- Aug 3, 2010
- 133
- 12
- Category........
- Visa Office......
- London
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- Pre-Assessed..
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/media/backgrounders/2010/2010-06-26.asp
BackgrounderManaging the Federal Skilled Worker Program: Balancing supply and demand
There is no shortage of people who want to immigrate to Canada. In a recent Ipsos Reid online survey of over 18,000 people in two dozen countries, 53% of respondents said if they had the opportunity to move, they’d choose to live here. While not everyone acts on their desire to immigrate, Canada still receives thousands more applications each year than can be processed and accepted. This is true even when you consider that Canada has the highest relative level of immigration in the developed world, with a quarter million permanent residents admitted every year.
Action Plan for Faster Immigration
In 2008, Parliament approved changes to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to help Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) better manage its immigration system. The changes allow Canada to set, through ministerial instructions, the number of applications considered for processing each year and the order in which these applications will be processed. With these changes, Canada now has the tools to better match the supply of applications it receives with the demand for these immigrants. The changes specifically target the economic immigration category, which selects immigrants based on their ability to contribute to Canada’s economy. The changes do not apply to refugees or those applying for humanitarian and compassionate consideration from within Canada.
Before the Action Plan for Faster Immigration, Canada was obliged to process every immigration application it received, even if it meant creating large application backlogs in popular immigration categories. The most popular of these was the Federal Skilled Worker Program. Before the changes were approved, Canada had a backlog of over 640,000 people in the federal skilled worker category waiting as long as six years to be processed.
In an ideal world, Canada would process applications from job-ready immigrants in a year or less, helping to bring in quickly the people Canadian employers need to supplement our domestic labour supply. There would be no backlog, and Canada would instead have a steady but manageable supply of individuals who wish to immigrate. It was this vision that prompted the Government of Canada to introduce the changes to its immigration law under the Action Plan for Faster Immigration.
Progress Under the Plan
CIC first used its new authority in November 2008 to limit the number of federal skilled worker applications processed based on eligibility criteria that correspond to Canada’s labour market needs. Skilled worker applicants were only considered if they were in one of 38 in-demand occupations, if they had arranged employment or if they had prior experience in Canada as students or temporary foreign workers.
As a result of this first attempt at managing its application intake, Canada was able to make significant headway toward its goal of reducing the backlog and processing times. To date, Canada has reduced the backlog of federal skilled workers (who applied before the Action Plan came into effect) by more than 40% (see Chart 1). In addition, the majority of decisions on new applications (after the Action Plan came into effect) have been made within one year, as opposed to 5 or 6 years under the old system. Without the changes, the backlog of federal skilled workers would have grown to almost one million people this year, with wait times approaching a decade (see Chart 2).
Pressures on Processing Capacity
CIC regularly tracks and analyses data relating to application and acceptance rates, processing times and backlog reduction – measures of the Action Plan’s success. At the same time, the Department monitors information on the labour market and occupational shortages. The goal is to react quickly to changes that put at risk Canada’s ability to process applications in a year and continue to draw down the backlog. This responds to recommendations from the Auditor General of Canada in November 2009.
Until the first quarter of 2010, application intake had dropped such that the overall number of people waiting for a decision on their application, including those who applied before and after the Action Plan was introduced, was consistently declining. However, in the first three months of this year, the Department saw a dramatic rise in the number of new applicants (see Figure 1) with an increase of 33,190 people in the federal skilled worker inventory subject to ministerial instructions.
The data also revealed that some of the particular occupations on the original list of 38 have proven to be very popular and we’ve received far more applicants in these occupations than projected. With so much competition and interest in immigrating to Canada, people look for ways to fit their applications into the eligibility criteria in effect at the time. We must remember that the backlog also represents another source of skilled applicants who can meet a range of occupational needs. For example, the backlog already includes applications from over 3,200 college and vocational instructors, 2,300 university professors, over 4,300 civil and mechanical engineers and 2,000 financial managers. (On average, each application includes two or three dependants.)
These data clearly point to the need for stronger intake controls.
New Eligibility Criteria Respond to Intake Pressures and Today’s Post-Recession Economy
Besides the recent increase in applications, the Canadian economy has changed since the Action Plan was first introduced in November 2008. As a result, this spring, CIC assessed Human Resources and Skills Development Canada’s most recent projections of Canada’s labour market needs. We then consulted with provinces, territories, stakeholders and the public.
The new occupational list reflects overwhelming support during consultations for a continued focus on the health occupations, as well as skilled trades, transport and equipment operators. The consultations also revealed strong support for continuing to work through the backlog of applicants to ensure they receive a decision as quickly as possible, given that they have been waiting the longest.
It is important to remember that the backlog of federal skilled workers who applied before the Action Plan was introduced offers a broad and sustained supply of skills that will complement the eligible occupations list. This is also true for the Provincial Nominee Program and for federal skilled workers applying with arranged employment. Employers will still have access to foreign workers who have the full range of skills to meet Canada’s labour market needs.
BackgrounderManaging the Federal Skilled Worker Program: Balancing supply and demand
There is no shortage of people who want to immigrate to Canada. In a recent Ipsos Reid online survey of over 18,000 people in two dozen countries, 53% of respondents said if they had the opportunity to move, they’d choose to live here. While not everyone acts on their desire to immigrate, Canada still receives thousands more applications each year than can be processed and accepted. This is true even when you consider that Canada has the highest relative level of immigration in the developed world, with a quarter million permanent residents admitted every year.
Action Plan for Faster Immigration
In 2008, Parliament approved changes to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to help Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) better manage its immigration system. The changes allow Canada to set, through ministerial instructions, the number of applications considered for processing each year and the order in which these applications will be processed. With these changes, Canada now has the tools to better match the supply of applications it receives with the demand for these immigrants. The changes specifically target the economic immigration category, which selects immigrants based on their ability to contribute to Canada’s economy. The changes do not apply to refugees or those applying for humanitarian and compassionate consideration from within Canada.
Before the Action Plan for Faster Immigration, Canada was obliged to process every immigration application it received, even if it meant creating large application backlogs in popular immigration categories. The most popular of these was the Federal Skilled Worker Program. Before the changes were approved, Canada had a backlog of over 640,000 people in the federal skilled worker category waiting as long as six years to be processed.
In an ideal world, Canada would process applications from job-ready immigrants in a year or less, helping to bring in quickly the people Canadian employers need to supplement our domestic labour supply. There would be no backlog, and Canada would instead have a steady but manageable supply of individuals who wish to immigrate. It was this vision that prompted the Government of Canada to introduce the changes to its immigration law under the Action Plan for Faster Immigration.
Progress Under the Plan
CIC first used its new authority in November 2008 to limit the number of federal skilled worker applications processed based on eligibility criteria that correspond to Canada’s labour market needs. Skilled worker applicants were only considered if they were in one of 38 in-demand occupations, if they had arranged employment or if they had prior experience in Canada as students or temporary foreign workers.
As a result of this first attempt at managing its application intake, Canada was able to make significant headway toward its goal of reducing the backlog and processing times. To date, Canada has reduced the backlog of federal skilled workers (who applied before the Action Plan came into effect) by more than 40% (see Chart 1). In addition, the majority of decisions on new applications (after the Action Plan came into effect) have been made within one year, as opposed to 5 or 6 years under the old system. Without the changes, the backlog of federal skilled workers would have grown to almost one million people this year, with wait times approaching a decade (see Chart 2).
Pressures on Processing Capacity
CIC regularly tracks and analyses data relating to application and acceptance rates, processing times and backlog reduction – measures of the Action Plan’s success. At the same time, the Department monitors information on the labour market and occupational shortages. The goal is to react quickly to changes that put at risk Canada’s ability to process applications in a year and continue to draw down the backlog. This responds to recommendations from the Auditor General of Canada in November 2009.
Until the first quarter of 2010, application intake had dropped such that the overall number of people waiting for a decision on their application, including those who applied before and after the Action Plan was introduced, was consistently declining. However, in the first three months of this year, the Department saw a dramatic rise in the number of new applicants (see Figure 1) with an increase of 33,190 people in the federal skilled worker inventory subject to ministerial instructions.
The data also revealed that some of the particular occupations on the original list of 38 have proven to be very popular and we’ve received far more applicants in these occupations than projected. With so much competition and interest in immigrating to Canada, people look for ways to fit their applications into the eligibility criteria in effect at the time. We must remember that the backlog also represents another source of skilled applicants who can meet a range of occupational needs. For example, the backlog already includes applications from over 3,200 college and vocational instructors, 2,300 university professors, over 4,300 civil and mechanical engineers and 2,000 financial managers. (On average, each application includes two or three dependants.)
These data clearly point to the need for stronger intake controls.
New Eligibility Criteria Respond to Intake Pressures and Today’s Post-Recession Economy
Besides the recent increase in applications, the Canadian economy has changed since the Action Plan was first introduced in November 2008. As a result, this spring, CIC assessed Human Resources and Skills Development Canada’s most recent projections of Canada’s labour market needs. We then consulted with provinces, territories, stakeholders and the public.
The new occupational list reflects overwhelming support during consultations for a continued focus on the health occupations, as well as skilled trades, transport and equipment operators. The consultations also revealed strong support for continuing to work through the backlog of applicants to ensure they receive a decision as quickly as possible, given that they have been waiting the longest.
It is important to remember that the backlog of federal skilled workers who applied before the Action Plan was introduced offers a broad and sustained supply of skills that will complement the eligible occupations list. This is also true for the Provincial Nominee Program and for federal skilled workers applying with arranged employment. Employers will still have access to foreign workers who have the full range of skills to meet Canada’s labour market needs.
