It looks in near future things would change for immigrants. This the news appeared in the Toronto Star on Feb 23, 2004.

Thanks and regards.
Biomed

Toward a new deal for immigrants
And while you're at it, let corner stores sell beer and liquor. By William Walker


AVVY GO

The mayors in Ontario are pushing for a new deal among the three levels of government on the issue of immigration.

Most people could understand why they are calling for such a move.

But not everyone would agree whether a new deal worked out by these elected officials is necessarily the best thing for immigrants.

More than half of the 220,000 or so immigrants who come to Canada every year end up in Ontario. Of those, the majority choose Toronto as their new home.

Overall, big urban centres like Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal absorb the vast majority of all the newcomers, bringing with them many skills that help keep our economy strong, but also challenges that require public resources to overcome.

The barriers to full participation by newcomers are numerous, but many of them are created by the governments themselves. For years, immigrant service agencies have been decrying the insufficient funding they receive to provide settlement services to immigrants and refugees alike.

The funding level for such services never increases on a per immigrant basis when immigration levels go up, nor is it based on any real assessment of the service needs.

Despite changes to the point system that makes proficiency in English or French one of the key determinants in the immigrant selection system, the primary sources of Canada's immigration population today are countries where English is not the first language.

Thus, the demand for English as a Second Language (ESL) continues to grow over the years. Yet funding for ESL in Ontario was cut dramatically during the Tory rule and has not been restored since the Liberals took over.

Further, the media are saturated with stories about doctors and engineers driving taxis, and rocket scientists selling cinnamon buns at our subway stations.

All skilled workers — even the most highly educated ones — need time and help to adjust. Most important, they need laws that would force the professional regulatory bodies to recognize their skills and credentials.

It is thus with cautious optimism that immigrant communities receive the news about a new deal, brought to them by the new minister of immigration, her provincial counterpart, and eight mayors and regional chairs in Ontario.

On the one hand, it is a piece of good news at the time when everything else seems so bleak. A new deal — whatever it looks like — may give immigrants an opportunity to address some of the immediate bread and butter issues that impede their settlement process. On the other hand, it is not clear whether or not those at the negotiation table can be trusted to act in the best interest of the immigrant communities.

Besides Mayor David Miller, whose background as an immigration lawyer and reputation as a pro-immigrant city councillor seems to inspire some confidence within the communities, none of the other participants of the tri-level government talk has any proven track record in this area. In fact, at least one of them has been labelled as anti-immigrant.

Mayor Hazel McCallion — who welcomed the talk as "a breath of spring" — once blamed immigrants and queue jumping refugees for draining Canada's medical system. If McCallion likes the new deal, one really has to wonder what is in it for the immigrants.

Judy Sgro made her debut as immigration minister by refusing to exercise her power to grant a reprieve to a beloved youth worker who was being deported. Her handling of the permanent resident card fiasco also fell short of what one would expect from a sympathetic, if not competent, political leader of a hopelessly bureaucratic department.

Finally, the province continues to play ping-pong with the federal government over the issue of funding for ESL classes. The first budget introduced by the McGuinty government did not even mention ESL classes, let alone paying for them.

So far, the only thing that the province is interested in, is to have a say in selecting immigrants to Ontario.

Typically, an agreement between the province and the federal government amounts to a provincial nominee program that allows the province to select the skilled workers it wants, at a level it thinks it can handle. Implicit in the nominee program is the idea that the province will only accept people who do not need government's help. Thus, those who are often omitted are family class immigrants.

It's understandable that the province wants to be selective about who to bring in when the federal government does not provide its share of settlement funds, but is this the deal that immigrants want?

A new Memorandum of Understanding among the three levels of government may not be the Holy Grail that immigrants are after.

Family reunification, equitable access to jobs and professions, equal treatment without discrimination — these are just some of the things that immigrants deserve. Some of these would require changes to the immigration law. Others would necessitate broader legal reform.

But ultimately these ingredients are what we really need to make immigrants an integral part of the Canadian family.

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"Change before you have to" : Jack Welch