American immigration rejects job-creating Canadian nationals

A Canadian couple running a successful Florida organic food store employing 17 people have been told to close down and head back to Canada after their Green Card application was refused.

Katja and Troy Gage’s organic food outlet has defied the recession and continued to trade profitably due to its loyal customers, giving ongoing, secure employment to 17 local people. The business sells fresh fruit and vegetables, speciality foods, wine, snacks and sandwiches and is popular with the local community.

US immigration officers, however, seemed unimpressed with the couple’s reams of required paperwork, submitted with their Green Card applications and showing a thriving business, as they refused their application. The reason given was that they don’t qualify as their employees are not in the high-skilled category.

Katja and Troy now have three weeks to close the store, sack their workers, pack up and return to Canada. The couple are veering between being broken-hearted and furious at the loss of their business and the money invested in it, and their employees are both insulted and worried they may not find other jobs.

The flawed rationale behind the economic decision would seem to be that high-skilled workers are valuable and low-skilled workers are not. The peculiar perception that the high-skilled create more jobs for Americans and the low-skilled are mostly immigrants who take away jobs from nationals is clearly not valid in this case.

A local Orange County TV station has taken up the cause, and it remains to be seen whether the decision can be reversed. Taken to extremes, a favourite occupation for bureaucrats, the decision could result in an oversupply of high-skilled workers and a lack of the necessities of life provided by the low-skilled.