Annual Report to Parliament on Immigration,
2010
Message from the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration
and Multiculturalism
I am pleased to present the Annual Report to
Parliament on Immigration 2010.
Canada has a proud tradition of welcoming newcomers
from around the world, and immigration has made an important contribution
to the building of our country. In 2009, while other countries scaled
back immigration during tough economic times, we maintained historically
high immigration levels, attracting more than a quarter of a million
permanent residents as we began to recover from the downturn.
The year 2009 was the first full year of operation of
the Action Plan for Faster Immigration, which allows new federal skilled
worker applications to be assessed according to Canada’s labour market
needs. This Action Plan is paying off: as of March 31, 2010, the overall
inventory of federal skilled worker applications has been reduced by 16
percent, and processing times have improved, with the majority of new
applications processed in six to 12 months.
In order to support our economy as it continues to
recover from the downturn, we adjusted Canada’s immigration plan for 2010
to increase economic immigration and help ensure employers have the
workers they need to supplement our domestic labour supply. In 2010, we
will again welcome more than a quarter of a million permanent residents
from all over the world. In fact, admissions will likely be at the upper
end of the range of 240,000 to 265,000, allowing more immigrants in the
economic category than originally planned. In 2011, we intend to welcome
between 240,000 and 265,000 permanent residents.
We maintained our commitment to family reunification,
introducing special immigration measures that allowed families affected
by the January earthquake in Haiti to be reunited in Canada through early
admissions and priority processing measures.
We also continued to uphold our long-standing and
proud humanitarian tradition by offering protection in Canada to more
than 22,000 refugees in 2009, including more than 12,000 refugees
resettled from abroad. Working with the international community, we
resettled close to a thousand Bhutanese in 2009 as part of our multi-year
commitment to bring to Canada up to 5,000 Bhutanese refugees who have
been living in United Nations camps in Nepal. In response to ongoing
appeals for additional resettlement support to the displaced Iraqi
population, we resettled more than 4,000 Iraqi refugees last
year.
In addition, we pursued reforms to improve Canada’s
asylum system, culminating in the introduction in March 2010, and
subsequent passage into law in June 2010, of the Balanced Refugee
Reform Act. The Act’s implementation will mean faster protection for
those who truly need it and faster removals of those who do not. The
Government has also made significant progress since 2009 in filling
vacancies on the Immigration and Refugee Board. As a result, the Board
has been above 95 percent of its full complement since November
2009.
In partnership with provinces and territories, we
launched the Pan-Canadian Framework for the Assessment and
Recognition of Foreign Qualifications, which will improve the
recognition of foreign credentials and facilitate the integration of
internationally trained newcomers into the Canadian labour market. In
continuing to advance our foreign credential recognition efforts
overseas, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) will assume
responsibility for the delivery of in-person orientation services, under
the Canadian Immigration Integration Project, in India, China and the
Philippines starting in October 2010, and in the United Kingdom in
2011.
Enhancements to language training and other
settlement programs will also help newcomers settle in Canada and
participate fully in all aspects of Canadian society. We launched a pilot
project to test whether directly receiving a language training voucher
raises awareness and uptake of language training by eligible newcomers.
We also re-issued the Welcome to Canada publication and
began substantial revisions and updates to the settlement information
provided to newcomers.
In addition, we sought to increase civic memory and
participation, promote a sense of belonging to Canada, and strengthen the
value and meaning of Canadian citizenship. To help achieve these
objectives, we introduced Discover Canada, our popular new
citizenship study guide with content and an associated knowledge test
that focus on Canadian history, institutions and values, as well as the
rights and responsibilities of citizenship.
In 2009, we also put in place new objectives for the
Multiculturalism Program: building an integrated, socially cohesive
society; improving the responsiveness of institutions to the needs of a
diverse population; and actively engaging in discussions on
multiculturalism at the international level. The new focus of the program
emphasizes fostering intercultural understanding, citizenship, civic
memory and pride, respect for core democratic values grounded in history,
and equal opportunity for all Canadians.
These efforts demonstrate our ongoing commitment to
meeting Canada’s immigration needs, upholding Canada’s humanitarian
tradition, and building an integrated society by helping newcomers settle
and succeed.
I want to thank everyone at CIC for helping make
these and other achievements possible. Together, we are building Canada’s
future prosperity by welcoming industrious, talented and hardworking
newcomers who share our dream of a true north strong and free.
Article by CIC
The
Honourable Jason Kenney, PC,
MP
Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism
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