Summary Of Canada's Immigration System Is No Kinder

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In the article “Canada’s Immigration System Is No Kinder than America’s”, Adnan Khan speaks to the refocusing of Canada’s immigration system on short-term economic needs, rather than investing in high-skilled workers or ethical immigration policy. Khan documents ethical changes in immigration pathways such as Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker program, Refugee programs, and family reunification efforts which indicate the changing discourse around migrants from developing countries, Canada’s obligation to protect these migrants, and the sharing of resources and nationhood. This essay will critically analyze the examples and arguments presented in “Canada’s Immigration System Is No Kinder Than America’s” in order explore concepts of “worthiness”, …show more content…

For migrants, family reunification and spousal sponsorship is fundamental to successfully building this legacy; unification of grandparents, spouses, and children are both important emotional and financial support, but also important pieces of a migrant’s culture and heritage. As such, family unification supports multiculturalism and is “a strategy for migrant integration, rather than isolation” (Reitz, 2012). In his article “Canada’s Immigration System Is No Kinder than America’s”, Khan argues the mounting financial and systemic barriers to family reunification is grounded in the increased immigration opportunity via the Temporary Foreign Worker program and subsequent reduction of Family or Economic (high skilled work) opportunities, as TFW programs do not permit spousal sponsorship or family reunification in Canada. “[Spousal reunification] only accounted for 28 per cent of migrants” in the 2017 year (Khan, 2017), and this is not just a benign consequence of the TFW program; Canada has implemented a series of bureaucratic hurdles such as the Case Processing Center, the Case Intake Office, and Case Processing Pilot whose primary purpose is to review, exclude and discourage family sponsorship and reunification in the Economic and Refugee classes (Satzewich, 2014). In his article “The Distinctiveness of Canadian Immigration Experience”, Jeffery Reitz emphasizes multiculturalism as a vital element to “[the promotion] of the integration of immigrants into mainstream society”, synonymous with “cultural freedom”. In fact, Reitz cites multiculturalism as one of four pillars vital to the successful social integration of immigrants. Today, the current denial of family sponsorship and reunification for Temporary Foreign Workers forces migrants to choose between life