http://www.vivelecanada.ca/article.p...40702163651492
Canada's immigration problem

Monday, July 05 2004 @ 10:36 AM MDT
Contributed by: abacus


Immigration is a subject that very few commentators dare approach, for fear of being branded a racist or worse. As a result, any reasonable debate on this issue is nipped in the bud.


However, I think it is high time that Canada addressed the immigration issue with a good dose of realism, because this country is suffering and so are many of the immigrants living here.

One of the more pressing problems is the recognition of foreign credentials. Too many Ph.D.’s, M.D.’s, etc. have to work as janitors or taxi drivers, because our current immigration system has misrepresented the facts to these people.

Under the points system, a medical doctor would get the top score for qualifications. However, upon arrival in Canada, this new immigrant would find out immediately that his qualifications are not recognized, despite having been given the top score, and that he would have to return to medical school for a considerable number of years.

It would appear, therefore, that our government is misleading and lying to potential immigrants around the world.

The example of medical doctors not being able to pursue their chosen profession in Canada is just one of many; the same is true of foreign-trained engineers, nurses, lawyers, etc. It does not make any sense whatsoever that a lawyer trained in the UK, for example, should have to enrol and complete at least 1.5 years in a Canadian law school before being allowed to sit for the bar exam. And that is not even the problem. The problem is getting into a law school, because law schools give preference to first-year law students over foreign-trained lawyers from other countries. So, you may be put on a waiting list for a number of years before actually getting a chance to re-take those 1.5 years in law school as required by the Law Society. Add to this the waiting time for getting into articling and the articling period itself, and you may be looking at almost ten years of “additional” legal training in Canada. No wonder, then, that such foreign-trained lawyers start paralegal businesses, which the Law Society is not too fond of, if I may add.

While the current immigration system is frustrating for many of today’s immigrants, it also places a heavy burden on Canadian society. Canada takes in immigrants, whose full potential cannot be realized under the current system, thus forcing these people into desperate situations. Some of them, with a less stable character, may and will turn to crime to support themselves and their families, and that creates more problems for our citizens.

Then, there is another problem: that of language. Under our immigration laws, immigrants have to show that they can speak, read and write English and/or French at a functional level. However, the issue of language is often ignored in today’s applications, and that is why we end up with people who are, in fact, functional illiterates – regardless of whether they are doctors, engineers or whatever.

Such immigrants, naturally, turn to menial jobs, but even there, the lack of language skills creates problems in the workplace and beyond.

I know a woman from New Brunswick, who lives and works in Toronto. She works at a factory that assembles chairs – the aluminium kind with a padded seat and back. She is the only “real” Canadian at that factory. Her co-workers don’t speak English or only very little English. She says that the company has problems with orders and products all the time, because their workers cannot even follow the simplest of instructions. And nobody seems to care, not even the unions. As a result, productivity and morale are very low at that factory, which, in its own way, also has repercussions for the economy and society as a whole. In this case, for example, some operations, like payroll, have now been outsourced to the States, because it was felt that the local resources were insufficient. In other words, jobs have been lost to the USA in this case.

In light of all these problems, I propose the following program:

1. The government should stop lying to potential immigrants around the world. Do not make them believe that there is a job waiting for them here, just because they have an M.D. Revise the points system and ensure that only applicants are admitted that actually have something to contribute to Canada (mind you, I am only talking about immigrants, not refugees. Refugees must be dealt with under international law and the Canadian charter. Immigrants, however, are not people fleeing from persecution or torture, which is why we need to screen them more carefully and ensure that Canada can actually benefit from these newcomers).

2. Language skills must become a top priority. Even the best brain surgeon in the world is no good to us here in Canada, if he cannot speak English and/or French.

3. Immigrants, once they have landed in Canada, must be subjected to mandatory language testing after the first six months. Those that pass will see their immigration status finalized; those that fail must go in for language classes and will be tested again after another six months. If they fail again, their status should be revoked.

4. The recognition of foreign credentials must be streamlined and accelerated. Instead of forcing immigrants back to school, the various professional bodies must provide their own training so as to upgrade newcomers’ skills and to bring them in line with Canadian expectations. For example, coming back to lawyers, the Law Society must provide individual-study programs for foreign-trained lawyers to help them achieve a Canadian level of the law. I also firmly believe that these programs should be paid for by the professional bodies themselves, with some assistance by the federal government.

Canada has such a huge potential that is just waiting to be harvested. Right now, we have our apartment buildings cleaned by doctors and have ourselves chauffeured to the airport by university professors and engineers. At the same time, more and more Canadians are becoming frustrated with having to deal with people that do not speak any of our official languages. This affects our society and, in the business world, our productivity.

Now is the time to act, to unlock that enormous potential that has been slumbering in Canada.

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I actually saw something similar to this on W -5 or something.
To tell you the thruth I was damned pissed off at the way these people were complaining. I found the story very biased. There are a multitude of jobs waiting for the immigrants, in what they have been trained in, but these people don't want to go where these jobs are situated and where the demand is. The reason we got you over is to fill these positions, but no, they wanted to work in the big cities. I am aware that there is a similar situation in aussie and other countries, as in they take in immigrant doctors because there is a great shortage in rural areas. But these people want to piss and moan that they they were "lied" to and "tricked" into coming to canada. WAKE UP. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

WOw Khush311 is definitely mad today. Don't get on his/her nerve today.

Khush311 is dead wrong.

IMO, the situation is Canada is the worst of both worlds for the IMG. Canada seeks highly educated people (like MDs) for immigration at the federal level and at the same time, provinces and provincial medical associations make it nearly impossible (or very difficult) for them to either get a residency or have their credentials recognized (see for instance the Ontario IMG program). All the while, there is a physician shortage. IMGs would do well to avoid Canada.

dead wrong?... dem are fighting words.lol
Actually I just stated my opinion, like you stated yours. We are all entitled to one. My comment was geared towards W5, which ran an almost identical story as one printed above, and was geared towards those people.
I would also like to add the fact that the problem of validitating creditentials, as u mentioned, are seen in most countries when you are immigrating. My rant on the post was not so much that this is happening, which it is , it was more of a rant that these people were expecting something more when there is nothing to expect. This is the situation everywhere (notice my reference to aussie)... and then on top of that to call us "liars" and "cheaters"... good grief, they really are delusional

To further my case, what if I went to their country, couldn't speak the language, didn't know the culture, didn't know the economic conditions, and wanted the same status I had in my own country... would they give it to me... HELL no.Yet the expect that out of canada. Double standards. I say shame to them, shame indeed.

I have no idea what W-5 is.

However, I am very well aware of the situation in Canada, especially Ontario. A classmate of mine, who is a Canadian citizen (speaks perfect accentless fluent English), who grew up in T.O. can't get a spot via the IMG Ontario program. And he is not even an immigrant.

From their website:

Q How many IMGs will be accepted into the IMG-Ontario program this year?
A Up to 200 IMGs will be accepted into IMG-Ontario for the 2005/06 year.

Also, take a look at CaRMS statistics.

Shame on Canada.

W-5 is a news report show. It rocks.
Secondly, lest we forget, medicine is an extremely competitive career to be in, perhaps your friend didn't meet the qualifications, or simply, there were people that were more qualified than him, who did get residency... I don't know the situation, so I can't comment on it fully... but there may be a multitude of reasons. . There are no gaurentee in life. We must learn to Deal with it, and not push blame onto others.

I too watched that W-5 report. And the people they interviewed didn't have any language or "culture problems". They were perfectly fit to work in Canada and yes, systems like the points system are equivalent to lying and tricking immigrants into coming here.

Da newspaper got dem surgeons from Europe coming over Canada with no job!

What's that all about yo!

Let me help educate you.

The CaRMS numbers show that a total of 80 IMGs gained a residency in Canada through that route. Contrast this to about 6,000 IMGs that gained a position in the U.S. (where a point system for immigration doesn't exist).

All the while there is a physician shortage in Canada (1/4 do not have access to PCP, waiting lists are getting longer, etc..).

The point is that Canada is not fully honest with its immigrants. Canadian foreign missions should very clearly state on immigration applications that the professional qualifications of immigrants are unlikely to be accepted, especially in medicine, despite the point system that allows them to immigrate.