means to show they have been living in Canada when they have not. To boot, they don’t pay taxes, but consume our social benefits.

The knee-jerk reaction here is to say “good riddance to bad rubbish”. While this response is understandable we should be mindful that the revocation of citizenship status is about as serious as it gets and as a result our government should proceed with caution. This issue has complexities.

What happens to the minor children who obtained their Canadian citizenship through the fraudulent actions of their father? Do the sins of the father extend to them even if they are living in Canada? It doesn’t seem fair. In fact, it would be downright un-Canadian.

The Minister has indicated that these alleged fraudsters hired crooked consultants to obtain false proof of Canadian residency so as to qualify for citizenship. But suppose this wasn’t the case. Let’s say that instead of hiring crooked consultants these misguided citizens worked with or relied on the advice of a Canadian financial institution’s agent or a lawyer at a top-tier law firm. If you think that can’t happen you would be wrong. Not so many years ago, a lawyer with one of Canada’s most distinguished law firms was advising wealthy clients from Hong Kong on how to gain Canadian citizenship without having to spend much time in Canada. The scheme was somehow uncovered and as I recall, the lawyer involved took his own life before all the details of his mandate became known. Could his clients have been acting on what they thought was sound advice? Who knows? The point is that prudence is called for and all Canadians deserve the full benefit of any doubt before their nationality is taken away.

Give Mr. Kenney credit. He is doing his best to put right a murky area of his domain. His predecessors, both Liberal and Conservative, chose to look the other way even though most everyone in the immigration field suspected this kind of cheating was taking place. As a result, since 1977 only 63 individuals have lost their citizenship status in this manner. Better late than never.

It should come as no surprise to anyone who follows Canadian politics that the party in power, with a fresh majority of seats in the House of Commons, has reduced by half the number of applications to be accepted for processing, without a job offer, under the FSW Program. Effective July 1, 2011 and for the ensuing 12 months, a maximum of 10,000 of these applications will be accepted for processing. The 29 eligible occupations remain unchanged, but only 500 applications in each occupation will be considered for a permanent resident visa. No cap has been placed on the number of FSW applications that include a validated job offer from a Canadian employer.

The decrease in the FSW numbers fits the philosophy of the Conservative government. There has been a gradual but steady shift in Canadian Immigration policy since the Conservatives formed a minority government some five years ago. Before then, our national government assumed the role of chief selector of individuals who wanted to immigrate to Canada. Since 2006 much of immigrant selection has devolved to the provinces and territories and they all now administer their own Immigration departments and selection systems. The federal government seems more at ease in handling the health and security aspects of the Immigration process and leaving the selection of suitable candidates to the provinces/territories, employers and educational institutions. You can argue for or against the Conservatives’ way of doing things, it doesn’t really matter. It is what it is and the bottom line is that Canada still plans to hand out about 250,000 permanent resident visas and a more or less equal number of work permits and study permits in the next 12 months.

What it does mean is that individuals who wish to come to Canada will no longer be able to do one-stop shopping for a visa at the federal government store. There are currently more than 60 different paths that lead to a permanent resident visa and finding the “right” one has become a lot more complicated.

In the past few days alone our good fortune has been twice recognized. A report published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ranked Canada second on a quality of life index among the 34 major industrialized countries surveyed. We scored at or near the top in areas such as housing, education, health, and life satisfaction. The one blemish on our record and what prevented us from gaining the number one spot is that voter turnout in Canada leaves something to be desired. Although in truth that may say more about our politicians than the Canadian people. The second kudo comes from the Institute for Economics and Peace, which just produced its Global Peace Index for 2011. Canada was considered the eighth most peaceful country out of 153 nations examined. To put our ranking in perspective, the U.S. comes in at the 85th position.

These kinds of international surveys appear with some regularity and tend to reinforce a certain sense of smugness that has become part of our national character. The fact is that we still have a considerable way to go in extending the same quality of life opportunities to all Canadians, regardless of their ethnicity.

Here’s an example of what I mean. A recent study conducted by Simon Fraser University economist Krishna Pendakur showed that Canadian-born visible minorities earn less than their similarly qualified white counterparts. More particularly, a Canadian-born visible minority man earns about 18% less than a Canadian-born white man with similar education and experience. The research also suggests that the wage gap has actually increased from 1970 to the present, which puts into doubt our self-image of a society that is becoming more comfortable with diversity.

There is evidence to suggest that more recent immigrants to Canada have a tougher time gaining an economic foothold in our country than immigrants of the past. This should not be the case because the newer arrivals are better educated and trained than those who came before them. So what gives here? Well, for one thing, in the past few decades immigrants to Canada are much more likely to be from a visible minority community. Before then, Canadian immigrants, for the most part, were white…just like the employers doing the hiring. I have always felt that measuring the economic performance of new immigrants against that of the Canadian population as a whole is simply the wrong test. What we ought to be comparing is how these newer arrivals fare against visible minority Canadians. I’m guessing that the earnings gap will in large part disappear.

We should stop explaining away the discount on immigrants’ wages by reference to their lack of English or French proficiency and foreign education/training. This is nothing more than a red herring. If these reasons were valid then you would expect well educated Canadian-born visible minority males to be earning the same wages as their white counterparts. But as the studies have shown, they are not.

Immigrants to any country have always known that they would have to work harder than the local citizens in order to do well. However, until recent times immigrants to Canada also expected that their children would have the opportunity to succeed economically in a way that would make them indistinguishable from other Canadians. Maybe that’s no longer the case.

I had initially intended this blog to be a review of the immigration policies of the three major political parties (Conservative, Liberal and New Democrat), but it looks like the only real question now is whether or not the Conservatives will attract voters sufficient in number to gain a majority in the next sitting of the House of Commons. At the very least, the polls indicate a strong Conservative minority government. Either way, a victory for the Tories will have a huge impact on both the policy and pattern of Canadian immigration.

The Past

The Constitution Act, 1867 divided authority over immigration matters between the provinces and the federal government. In practice though, during the first hundred years of Canada’s existence, immigration policy was formulated exclusively by the central government in Ottawa.

That began to change during the 1960’s, with the onset of the Quiet Revolution in the Province of Quebec, which was characterized by the slogan “Maitres chez-nous”. Within a decade, Quebec demanded and obtained the right to select economic immigrants, who indicated their intention to settle within its borders. Quebec continues to choose a portion of the total number of Canadian immigrants each year equal to the province’s percentage of the Canadian population.

Slowly but surely, and with uneven enthusiasm, the other Canadian provinces and territories have established their own immigrant selection priorities (Provincial Nomination Programs) with the federal government’s concurrence. The Province of Alberta, for one, has recently asserted itself in this domain and now has a robust immigrant selection program. At the other end of the spectrum is Ontario, which has the most meager provincial program, notwithstanding the fact that it is, by far, Canada’s largest province and the centre of its economic activity. Of course, until now there was no real need for Ontario to devote resources to attracting immigrants as the federal government was only too willing to do its bidding. More specifically, under recent national immigration policy, the vast majority of economic immigrants qualify to enter Canada under the points-based Federal Skilled Worker category of immigration and over fifty percent of these newcomers settle in Ontario, mainly in the Toronto region.

All of that is about change in a big way.

The Present

Most would agree that Canada’s present immigration system is badly in need of an overhaul. There are currently about 600,000 economic immigrants waiting in line for assessment and it will be years before many of them set foot in Canada. Who is to blame for this backlog depends on whom you ask. Conservatives and Liberals point to each other and in fact they are both right. Their parties have been in power, at one time or another since 2002, when Canadian immigration law was last modified. That law does provide for a regulator (raising/lowering the pass mark) to control the number of applicants under the Federal Skilled Worker category, but neither party had the political guts to set the bar higher, for fear of alienating Canadian ethnic communities. They do vote, after all.

During the last Parliament, the Conservative government pushed through legislation that gives sweeping powers to the Minister of Immigration. This new authority includes the ability to prioritize and even to exclude categories and classes of immigrants. The Conservatives recently stated that they will await the election results before announcing exactly how they will wield this new power to trim the backlog. There are two things you can bet on. One is that, if elected, they will exercise their new clout, and the other is that if their planned strategy was good news for Canada’s ethnic communities, it would have been publicized during the run up to this election.

The Future

Critics have stated that, if elected, the Conservatives will shut the door on, or at least significantly reduce the intake of newcomers to Canada. I disagree. The party’s roots may be planted in anti-immigration soil but the Conservative leader is crafty bright, and he realizes that it will be very difficult to achieve his goal of displacing the Liberals as the natural party of Canadians without gaining the trust of the ethnic communities.

Rather than curtailing the number of newcomers, the Conservatives plan to off-load the selection of immigrants to the provinces and territories. This fits with the Conservative philosophy of recognizing that the regions know their respective needs better than the government based in Ottawa. Moreover, it would permit a more even spread of newcomers throughout Canada and this too is their stated goal. So while the overall number of yearly immigrants may not decrease under a Conservative mandate, the process of qualifying to come to Canada will certainly change.

What Does This Mean for Applicants?

In my opinion, the days of the Federal Skilled Worker Program, as we know it, are numbered. That “one size fits all” approach to the selection of economic immigrants will be shunted aside in favour of selection by the way of Provincial Nomination Programs and Quebec. I doubt that the Federal Skilled Worker Program will entirely disappear, but what will remain will be a skeleton if its former self. Rumor has it, that to qualify, an applicant will need “Arranged Employment” in Canada, aka, a Canadian job or work experience in one of only 38 “open occupations”. This is a far cry from the relative ease with which one can now qualify, that is, by scoring 67 points and having worked for at least one year in any skilled occupation.

What seems certain, is that the Canadian immigration process is about to become more complicated. There are currently more than 50 sub-categories of province-based immigration. Many, but not all, of these programs include a requirement for a job in the province in order to qualify. Other provincial programs give a boost to applicants with more distant relatives in that province. One thing is sure; a lot more research will be required of applicants in order to choose the most efficient path to a new life in Canada.