Does NDP have a realistic immigration policy?
I came to Canada 10 years ago as an immigrant. I was kind of lucky and things worked fine for me. However this is not the case for so many immigrants. I had lots of friends who went back to their former countries after struggling for a couple of years here. They had high hopes, but...
I believe Canada`s immigration policy is broken. The point system is not working at all.
In general, if you speak English (and/or French), have university education and at least 2 years of work experience, you are eligible to immigrate to Canada.
However, once you come to Canada, a big dissappointment is waiting for you. I don`t want to go into details, but I think you all know the story of taxi drivers who are engineers, teachers etc. This is just one part of the problem.
It seems that Canada doesn`t really know why it takes immigrants. Since this country was built on immigration, almost all the parties want to follow the tradition. And, if you raise your concerns about immigration, it`s very easy to be labeled as a racist.
Do we know how many immigrants Canada needs every year? 100,000? 250,000? 500,000? And why? I think Liberals were aiming for 1% of the population when they were in power. This meant Canada was supposed to accept 340,000 immigrants a year. Did Liberals reach their goal? No.
My experience and observations in the last 10 years showed me this: Canada needed more blue collar immigrants. But, the system brought lots of white collar workers. Huge, gigantic, monstrous, immense mistake... Yet, nobody is talking about this mistake at all.
A couple of years ago, something strange happened: Conservative Party made a change in the system for foreign students who go to university here. After the change, if a university graduate decides to immigrate to Canada, he/she can apply for immigration and can stay in Canada.
In the old system, one had the leave Canada after graduating from university and apply from his/her country and wait for years and years. Waste of time, isn`t it? You go to university here. You make friends. You know how to live in Canada and you can`t stay here after you graduate... That was one of Liberal immigration policies and Cons changed it. I have to congratulate them for this right approach.
I have been watching immigration policies of Conservative Party for the last couple of years and I can tell you that they are trying to do some good things. For example, the occupation list for potential immigrants is much more realistic right now.
(I believe Cons are doing a horrible job when it comes to temporary workers, but that subject may need another forum topic).
To be honest, I don`t know anything about NDP`s immigration policies and I want NDP to come up with a working immigration policy for both immigrants and Canada.
Does NDP have a realistic immigration policy?
I don’t know a ton about the details of immigration policy, and certainly not the NDP’s positions on the matter, but it seems clear that global migration patterns are going to be a key challenge to everybody over the coming decades; and near-term, with Kenney’s overhauling of the immigration and refugee system(s), it’s going to be prime definable policy terrain here.
My parents are involved in a lefty-Catholic refugee centre, and from what I’ve gathered from them, emerging Conservative refugee policy is downright shameful. And as for immigration, having a more efficient and targeted system, as the Conservatives seem to be aiming (in their own way) for, does make sense, though I’m quite sure I won’t be agreeing with the specifics of how they’ll be accomplishing that.
I do know that a significant part of Mulcair’s background is in mediating / otherwise-dealing-with the professions in Quebec (as president of the Office des professions du Québec, around the turn of the 90s); so, that perhaps bodes well for the taxi cab conundrum. I guess we’ll see. This is certainly the type of area where the NDP needs to show that it can contemporize the policy approach – (I’d say that all policy is in pretty much constant need of contemporization these days) – while doing so in a way that’s both smart and compassionate. It’s a tricky issue; I thank Very Far Away for raising it.
Keep Conrad Black out.
Since nobody says anything about NDP`s immigration policy, it seems that NDP doesn`t have an immigration policy at all. So sad.
Strange logic, but oh well.
Why didn't you just check the NDP's platform?
The current Jason Kenney immigration policy is designed specifically to admit right-wing and preferably rich immigrant, er....voters only. I suppose that is considered realistic by some.
Checked NDP`s site and couldn`t find it. But is this NDP`s immigration platform? If so, it says almost nothing other than "Immigration is important for Canada. We love immigrants and we want more" like all the political parties say...
And some talk about issues they have no clue... I always thought babble was a great place for civil discussions and exchanging ideas. It seems that some like to attack others depending on their moods or just defence their position blindly whatever their position is.