Canadian Immigration Policy and Management

Abstract

Canada is now entering a new phase in immigration policy and management. This is due to a number of factors, most of which have affected other receiving countries, including anxiety about future population and economic growth, pollution, energy resources and ur? ban congestion, as well as the realization that present immigration policies and programs have very short-range objectives. In September 1973, the Minister of Manpower and Immigration, Robert Andras, an? nounced the creation of a Canadian Immigration and Population Study, whose staff would produce a Green Paper on immigration and population issues in the Spring of 1974 for Parliamentary and public discussion. This study is to be followed by a widespread public debate and a national conference on immigration leading, it is hoped, to a clearer public view of the options which lie before Canada in im? migration policy and population growth. It is also hoped that, as a fur? ther outcome of this study and debate, a new immigration act will emerge in final form. The outdated and inadequate Immigration Act of 1952 has, in fact, been redrafted by the bureaucracy a number of times without any decisive action being taken so far. As well as the Canadian Immigration and Population Study, an In? terdepartmental Committee is examining the proposals of a recent Task Force on Services and Programs for Immigrants, Migrants and Refugees and is expected to make recommendations to Cabinet in the near future. A significant amendment has been made to the Im? migration Appeal Board Act to enable the Board to function effectively, after being swamped by a mass of appeals. A major effort has been made to deal with the large illegal immigration movement, which has been building up since 1967, due to an unexpected loophole in the im? migration law and regulations. An amnesty was offered which brought in nearly 50,000 illegal immigrants who now have landed immigrant status. It seems likely that some useful adjustments will be made in the nine point immigration assessment and selection system in the light of recent studies. The Canada Manpower and Immigration Council created in 1967 ? a failure from the start, except for one active and in? dependent sub-committee known as the Advisory Board on the Adjust-