Thread: Canada looking for immigrants to replace older workers

Wednesday, July 6, 2005
Job losses, rural decliine predicted
By JASON SMITH



JASON SMITH/THE JOURNAL-PIONEER

Kevin Arsenault, executive director of the P.E.I. Association for Newcomers to Canada, said he’s hoping a series of presentations being made by the association across the provinces will encourage government and community groups to get involved in immigration before it’s too late.

An association for newcomers is telling small towns and rural communities the price for not attracting significant numbers of immigrants and refugees will be major job losses.

The P.E.I. Association for Newcomers to Canada has been making presentations across the Island to explain population decline in the province and to inform communities what can be done to attract immigrants and keep them from leaving for a larger centre.

The association's executive director, Kevin Arsenault, says the number of working-aged Islanders is quickly declining.

"Many people may not be aware of how quickly this problem will hit us," Arsenault said in a telephone interview.

"When it comes to rural decline -- we've seen nothing yet."

According to Statistics Canada, the labour force participation rate in P.E.I. in 2003 was 67 per cent.

By 2030, it will drop to 57 per cent.

Summerside Coun. and economic development chair Brent Gallant says he's talked to employers in the area who are currently struggling to find skilled workers.

"I talk to employers who are looking for qualified labour and are having a very difficult time find the people to fill those positions," Gallant said. "I look at the demographics for the Island's population and I see that the older population is quickly distancing itself from the younger working population. The problems that we have now will seem minute compared to the problems we will deal with in the next 15 years."

In 2003, there were approximately 26,000 Islanders who were age 14 and under and 19,000 who were 65 and older.

By 2030, there will only be 19,000 Islanders 14 years old and younger and 38,000 who will be 65 and older.

Arsenault said it's reasonable to expect that if an employer can't find workers, that business will be forced to relocate.

The loss of an employer not only hurts a community, Arsenault said, but it makes attracting new immigrants much more difficult.

"They may like the clean, safe environment of Prince Edward Island. But they also need to provide for their family and have meaningful work."

Gallant said municipalities like Summerside hope to work with the provincial government to come up with a strategy to attract immigrants, but also to keep Islanders from migrating to other areas of the country.

"We need to stem the tide of out-migration of our own population, but in order to do that we need jobs to keep people here."

The P.E.I. Association for Newcomers to Canada made its presentation to Summerside on June 27. It will make its final presentation at the Charlottetown Arts Guild today at 7 p.m.

We can send them a few million uneducated illegals.
They might not like the cold weather.

Kevin Arsenault, executive director of the P.E.I. Association for Newcomers to Canada, said he’s hoping a series of presentations being made by the association across the provinces will encourage government and community groups to get involved in immigration before it’s too late.

Give him Foxies phone number. Maybe Foxie can be useful for a change.
Throw in a few fur lined sombreros and you might have a deal.

Wrong about the cold weather. About 10 years ago a local Denver Spanish radio station ran a contest for free airfare to TORONTO to see the Mexican singer Marco Antonio Solis in concert for the winner......my point? If they were having a concert in Toronto in Spanish then 10 years ago there were and are lots of Mexicans working there already!

What is Mexico's number 1 export? Oil? Corona Beer? Tequila?

NOPE! It's people! SHAMEFUL!

Me theeeenks dis man made a meeeestaaake!!

I don't think he's speaking truth or for the people of Canada. This is the old OBL BS!!

Human Beings been "agin" since the day we were born and created by our Lord. "agin" populations don't cause job losses....that's the biggest friggin' bunch of lyin crap I've heard yet from Canada.

THAT'S why corporations force you to retire earlier than you had expected; THAT'S why the government forces you to retire at 65 even if you want to keep workin'; THAT'S why when you retire and start drawing social security, they won't let you work anywhere but for a few hours for a few extra bucks.

Agin populations create new jobs because the older workers "RETIRE" and create a new JOB OPENING!!

Now this man has NO IDEA how many 14 year olds and younger there will be in 2030. This man has NO IDEA how many 65 and olders there will be in 2030. And BTW, these are not workers. The Workers are between the ages of 14 and 65.

The reason they are losing population of the WORK FORCE is because they are MOVING to find WORK. The jobs have left DESPITE a HUGE AVAILABLE WORK FORCE. MORE WORKERS is not what they need. What they need is LESS WORKERS AND MORE JOBS!!



Do the see the "ironies and opposites"... all the way to Canada?

We've got your numbers; We're watchin you; We know all about your "security and prosperity partnership" PACT to open our borders with you and end the United States. We know what you're up to....Director of "Newcomers"!!



IT WON'T HAPPEN!!

It appears Vicente already put the call into Canada.


http://www.azcentral.com/specials/speci ... da03.html#

Canada is wooing Mexican immigrants


Chris Hawley
Republic Mexico City Bureau
May. 3, 2005 12:00 AM

MEXICO CITY - As the United States fortifies its border with Mexico, Canadian companies are reaching out to immigrants who are frustrated by U.S. restrictions and tempted by dreams of a better life in Canada.

The Canadian government has been relaxing its immigration rules in an effort to attract students and skilled workers from all over the world. That, and the push by companies promising jobs and visas, is attracting Mexican professionals turned off by the Minuteman Project, new border walls, tougher U.S. entry requirements and laws like Proposition 200 in Arizona.

"Live in Canada!" says a Mexico City newspaper ad placed by a Canadian labor recruiter, as a photo of the Toronto skyline beckons. "Voted the No. 1 country in the world for living four years in a row," an immigration counseling company boasts on its Web site.

"Canada has its arms open to immigrants, and the United States has its arms closed. It's as simple as that," accountant Marcos RamÃÂ*rez Posadas said as he stood in line with other visa applicants outside the Canadian Embassy in Mexico City.

The reason, immigration experts say, is that Canada needs more people.

"Our population is shrinking and getting older," said David Rosenblatt, a Canadian immigration lawyer whose firm advertises in Mexico. "Canada, in order to survive and grow, needs to get more skilled workers."

Mexicans are eager to fill the need. Last week, the Canadian Embassy's switchboard was swamped after local television aired a commercial from an immigration law firm about moving to Canada, embassy spokesman Luis Archundia said. None of the recent ads has been placed by the Canadian government itself, he said.


'They have jobs'
"I heard on TV that they have jobs up there," Edgar Solis Peña, a 30-year-old warehouse worker, said as he waited outside the embassy. "It's so hard to even get a hearing at the United States Embassy, so I decided to come here."

The siren song is echoing in the United States, too.

"Come to Canada to work - legally!" says a sign in Spanish recently posted by an immigration consultant near a site frequented by undocumented workers in Mesa, Ariz.

A call to the phone number on the sign yielded a recording that said the voice mailbox overflowed with messages.




Courting immigrants
Mexicans can enter Canada just by showing a passport, much easier than the long, expensive process of getting U.S. visas. Canada also has a widely praised farmworker program and is aggressively courting foreign students.

The country also has an easy-to-follow process for getting work permits that assigns points based on certain skills. The U.S. system is more subjective, with consular officials wielding the power to approve or reject applications without explanation.

Canada's low birth rate, about 1.61 children per couple, means the country needs immigrants to maintain its population of 33 million, Rosenblatt said. The United States is holding steady at 2.08 children per couple.

On April 19, Canada said it would spend $58 million to speed citizenship applications and vowed to triple citizenship approvals for parents and grandparents of immigrants. While they're waiting for citizenship, those people will get 5-year, multiple-entry visas to visit their children in Canada.

Citizenship applicants older than 55 will be exempt from language and Canadian knowledge tests, down from age 60, Immigration Minister Joe Volpe said.

Work rules for foreign college students also will be relaxed, he said. They'll be able to hold jobs off campus, and those who move to smaller cities will be able to work in Canada for two years after graduating , instead of one.

"Canada's immigration system is a model for the world," Volpe said in a written statement announcing the relaxed rules. "(The changes) allow us to maintain and enhance our position."


Rising numbers
That kind of welcome is drawing Mexicans by the thousands.

The number of legal, temporary workers in Canada from Mexico rose 68 percent, to 22,344 from 13,261, from 1998 to 2003, the latest year for which statistics are available. By comparison, there were 110,075 legal, temporary workers admitted to the United States from Mexico in 1998, and 130, 327 in 2003, an 18 percent rise.

"Overall, it's been a really dramatic rise in Canada," said Richard Mueller, an economist at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, who just completed a study of Mexican immigrants.

But the true immigration rate could be much higher.

Thousands of Mexicans get into the country just by flashing a passport. Many probably just disappear and work illegally, immigration experts said.

"I think there are a lot of those, but Canada doesn't want to talk about it," said Luin Goldring, a sociology professor and immigration expert at York University in Toronto.

One clue comes from the number of Mexicans applying for "refugee status," which jumped 89 percent from 2000 to 2003 as the United States began fortifying its border.


Refugee claimants
By 2003, peaceful Mexico was Canada's third-biggest source of refugee claimants, right up there with countries like Pakistan, which is plagued by religious violence, and Colombia, devastated by decades of civil war.

"Mexican refugee claims were negligible three or four years ago. Now you're getting 100 a month in Ontario alone," said Sergio Karas, an immigration lawyer in Toronto. Those claims can drag on for years until they are finally turned down, he said.

Refugee claims aren't necessarily a barometer of illegal immigration. But Costa Rica, another tranquil country whose citizens did not need visas to visit Canada, ranked No. 4 among refugee claimants in 2003, outpacing places like China and strife-torn Sri Lanka.

In May 2004, Canada started requiring visas for Costa Ricans, saying many were staying and becoming undocumented immigrants.


Better living
Family ties and easier entry aren't the only reasons Mexicans choose Canada over the United States. Many visa applicants said they were attracted by Canada's open spaces and lower crime rate.

"I have family in Los Angeles and I've visited them there, but I don't like the lifestyle that Mexicans live up there," said Guillermo Rivas Zaldibar, 38 .

"A lot of those people are not very educated. It's not exactly the best people we're sending up there."

Others said they simply don't like Americans.

"I find them very egotistical," said RamÃÂ*rez, an accountant for an oil-drilling firm. "There are a lot of historical problems between our countries. Canadians are much nicer; they appreciate other cultures."


Minuteman Project
For Victor Pérez Muciño, 33, a municipal worker in the town of Huixquilucan, recent news coverage of the Minuteman Project, a civilian patrol on the Arizona-Mexico border, was the deciding factor.

"We're always hearing about what they're doing to our fellow citizens . . . all these things with vigilantes, migrant hunters," he said. "Who wants to live with that?"

Oooooh, Foxey Flop's looking for a new "outlet".

Doesn't he just make you sick!!

Well....they 'aint gettin' there thru the USA.

Foxey Flop, Listen Up, you want to flood Canada...fine. But, you'll have to spring for airline tickets and fly your People there, because they aren't going to be allowed to traipse across the United States to get there!

Got it? Good.

Under those conditions, Wooooo Away!!

Caaaaaaanada....Oh Caaaaaaanada....WAKE UP!!

You're Next!!