On November 8, 2013, Citizenship and Immigration Canada announced new "improvements" to the Canadian Experience Class. The changes (not sure on what basis they can be called improvements) put a quota of 200 on the number of persons who can apply under this class for each National Occupation Classification Skill Level B occupation. Additionally, due to what CIC calls "overrepresentation" in the below categories, applicants are now unable to apply at all if their work experience in Canada occurred as a:· cooks (NOC code 6322);· food service supervisors (NOC 6311);· administrative officers (NOC 1221);· administrative assistants (NOC 1241);· accounting technicians and bookkeepers (NOC 1311); and· retail sales supervisors (NOC 6211).
What is disturbing with these new changes is that the government has not provided any statistics validating their position that these occupations are over represented. Further, positions such as cooks and food services supervisors are overwhelmingly staffed by visible minority foreign workers. This adds a racialized element to the changes which can only be considered disturbing on many levels. Finally, from a policy point of view, the government has cited studies which indicate that persons who have skilled work experience in Canada and English language ability most are the most successful immigrants.
It seems arbitrary and short sighted to cut off a potential pool of successful newcomers who meet this criteria simply on the basis of their work experience.
Ram Sankaran
Associate
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