Statistics show Harper and Liberal immigration backlog
Don Davies, NDP Candidate for Vancouver-Kingsway along with Peter Julian, NDP Candidate for Burnaby-New Westminster, and Vancouver-Mount Pleasant MLA Jenny Kwan met with families affected by unfair immigration policies brought in by the Harper Conservatives.
The NDP advocates immigration at 1% of population, welcoming over 300,000 new Canadians per year. Under the Harper Conservatives, immigration dropped significantly, and family reunification numbers dropped 4,300 from 2006 to 2007. Overall immigration is back down to levels from the year 2004 - only 235,000.
The backlog of over 900,000 applicants waiting to come to Canada started under the Liberals. Harper's Conservatives have made the problem worse by cutting back on foreign mission staff that can process the applicants. "Cut backs at foreign missions have caused the backlog to get worse" said Peter Julian.
CIC documents demonstrate that the number of temporary foreign workers climbed by 43,000 over the two years since Jan. 1, 2006 to Jan. 1, 2008.
"The Harper Conservatives and Liberals are increasing reliance on migrant workers to fill labour shortages across the country, this is at the expense of immigration and training of women, youth and first nation Canadians," said Davies.
"The Liberals and Conservatives have done nothing to monitor and enforce provisions to ensure that migrant workers are not exploited" said Davies. "Migrant workers are tied to a single employer. Migrant workers won't complain about exploitation, they are afraid of retaliation such as being fired and then deported"
"With Dion's help, Harper has been turning back the clock to the dark history of Chinese immigrants building the Canadian Pacific rail road," added Jenny Kwan. "The Jack Layton and the NDP instead want to move Canada forward into the future where immigrants are respected and valued as a vital part of our community."
The NDP plan for immigration would emphasize credential recognition of foreign professionals - with national standards for credentials assessment; permanent training and bridging programs.
