Canada is a nation of immigrants, and with the citizenship and immigration laws getting put through the ringer lately, U of T’s Organization of Latin American Students (OLAS) put together a forum on Tuesday to break down the issue for an audience at Victoria College’s Alumni Hall.
The two speakers were Luis Antonio Monroy, a Mexican immigration lawyer who also graduated from Osgoode Hall, and Duberlis Ramos, executive director of the Hispanic Development Council.
Monroy began the forum by explaining the nature of immigration, and how Canada’s prosperity makes it an ideal nation for growth. “People tend to move where there are economic opportunities,” he noted. Despite this, Monroy notes that changes in the international labour market have left many workers out in the cold. “The wealth of a nation now is based on technology and knowledge,” he noted, adding that temporary citizenships are often granted over permanent ones, making migrant workers feel less than welcome.
Monroy pointed out that yesterday’s skills just won’t cut it for new Canadians, as the point system used for judging potential immigrants has evolved. “It is now very important to bring education,” he said. Other key elements included language skills (in either French or English), age (those over 49 years old are deducted points), and whether the applicant already has an offer of employment. Recently, Monroy noted that the “bar was lowered,” from 75 points to 67 when the government realized there was a dearth of immigrants being accepted into the country.
Other issues of contention for Monroy included the treatment of live-in caregivers, who are bound to stay with their employer for two years before getting citizenship, and family reunification, which he believed has too vague a definition. “In Canada, your family is your mother, father and siblings. In Latin America, our family includes aunts, uncles, cousins and other people.”
For Ramos, the changing face of immigration took centre stage. “This is a very interesting and challenging time,” he stated. “Obviously we see a different world [since 9/11].”
Ramos talked specifically about the Hispanic community in Canada, which in itself, he believes is a social construct. “In many ways, it only exists within the Canadian context,” he noted. He also addressed the inequity among immigrant groups. “We have seen a constant increase of poverty among immigrant groups,” he said, adding that the last 20 years has seen the greatest influx of immigration since the World Wars.
Despite that, Ramos believes the Hispanic community have challenges to meet. “Why are we not achieving up to our potentials?” he asked. “Our capital is no different than any other capital.” Closer work with the government is necessary, Ramos believes, recounting a meeting in Kingston two years ago when his group’s research was rejected by the government. “Should we have a say in establishing policy? We would like to think we do,” he said.
During the question period, the issue of immigrant professionals, specifically doctors who are not allowed to practice here, was a hot topic. “We have been in this fight for a long time,” lamented Ramos. “It costs us $4.5 billion to waste these foreign professionals.”
Monroy questioned the government’s focus on manual labourers, noting that “sometimes a Master’s [degree] was not even enough,” to get citizenship. Ramos echoed the sentiment that immigration needs to be seen as a plus rather than a negative. “Immigrants bring dynamism to the Canadian community.”
