CIC Gender-biased?

[Bluenoser]

One thing I've noticed reading through this forum is that male spousal applicants appear to be denied and interviewed much more frequently than females. By a large margin. I don't have a personal stake in pointing this out since I am a male sponsoring my wife. It's just an observation.

If I were a female Canadian or Permanent Resident sponsoring my husband and he was denied or interviewed using weak justification, I would consider filing a complaint against CIC with the Canadian Human Rights Commission. The complaint would be that I was unduly discriminated against by CIC when they assumed that my marriage was more likely a fraud because I married a man. It probably has no legal merit, but the whole thing seems unfair to female sponsors.

In any event, hopefully the new rules they are putting in place such as the 5-year bar on sponsoring for new Permanent Residents and the 2-year conditional visa (whenever they get around to implementing that) will allow them to stop taking such a hard-line stance on those in genuine relationships.

 

[liza-laziza]

I noticed that too, not only with permanent residence but even with TRVs issued by the Can embassy in my country: I saw that many guys got denied while almost all women received their visas. I think if it is true and CIC is gender biased, it is not because men are discriminated against for the sole reason that they are men. Having processed millions applications CIC probably has a reason to be more cautious with males: it is very possible that men are statistically more likely to have fraudulent marriages with Canadian wives (and since you studied this forum you probably noticed that there are a lot more of posts made by deceived Canadian wives reporting marriage fraud - not the most accurate indicator, but...) , they are more likely to have been involved in criminal activity etc. CIC has all this statistical information which probably influences its decisions.

 

[scylla]

From what I've seen, there are a few added characteristics that seems to increase refusals of males. It's situations where the male is quite a bit younger than the female - and where their religious / cultural / educational / economic backgrounds significantly differ. This seems to be the combination that most often leads to a refusal (just my opinion based on pure observation).

I'm sure CIC is profiling based on past applications / experiences / statistics - rather than just randomly discriminating. Or at least that's what I would hope.

 

[Fencesitter]

If you could prove this, it would be a major scandal! I'm not sure that we can say for certain, as we don't have access to statistics based on gender.

I'd say that liza is probably right...not to mention that women present less of a security risk...who knows...

FS

 

[waikiki]

I would not be surprised, as this is not a CIC problem, but a worldwide problem in all governments. Nowadays, they are checking, if someone is a risk to the country that person wants to immigrate to, and it is a fact, that women are mostly not the ones who are "dangerous" in that sense.

 

[waikiki]

From what I've seen, there are a few added characteristics that seems to increase refusals of males. It's situations where the male is quite a bit younger than the female - and where their religious / cultural / educational / economic backgrounds significantly differ. This seems to be the combination that most often leads to a refusal (just my opinion based on pure observation).

I'm sure CIC is profiling based on past applications / experiences / statistics - rather than just randomly discriminating. Or at least that's what I would hope.

What do you mean with "quite a bit younger"? I don´t think it should be a problem if there is an age difference of a couple of years.

 

[Isometry]

What do you mean with "quite a bit younger"? I don´t think it should be a problem if there is an age difference of a couple of years.

A couple of years isn't a problem, but an age difference of 20 or 30 years raises some questions, especially when the man is younger. It's a lot more common for men to go after vastly younger women than the other way around.

 

[waikiki]

l agree, but that´s already a "huge" difference (no offence to those couples who have that age difference).

 

[scylla]

What do you mean with "quite a bit younger"? I don´t think it should be a problem if there is an age difference of a couple of years.

15+ years.

A couple of years isn't really an age difference IMHO (and I'm assuming CIC generally sees it this way as well).

 

[parker24]

One thing I noticed(and dislike) is whenever you call CIC, you usually get a man. (Being that I'm hard of hearing, men get annoyed with me easily when I ask them to repeat on the phone ) I've only had a woman once. I think it's similar no matter where you go. Look at the government. Almost all men. Kim Campbell was PM for all of 3 months.

Like FS said, if you could prove it, that'd be a dang scandal! *insert the famous Bill Clinton line here*

 

[Zouk Princesse]

I don't really think it would be that big of a scandal, they probably wouldn't even deny it. I think like most aspects of law enforcement, they profile people based on previous experience and statistics. I agree it sucks, but I suppose they feel it's warranted. It just means that for couples who know they fit that "profile" they gotta work a little bit harder on their applications to make their case.

 

[Bluenoser]

While all of the potential reasons people listed are most likely statistically true, it is still a violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to use them. The reason they can do this is because they are doing it to non-Canadians living abroad, who aren't protected under the Charter or at least can't complain to the Commission. However, if it was done to a non-Canadian legally living in Canada, such as an inland sponsorship, it would be a violation and they could complain. My main idea was to apply it in reverse, saying that the Canadian woman is being singled out for marrying a man from abroad.

Statistically speaking men commit more crimes in Canada than women. What if financial institutions applied more rigorous criteria to men who applied for jobs there based on this fact? It would be a violation of their rights. If CIC is doing this to PRV applicants I don't see much of a difference.

 

[scos]

While it might look like a bias I doubt there is any. Just because something is not evenly divided does not mean there is bias. I am sure if you conducted a poll you would find more female elementary school teachers than male. Bias? Not necessarily. Men might not want to deal with younger children as much as women might (my brother is a teacher and he specifically chose high school). Also there are percieved legal problems (abuse, etc, whether real or percieved) that would make men tend to not want to teach the lower levels. So the result is the population is skewed but not due to a hiring bias.

The age difference is a big differentiator not because they are biased against men but because of the potential for children. In many cultures a family with children is a given. So if a young man is from such a culture and is marrying a woman 20+ years older (and therefore unlikely to want or be able to have children) then there is a good chance the marriage is not real and is not intended to last. With the woman being younger this is a non-issue. While the couple may not want children, it doesn't matter because they are capable of having them if they choose.

So if you were to create a list of all possible concerns and reasons to be suspect of a relationship, I think you would find more being applicable to men. Not because of bias but that they are simply more applicable to men than women.

 

[jj_canada]

Not at all.