Immigration: No speak English!

Canada is contemplating a change in language-level requirements for prospective immigrants to Canada. Or not.

Once again - as has been common practice with the Canada Immigration Service (CIS) for years - they are unclear about how far whatever they are contemplating should take applicants or new arrivals. With decisions generally Ottawa-office-centered - instead of cultural-reality-out-there connected - an ability to use English or French sufficiently well to find a meaningful job - generally get a life here - has never been an issue.

Currently applicants are supposed to be able to make basic spoken statements and answer basic spoken questions - applying tenses of past, present and future! In a single, short impersonal personal interview - once all the paperwork has been checked and accepted! In the same interview they should also be able to deal with a written multiple-choice test - containing items like: how many provinces, and will you accept the queen as the mother of it all! I choose door No. 3!

And these interviews are run in the applicants' home-country - by usually non-native-English-or-French speaking employees hired there.

Even if the language-bar is raised somewhat - we'll get to that! - interviews will still be bureaucratic-generic; will still need to be short; interviewers will still be the same. And applicants will still know what interviews contain and how they are run - this through/for a highly evolved grapevine of past-present-future interviewees. It is common practice now for applicants to prepare for just passing the interview - the door to milk and money - as opposed to making it all work once they get here! Meaning - they may pass the pro forma interview - but not necessarily be well enough informed and speak enough English or French for what comes after they have passed it!

Today knowing - even before they come - that free ESL-classes and all sorts of governmental safety-nets are in place for them - also part of the grapevine - for many is frequently not conducive to taking responsibility for their lives here through in-depth preparation there!

A relatively simple way presents itself to make it possible for new immigrants to enter Canada's lifescape quickly - contributing to the economy by contributing to themselves.
Like this:
Applicants have at least 2 years between application and interview. Usually much longer - the backlog of applications has been overwhelming the  perpetually head-scratching and forever tinkering Ottawa for many years. For those expecting to enter the workforce here - this waiting-period ought to be a time of intensive preparation. A required part of the application process. Which it is not now!

This process needs to address applicants individually with incisive reality-based questions - and those supported by language/culture-specific instructions. Questions beyond the initial why Canada, what in Canada, where and how in Canada. Based on their answers, applicants then would join a particular group, receiving appropriate material and methodology for culture-sensitive language-immersion; professional upgrading and its officially recognized (there/here) certification; discipline-specific educational preparation.

This group-funneling structure is now used generally by the CIS - but it lacks specificity, even though awarding points for an applicant's higher background-value. A focused preparation strategy is not supplied.

Example in the economic categories - Married Couple:

She is the primary applicant because she speaks English better than her husband - he may not speak it at all! BUT! Because he has a PhD they will

get extra points which will put them ahead of others in the waiting-line - even if in reality these others are better positioned for work in Canada. Yet once they are in Canada - the PhD certainly will not find a job in his field and - with no other training - he may be unemployed for a long time or only get a poorly paid dead-end job.

That specifically and language-based cultural

adjustment-difficulties generally - guarantee a life

of hardship, which the government then - having furthered it! - has to deal with. Via the tax-payer! No economic contribution in that!

So the point-system - though reasonable as concept now - often fails applicants because it is too superficially applied and not coupled with a required substantive language-base.

Back to my vision:

Once determined that applicants suit certain desirable criteria, they eventually

would be thoroughly tested - based on their specific reality - during a personal interview. In English or French! A real-time dialogue! And if spoken and/or written communication of their future-life information - or the scope of the information in itself - is insufficient: they don't pass and should lose the substantial application-processing fee! With this very real possibility clearly announced at the beginning of the application-process. (And surely gaining a prominent place in the grapevine!)

Of course, there must be informational support-services available during the application-process there and after their arrival here. But prospective and new immigrants should not take for granted that Mother will automatically take care of them with wide-open generous arms!

Robert Dziekanski - a Polish immigrant - passed the CSI-requirements and got the stamp of approval in Poland, although he had no clearly marketable skills and spoke no English. His inability to communicate effectively - when he arrived at the Vancouver airport in October 2007 - led to his ever-escalating frustration there; he eventually was tasered 5 times and died. Much blame was placed - and rightly so - but one question never asked at the time and during the following inquiry was: How could he be accepted as a probable contributor to Canada's growth without even the most basic English-language skills? The CIS indirectly setting the stage for Mr. Dziekanski's tragic avoidable death never became an issue!

He entered the country with a family visa - issued to reunite close family members, if one member is living here legally already and sponsors the applicant. The sponsor should be well-assimilated and have sufficient financial wherewithal to support the applicant as long as necessary. Being totally responsible! Mr. Dziekanski - a working-age adult - actually did not really fit the description of an eligible family member; the sponsor - his mother - spoke only very basic English, and her job then was low-paying. She seemingly did not fit the profile of a sponsor either. Mr. Dziekanski was given the visa.

Trumpeted contemplated changes in language-requirements for prospective immigrants differ from the current ones only insofar as they will get a name - Canadian Language Benchmark Level 4. Level 4 is low: Where is the post-office, please? No more than memorizing an assortment of useless phrases!

An official explanation is that adoption of the change does not mean a necessary increase in language-facility for the applicant but simplification in judging it with "objective evidence of an applicant's language ability". Yet supplying this "evidence" in form of a Benchmark Level 4 Certificate - issued in a foreign country yet (are they even available?) - does not mean that the holder actually speaks/reads/writes English or French sufficiently well to get a Canadian life. It will simply allow an interviewer to make a decision based on a piece of paper - instead of actually having to converse fluently in one of these languages with an applicant.

Nothing is said about the weight carried by this certificate in relation to a personal interview.

The bottomline here is an attempt at addressing the lack of consistency in assessments by foreign nationals, running tests with/for visa-applying compatriots. The CIS admits this. No positive change for-thus-in applicants' language proficiency!

And because the CIS will continue not being able to monitor and/or double-check personal interviews and their results - many essentially unprepared applicants will continue to clog the system, pass interviews and enter Canada for life of difficulties - because the paper-pushing CIS is largely grounded in political expediency at home and Ottawa's unrealistic assumptions about abroad.                                   

                                              

Tinkering with hope!