Canadian Immigration Policies Essay

Do Canadian immigration policies align with Canadian values while responding to current issues surrounding immigration? Factors that influence Canadian immigration policies: One of the factors that influence Canadian immigration policies the most is the economy. When a province is in need of people to fill certain jobs but there are not enough in Canada, they will make sure and find a certain percent of immigrants that can fill those job offerings. This is a process called the Provincial Nomination Act. A factor that also plays a part in the economic influences is that Aboriginals are also apart of Canada. Canada and Aboriginals try to work together and share in prosperity, yet still a great amount remains uneducated, homeless, unemployed and some need social training. This creates conflict with the fact that they are trying to find immigrants who need jobs, and are providing them with job opportunities if they have the certain skills. Aboriginals are worried that Canada is more focused on immigrants then the people who lived here first. All this creates obstacles in the First Nations fully participating in Canada’s economy. Another great factor that plays a role in influencing Canada’s immigration policies is security. In 1976, the guidelines for the security part of immigration did not have that many rules, you just could not be a spy before you came to Canada, or not be suspected of participating in any espionage while in Canada. Now that the times have changed, and many world issues including terrorists have come about, in 2002 they changed the policies to include many security guidelines that include things such as, being a danger to Canadian security, or engaging in terrorism. These security issues have definitely been a factor in influencing the policies for immigration here in Canada. ’ Health is a factor that also influences how Canada changes their immigration policies. Since some immigrants live in countries where certain diseases there, are eradicated in Canada they had to make sure that no immigrants can bring over diseases. This has an influences on Canadian health immigration policies so that they can make sure no diseases can outbreak in Canada that can harm citizens. World Issues and Canadian Immigration As I said in the paragraph about how security influences Canadian Immigration policies, well world issues such as terrorism, violence, and espionage have changed the policies so that Canada can be sure that no people, economic, refugee or family can possibly be a danger to the security of Canada. The Singh decision is also a demonstration of how Canada changed it’s policies so that Canada could be a better place for immigrants. Satnam Singh was a guy who tried to come to Canada from India, claiming refugee status. He was denied under the immigration act of 1976. The Supreme Court, found that this violated section 7 of the charter of rights and freedoms, and that he had the right to a proper and unbiased hearing, and to receive justice, life, liberty and security as long as he was on Canadian soil. This made it so that all people claiming refugee status in Canada had the right to a hearing. This is one of the ways we have shaped our policies for world issues. Since the Singh decision in the 1980’s, this has affected many people claiming refugee status because of war, poverty, population growth, and natural disasters. This allows them to come to Canada and maybe be eligible to seek refuge here. Impacts on the Aboriginals Canadian immigration has a large impact on Aboriginals because they are worried that the Canadian government cares more about immigrants then they do about the First Nations. As I said before, because so many First Nations are homeless, unemployed, and uneducated they cannot always play a proper role in Canadian economy. The Canadian government though will spend money on providing food and other accommodations for refugees who aren’t even living in Canada officially yet. You can see how this impacts the First Nations, like in the Attawapiskat where hundreds are homeless. Yet, in 2005 AFN created the Assembly of First Nations, resolution no, 49. Saying that all immigration should freeze until they solve the issues with the First Nations and there â€Å"third world problems†. The Provinces and Immigration Provinces mostly only have a small little bit of control over immigration, the most provinces can do is use the Provincial Nomination Program, where they can control the percentage of immigrants that goes to that province with certain skills. Although, this does not mean that they can control who goes where, it just increases the likelihood they will move there. Problems that occur when immigrating Since we did our â€Å"Your story is my story† project, it has opened up and showed me a lot of the problems that can happen when immigrating. When people immigrate to Canada, many times they need to re-do their education, even if they acquired education in their countries. My â€Å"Your story is my story† girl, Tatiana, also had to re-take her courses in Canada, and not only the courses she took before (Nursing) but also English. Many immigrants with Ph. D’s and M. D’s end up working as taxi drivers or janitors because their qualifications are not recognized. This seems to be one of the biggest issues when immigrating to Canada. Another problem that seems to occur is of course the language barrier. Under our immigration laws, immigrants must be able to read and write either English and/or French at a functional level. Yet, many of the immigrants moving here today seem to only know very little English or French at all. That is also why a majority turns to menial jobs. A problem that occurred a little bit ago was that in Herouxville they created a code of life in which they targeted Muslim immigrants. Although they did not particularly say that, they banned wearing anything like a mask or on your head unless it was Halloween. This seemed to offend many Muslim immigrants when coming to Canada, because they said the headdresses they where are apart of their religion and culture. This was a controversial subject, but the code of life did end up being changed. A similar incident to this was when a NDP attorney general Marion Boyd, wanted to introduce Sharia’s Law in Canada, for all Muslims who move and live here. Sharia’s Law is he moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia’s law includes laws such as â€Å"If a women in your household disgraces your family, you are allowed to honor kill them. † There are other laws in Sharia’s laws that are like this. Homa Arjomand, a Muslim protester against Sharia’s law said, â€Å"We will not tolerate the interference of religion in our justice system. † This whole situation was controversial to Canada’s rights and freedoms and our values. So do Canadian immigration policies align with Canadian values while responding to current issues surrounding immigration? No, I believe that our policies do not align with our values surrounding the current issues in immigration. As you can see from the evidence I have pointed out, there are many controversial issues that occur when it comes to immigrants’ religion. I think our policies need to be altered even more so that, immigrants don’t need to retake years of university or high school to become re-qualified for jobs they were already doing in their home countries, because they’re not recognized here. The language barrier should be one of the most important things when immigrants come to Canada. Immigrants must know how to speak either of our official languages otherwise how do we expect them to live here and understand what’s going on in Canada. I also think that although this is Canada and we accept many different cultures and religions, we will make it clear that we do not accept things like honor killings or as the NDP attorney general was trying to introduce, Sharia’s law. This is not racist or discriminative this is going by what we have in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Also, I believe that another current issue that does not align with Canadian values or policies is the problem with the First Nations such as the problem in Attawapiskat. All these things lead up to the conclusion that these definitely do not align with either of Canada’s values or policies.