>My goodness, Canada is starting to sound like America! :o)

Well I think this is an area where the U.S. far outshines Canada... to go there and build one's dream.
While money itself plays far less of a role in politics here than it does in the U.S., these professional associations have a history of getting what they want. And I'd bet that doctors' accepting medicare gave their associations in particular additional powers years back. Which I'm sure other professional associations latched on to as their own too.

Our professional associations here jealously guard their spheres, doing their utmost to keep pseudo practisers (immigration "consultants", paralegals, mid-wives, therapists, etc) under tight rein and viewed with disdain. Things appear to be far more "relaxed" in the U.S. It seems, for instance, that individual doctors or clinics or hospitals can find mutually beneficial ways to employ skilled people to give them the experience and added training needed to be fully qualified eventually (and reasonably quickly compared to never in Canada < s >).

I think Canada's immigration policies over the last 20+ years have been shameful. All citizens of Canada except the "First peoples" are of immigrant stock who were also mostly poor. I can see drawing the line at, say, convicted people or terrorist suspects or illiterate adults and stuff like that. But accepting highly educated people, with the implication that they will find work in their fields, is downright dishonest and serves no one in the long run.



>
>
>
>>I'll take a shot at this... mainly opinion and guesswork.
>>
>>I think it is a major tragedy that primarily only highly educated 'specialists' (like doctors (of many specialties), engineers (of many specialties), pharmacists, lawyers, etc) are accepted for immigration yet when they get here they are not PERMITTED to work in their field. Even though we have shortages in those types of fields!!!
>>Canada is getting a bad reputation for this fact, and it is HIGHLY DESERVED.
>>
>>We also accept people with large cash reserves and we do have some "family reunification" immigrants who may be poor or rich or in between, educated or illiterate, etc. Finally we have considerable numbers of "refugees", though this number will apparently fall since a new agreement between U.S./Canada (many refugees enter Canada via the U.S. and these now have rules that apparently prevent acceptance).
>>
>>From a purely selfish point-of-view, I *guess* we NEED immigrants for things like keeping our Social Security system afloat ($$$) and doing the work that many natives (not 'Indians', but folks born here) seem to prefer not to do.
>>
>>It seems that the root of the problem is that most of the fields for which we have been accepting immigrants have CONTROL by professional associations. These professional associations are separate entities in each province/territory and they doubtless have 'protecting' their existing members as an objective too.
>>These professional associations are very powerful in Canada, even having the power to have their own invetigations/rulings/penalties replacing any action by police authorities. Not in all cases, but in far too many in my opinion.
>>
>>We have shortages of doctors, especially outside of our (few) major cities. We apparently have shortages of some engineering specialties too. But there is every indication that the professional associations go out of their way to make it very difficult for most of the like-educated immigrants to qualify for membership. And since these are monied professions, they have big influence in governments.
>>
>>Most of the highly qualified immigrants can only find work as taxi drivers or janitors or security guards or garbagemen, etc. In my building a janitor is a nuclear engineer who did such work in Communist countries.
>>
>>We apparently have big shortages in virtually all of the construction trades, yet our current immigration policies seem geared to keeping such skills out.
>>
>>I don't know why we don't address the situation for immigrants already here beyond my speculation above. But it is clear to me that we need LOTS of change through the whole system. From the little I've heard about the changes planned this time, I don't hold much hope for serious improvement.
>>
>>cheers
>>
>>
>>>Hi Jim AND all other Canadians here,
>>>
>>>Today I've read an informative article in my newspaper about Canada and immigration. One of my thoughts was: But do they really need so many immigrants (as I understand, you prefer the word newcomers)? Why do they not try to deal with the economic problems with the potential of those who are already in Canada? Perhaps you Canadian guys here can elaborate on this a bit.