December 2023 -year end interview with RedFM host Rishi Nagar, UK immigration lawyer Harjap Bhangal and Canadian immigration lawyer Raj Sharma KC discussing immigration developments in the Anglosphere -US, UK, Australia, and Canada.
From a recent Toronto Star article:
As Canada wrestles with questions about its own immigration plan, two of the countries it competes with for immigrants are taking measures to limit how many newcomers they're taking in.
Earlier this month, the United Kingdom launched a five-point plan in an attempt to slash its net migration by 300,000 from 672,000 in 2023. Last week, Australia unveiled new measures aiming to halve its annual immigration intake in 2025 from a record 510,000 people this year. Like Canada, both countries are facing public pressures over housing shortages and the soaring cost of living.
As I discussed in the interview, some of the changes brought in by the UK would be anathema here in Canada:
In the U.K., officials are going to raise the minimum annual salary for a sponsored skilled worker by almost 48 per cent to £38,700 (except for health and care workers). They will reduce the number of qualifying occupations under the shortage occupation list that allows employers to bring in overseas workers below the set wage threshold. Those looking to sponsor their foreign spouses to the country are also seeing the required income level soar.
Alboim said Canada's immigration levels only deal with permanent residents, and added the country must manage the exponential growth of temporary residents in Canada. The number of international students has tripled in the last decade and reached 900,000 this year while the number of new work permits issued skyrocketed by 80 per cent to 608,420 in 2022.
In the wake of media reports on admission fraud and financial woes faced by some international students, Ottawa has recently taken steps to limit the number of study permits issued, but it has yet to make changes to manage the growth of temporary foreign workers.
Ultimately, the UK is a bit of a barometer. Harjap and I have often discussed how the UK is about a decade ahead of Canada in terms of immigration developments. They too dealt with fraud and immigration integrity issues with respect to temporary residents about a decade or so ago. I am hoping however that the social license for immigration continues but that will require stakeholders to ensure good governance/stewardship of this important portfolio.
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