Canadian immigration boss assures new rules will fix dysfunctional system

After admitting that Canada’s dysfunctional immigration system has admitted a flood of low-standard workers rather than solving a skills shortage, immigration minister Jason Kenny announced new rules would solve the problem.

The new reforms will include a requirement that foreign workers submit an educational assessment include any degrees or diplomas. This, according to Kenney, will allow officials to calculate the applicant’s worth to the country via the educational standards of the qualifications.

Speaking to a meeting of Atlanta’s Professional Engineers and Geoscientists group, Kenney also admitted that the Canadian government was partly responsible for the under- or unemployment of many recent immigrants. Admitting them, he added was doing no-one any favours, as new arrivals were forced to retrain or leave.

The new, improved skilled worker programme, he said, would enable immigration officers to be objective about applicant chances of finding suitable jobs and respond to applicants on a faster timescale than before. This Kenney hopes will avoid a repetition of the present situation, where graduates from third world universities have four times higher unemployment rates than graduates from Canadian universities.

Agreeing that Canada’s shrinking workforce and ageing population needed addressing, he stated that political neglect of the issue of too many unsuitable immigrants was not the way forward. Politicians unwilling to take the risk of confronting the situation, he added, is the reason why dysfunctional immigration rules must continue to change.

At the present time, Canada has a backlog of a million applicants, estimated to take seven to eight years to clear. Twice as many immigrants are given entry as there are jobs to fill, said Kenney, adding that it’s, quite frankly, dumb.