The most substantive change the Canadian government has made to its immigration program in the last few years has been the introduction of Express Entry, copied from the Austrian model. In theory the program pools candidates for permanent residence and enables the federal government to select the best based on points assigned to their positive characteristics such as age, education, experience and ability to speak English or French. While the program has become the central feature of Canada's work-based immigration policy, last week John McCallum, Canada's Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship said he wanted to ease some of the rules under the program. As part of his overhaul, my suggestion would be that he pull the Canadian Experience Class out of it.
Prior to Express Entry, the Canadian Experience Class program was particularly useful to three groups of immigrants. One was NAFTA managers and executives and inter-corporate transferees who were the ones least affected by the Express Entry change. Two other groups were adversely affected.
One was international students. Following their graduation from Canadian universities, these students would get their post-graduation work permits. They would then find suitable higher-grade full time jobs that would qualify them to apply for permanent residence under the CEC program after one year of experience.
The other was the temporary foreign worker group that like international students, earned their right to apply for permanent residence by working full time in a skilled job for one year.
CEC applications from all such applicants were processed on a first in, first out basis. The rationale was that such candidates were already settled in Canada, spoke English or French, and were already contributing to the Canadian economy. This was good for the employees, the employers and for Canada as a whole. This all made sense. Along came Express Entry and everything changed.
With the introduction of Express Entry none of these groups were processed on a first in, first out basis. Instead everyone was channeled into a pool of international candidates all seeking to gain permanent residence in Canada. As already mentioned, the NAFTA group was least harmed – they tended to score higher in points under Express Entry or benefited from provincial nominee programs that raised their prospects as candidates. The other two groups, however, were left behind.
With respect to the international students, McCallum recently said he was committed to reforming the system to be more welcoming to international students.
I do know that it's become more difficult since express entry for international students to become permanent residents, and I believe that international students are among the most fertile source of new immigrants for Canada.
By definition they're educated, they speak English or French, they know something about the country. So they should be first on our list of people whom we court to come to Canada.
No such improvement is yet envisioned for the second group that was adversely affected by the CEC program, however. Just today I received a note from such an applicant who laid out the problem he faces as a CEC candidate under Express Entry. He wrote:
I am currently registered under the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) and the Federal Skilled Worker program under the Express Entry system and my Comprehensive Ranking System score is 417. I just turned 33 years old. I have a National Occupations Code of 4212 - Residential Care Giver for disabilities with working experience from 2014-2015, that is, for 2 years.
I couldn't get Labor Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) support from my employer so I had to leave my job. I saw your column on Forbes where you argued that Trudeau should restore the CEC program. I totally agreed with you and felt you were very helpful and appreciated that you spoke for people in my shoes. I even emailed Canada Immigration (CIC), to deliver my voice that the CEC has to be evaluated more and asked them to restore the old CEC program or evaluate CEC more and give us higher points in Express Entry.
I am passionate about my special skill of taking care of people who need special care and these skills are highly demanded in Canada. Do you have any good news for CEC applicants in my position?
How do we make a change with the CIC ? If I keep emailing CIC insisting that CIC should welcome CEC, do you think it will help? If the voices pile up will it help? I have been in Canada since 2011 and have 2 years of skilled work experience. I deserved better....and I wish I had PR by now.
I agree. I said as much before and I'll say it again here. The Canadian Experience Program should be detached from Express Entry. Add my voice to the pile. Let's hope it will help.
