Canada's immigration system helps immigrants to find a new home within the nation's borders.
According to the Canadian government, there are three main objectives for Canada's immigration plan. These three goals are to promote a strong and prosperous Canadian economy, to reunite families in Canada and to provide refugees with a safe haven and protection to people in need. Canada is currently working toward improving its system so more immigrants are able to enter the country in order to promote a more economically stable and diverse culture.
Streamlining Immigration
Canada's immigration policy has been simplified in order to allow immigrants to quickly enter the country to ensure economic prosperity in Canada. Skilled workers are the first applications to be evaluated, and if they are approved they will be allowed to enter Canada in order to work in high-demand areas such as finance, resource extraction and health. Skilled workers' eligibility can be determined within six to 12 months as opposed to the previous six-year wait time.
Reuniting Families
Ensuring that families are being reunited is still an important part of the Canadian immigration program. Canada's government states that its plans will continue to establish clear targets for immigrants each year. Canada expected up to 265,000 new immigrants in 2009 and 70,000 of these were immigrants were a part of the family class.
Diversity
Cultural diversity and government funding play a large part with Canada's economic growth. Toronto, Ontario, is the largest city in Canada and where more than half of all immigrants settle. Toronto is also Canada's premier city for showcasing how diversity and government funding for immigration helps the city to be economically strong. Other cities around the Canadian country strive to implement Toronto's pattern of immigration. "Diversity is Our Strength" is the motto for Toronto, which was rated the fifth-most livable city in the world in an Economist Intelligence Unit report, according to CIC News.
Safety and Protection
Canada's immigration goal with safety and protection for people in need has been put into effect as a result of the Haitian earthquake crisis that occurred in January 2010. The Canadian government held a special meeting and decided to allow top priority status for Haitian people to immigrate into Canada. Because Canada has a rather large Haitian community, it allowed the people in this unique community to sponsor Haitian refugees. There are specific qualifications that sponsoring Canadians must follow, and as long as they meet the criteria they can help bring Haitian immigrants to Canada.
Other Features
There are other features to the Canadian immigration system that make it an important part of the country. Canada's government has made a billion-dollar investment into the country in order to modernize its immigration system. It also made important changes to the Immigration and Protection Act that helps the immigration process to be completed within a relatively short amount of time. Temporary foreign workers can be hired quickly and with less hassle for Canadian employers. There is also a Canadian experience class that allows skilled temporary foreign workers and university graduates to remain in the country until they receive their citizenship status.
