ARCHIVED – Annual Report to Parliament on Immigration, 2009

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Message from the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism

As Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, I am pleased to present the 2009 Annual Report to Parliament on Immigration.

Canadians can be very proud of the fact that throughout our history we have maintained a tradition of openness to newcomers from around the world. We have maintained the highest relative level of immigration of any major western country, attracting nearly a quarter of a million permanent residents in 2008. In 2010, we intend to welcome between 240,000 and 265,000 permanent residents.

In the past five years, Canada has relied on immigration for more than two-thirds of its population growth, and within the next decade we expect that all our labour force growth will come from immigration. This presents tremendous opportunities along with certain challenges. We need to ensure that newcomers with the professional and technical expertise Canada needs are able to enter the labour market.

With the expansion of the Foreign Credentials Referral Office, we are helping foreign-trained professionals put their skills, credentials and work experience to use in Canada. As well, the increase of $1.4 billion over five years to fund settlement programs is helping newcomers obtain language training, job counselling, and information services to better integrate into Canadian society.

I am proud of what we accomplished in 2008 and continue to accomplish in 2009. We took steps to modernize our immigration process with the Action Plan for Faster Immigration, which is helping to reduce the backlog of applications from federal skilled workers and improve processing times. We implemented the new Canadian Experience Class to help international students and temporary foreign workers in Canada find a path to permanent residence, and we will continue to work with the provinces and territories to strengthen our immigration programs.

We raised awareness of unscrupulous immigration practitioners and consultants, launched a video to help protect applicants against immigration fraud and, we are working to implement fingerprint and live photo technology to help prevent identity fraud and enhance program security.

Our amendments to the Citizenship Act will protect the value of Canadian citizenship while restoring it to those who lost it under previous legislation and recognizing others as Canadian citizens for the first time.

We continued to maintain our long-standing commitments to refugee protection in 2008, welcoming almost 22,000 refugees. We have also answered the call from the international community to admit large groups when needed, including Bhutanese and Karen refugees in 2009. Canada will also more than double the number of privately sponsored Iraqi refugees it accepts from the Middle East over the next five years.

Last year, the Multiculturalism portfolio joined Citizenship and Immigration Canada to develop programming that would focus on integrating newcomers in the long term, building bridges among communities and fostering respect for Canada’s shared institutions, values and history.

Immigration will continue to be a source of economic, social and cultural growth in Canada. I look forward to the many challenges that lie ahead and wish to thank officials in the Department for helping to advance the Government’s agenda.

For more information on Citizenship and Immigration Canada and the work we are undertaking, please visit our website at www.cic.gc.ca.

The Honourable Jason Kenney, PC, MP
Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism

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