Immigration fraud

Chandigarh, January 20
Ranjit Kaur, a resident of Moga, alleged that Amardeep Singh, alias Boby, a Sector-21 resident, took Rs 5,35,000 in cash from him to send her abroad (Canada), but he did not do so. A case under Section 420 IPC has been registered.

Edmonton economy churning out jobs, city official says

EDMONTON - Edmonton led the country in job creation over the last 12 months, says the city’s chief economist.

But that expansion will heat up the local economy next year and may boost inflation and create labour shortages, John Rose said Thursday.

“The metropolitan area of Edmonton has generated more jobs than any other metropolitan area in the country — 44,900 jobs in the past 12 months,” Rose told an economics conference Thursday.

“These aren’t greeters at Walmart, this isn’t people giving each other yoga classes. These are jobs in manufacturing, jobs in construction, jobs in transportation, jobs in professional services. We’ve actually seen part-time employment in the city shrink, so in fact we’ve had probably around 50, 55,000 full-time jobs created, with a net gain of 44,900.”

Calgary, according to Statistics Canada data that Rose presented, added about 25,000 jobs in the period Rose discussed.

Rose, speaking at a downtown hotel, cited oil prices as the driving force behind the growth. Over the 12 months ending in October 2011, the price of oil peaked in April 2011 near $110 a barrel and sat near $90 in Oct. The price of oil generally rose from 2010 to 2011.

Unemployment in the province, Rose predicted, will sit around five per cent next year. He pegged general inflation at 2.7 per cent for 2012 — down from its current four-year high of 3.4 per cent, but still more than double the rate in 2010.

Job Growth Chart

Cenovus Energy accounted for around 200 new jobs in the Edmonton area. The oilsands firm, which assembles its extraction equipment in modules at a plant in Nisku, nearly doubled the number of contractors at its plant since December of last year. Reg Curren, media relations adviser with Cenovus, said that might increase further as the plant ramps up module production in the coming months.

The plant produces “approximately 17 to 20 modules a month, and that’s forecast to increase to about 25 a month,” said Curren.

An unemployment rate below 4.5 per cent indicates a labour shortage and creates wage inflation, said Rose. He forecast both as problems for certain industries around Edmonton in 2012. He said manufacturing already feels the labour squeeze.

“The manufacturing sector in this community is having real problems finding the people they need at this point in time,” said Rose. “We’re going to see that start to spread out into construction, into transportation, into professional services in the not-too-distant future.”

“I put that out as a warning for employers to get ready for an environment which is going to be highly competitive, particularly when it comes to those at the higher end of the skill range.”

“We’ve already seen signs of shortages of both skilled and semi-skilled labour,” said Brian McCready, vice-president of Alberta and Saskatchewan for Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters. “Pricing to fill positions is going up.”

McCready said CME plans to address the shortage by training current employees, investing in new equipment and encouraging government to ease laws around foreign workers, particularly those from the U.S.

Rose said Edmonton’s labour market absorbed most of the available local workforce over the last year, making a similar increase in job numbers unlikely in 2012. “There isn’t much juice left to squeeze in the labour market,” he said. “That’s good news, but that’s going to lead quite quickly to marked shortages of skills in particular sectors of the economy.”

Job growth was stronger in surrounding areas than in the city proper, according to Rose. “Part of that very rapid growth you see for the region is really still a recovery element, as opposed to the City of Edmonton, which took a much more modest hit during the recession,” he said.

“We’ve got the jobs, we don’t have the people. How do we square that circle?” he said. “It’s going to be interesting.”

Alberta adds jobs as unemployment rises across Canada

EDMONTON - Alberta bucked national employment trends in November,Statistics Canada reported Friday.

The country shed 19,000 jobs last month, the agency said, bumping unemployment up from 7.3 per cent to 7.4 per cent nationwide. But in Alberta, the jobless rate shrank from 5.1 per cent to five per cent as the province added nearly 3,000 jobs in the month.

“We had a lot of job gains in some specific sectors, such as oil and gas, scientific and technical sectors, construction,” said Darrell Winwood, spokesperson with the provincial Department of Human Services. “One of the reasons, of course, is wintertime. The oil and gas sector, traditionally, tends to be busier in the winter time. When the ground gets cold and freezes, it’s easier to move the heavy equipment into the back country.”

On Thursday, City of Edmonton chief economist John Rose said the greater Edmonton area added nearly 45,000 jobs between Oct. 2010 and Oct. 2011, more than any other metropolitan area in the country.

The Statistics Canada release paints a different picture for the country as a whole.

It was the second straight month of job losses for Canada, which saw 54,000 people leave the ranks of the employed in October.

BMO Capital Markets economist Robert Kavcic pointed out that, since the middle of this year, there have been average employment losses of about 2,000 people per month, “so there’s no question that employment growth has cooled sharply.”

Still, Kavcic noted that some of the details of the November job numbers “weren’t as bad as the headline, but certainly nothing to smile about.”

For example, there was a decline of 53,000 part-time workers last month but 35,000 more people finding full-time work.

As well, there were 11,000 more people working in the private sector last month, but that wasn’t enough to make up for the 2,200 decline in public-sector workers and 27,500 fewer people considering themselves self-employed.

CIBC World Markets chief economist Avery Shenfeld also said there were some bright spots in the details of the report, though it was still indicative of a tough job market.

“Overall, while there was at least some encouraging news in the lean back towards full-time work, the overall picture is one of a continued softening in Canada’s jobs market, suggesting a slowing in economic growth after a brisk third quarter,” Shenfeld said.

This report comes after data earlier this week showed Canada’s economy grew at a faster-than-expected annualized pace of 3.5 per cent in the three months ended in September.

There were job losses in industries such as retail and wholesale trade in November, as well as support services for business and building management. Gains were seen in areas such as personal services, construction, natural resources and utilities.

Looking more broadly, there were 43,900 fewer people in service sectors in November, with 25,200 more in goods-producing sectors.

Statistics Canada highlighted employment declines of 30,500 in Quebec and 4,200 in Saskatchewan, though Nova Scotia had a relatively strong gain of 4,400.

The Alberta government predicted more job growth in the province over the coming decade on Friday. The Human Services Department released a new forecast calling for 606,000 new jobs in Alberta by 2021, along with a potential labour shortage of up to 114,000 workers in industries like health care, tradespeople, and financial services.

‘Immigrate through legitimate means’

Chandigarh, January 5
Dwelling on the agenda of youth empowerment through quality education, skills development and employment, most of overseas participants expressed serious concerns over deterioration in the standard of senior secondary education and post-matriculation dropout rate in Punjab at the Punjabi Parvasi Divas conference here today.

Canada as a partner country in this years' conference was well represented, both among speakers and the audience.

Though Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, NRI Affairs Minister Balbir Singh Bath, Chief Secretary SC Aggarwal and NRI Commissioner Vijay Partap were conspicuous by their absence, overseas Punjabis from Canada, including Ontario Minister Harinder Takhar, Alberta MLA Peter Sandhu and former MP Gurbax Malhi, talked about how Punjabis have scripted a success story in their present country of abode.

The participants endorsed the suggestion made by the secretary-general of the International Punjabi Chamber for Service Industry Gulshan Sharma that immigration overseas should be only through legitimate, decent and dignified means.

Satinder Dhiman, a management professor in North America, through video conferencing, expressed deep concern that the dropout rate of students for post-matriculatiuon education in Punjab had shot up to more than 90 per cent. Without education, he said, no state could come up economically.

Canada's Consul-General in Chandigarh Scot Slessor said what Canada needed most was young skilled people who were comfortable in speaking English.

More than 50 per cent of the total Indian immigrants in Canada come from Punjab and its surrounding areas. Scot Slessor said list of skills in demand in Canada were all prominently displayed on the government websites. Advanced countries did not need many people with higher educational qualifications, including PhDs, but they needed plumbers, drivers, mechanics or people trained in other trades in demand. Other basic requirement was that they should be conversant with English.

Ontario Minister for Government Services said Punjabis made up for their deficiencies in education with "jugads". With their hard work and unprecedented ability to adapt themselves to the new work and living environs, they had made major strides in every area.

Peter Sandhu from Alberta said when he left India more than three decades ago, the standard of high school education was pretty good. But unfortunately, it had deteriorated rapidly. The government needed to focus on reviving education network, besides imparting training in trades that were in demand overseas.

DIASPORA DIGEST WITH JERE EHIRIBE: UK Visa Appeals – Imminent Changes

The United Kingdom has in place an appeal system against the refusal of applications for entry clearance (visa) or in the case of those already in the country, further leave to remain or a variation of leave to remain.  However the appeal system is all set to change today.

Late last year the government proposed an introduction to fee charges for appeals against adverse immigration decisions from October 2011 and a consultation was carried out.  That consultation closed in January 2011.  October 2011 came and went and some thought it was safe to exhale and then on Friday 9th December 2011 the UK Border Agency (UKBA) announced that the proposed changes will take effect from Monday December 19th 2011.
The changes are far reaching and will take many by surprise.  The changes and details include the following:

·         Charge a fee for appeals following refusal of an application.  A proposed fee of £80 for paper appeals and £140 for oral hearings.  These fees are payable by each individual appellant and so a family of  4, for example, will each pay a separate fee just as in the application

·         All appeals refused outside the UK will be lodged in the UK thereby removing the previous option of lodging at the refusing post

·         There will be no refund to an Appellant if the appeal is subsequently withdrawn, is out of time or invalid

·         An Immigration Judge has the power to award costs against the UKBA to recover the lodgement fee if the appeal is successful but only where the decision to refuse is so clearly wrong and all the required information was submitted at the time of the decision

In 2000 the UK government introduced appeal fees for family visitor appellants but they were scrapped pretty quickly because they simply did not work.  Ten years later the same idea was raised and extended not just to family visit appeals but almost right through all the categories, including settlement.  Immigration appeals are currently wholly funded by taxpayers and the government wishes to reduce this substantial cost to the taxpayer and shift some of the cost burden to the users of the Tribunal system – immigration appeals are heard by the Immigration and Asylum Chamber (IAC) of Her Majesty’s Court and Tribunals System (HMCTS).

The details of the new system will be published today the 19th of December 2011 – when the changes come into effect, which act by itself, gives very little time for potential appellants and their representatives to familiarise themselves with a whole new system that also involves a fee.

The Response Paper published in May 2011 following the consultation gives an idea of what anyone who is faced with a refusal will have to contend with. 

In the first place payment for the appeal will be taken before the appeal is processed. The government has stated that its preferred method will be by credit/debit card or by bank or wire transfer.  For appellants outside the UK this may pose untold problems.  As for the argument as to why appellants have to pay in order to lodge an appeal in the first place, the government’s position is that if they could pay a not insubstantial application fee and have had to show adequate funds for their maintenance in the UK, then they can pay the appeal fee.  Third party payment will be acceptable and so those who have family or friends in the UK can hopefully count on them to make payment on their behalf.

The government’s decision to start what it describes as a single lodgement system whereby all appeals must be lodged in the UK does not appear to take into consideration that for many overseas appellants there will be the added difficulty of ensuring that appeals are safely and timeously lodged, given the cost and the vagaries of some countries’ postal systems.  The argument is that all appeals will be collated in one place unlike the present double lodgement system which is unwieldy, creates duplication and takes more time.  It is far easier for those who are appealing inside the UK as the postal system is reliable and appeals can be lodged by fax without the constant worry that the power supply will go off halfway through the process.

Considering that the refusal rate in Nigeria is relatively high at 31% (2010 figures) it is clear that anyone who is issued a refusal notice with a right of appeal will need to consider very quickly whether to appeal and if so, how best to do so, whether by post, courier or fax, whether by asking for a paper appeal which means the appeal will be considered by an Immigration Judge on the basis of the documents submitted and any written arguments put in support of the appeal or whether indeed to opt for an oral hearing which a sponsor or UK representative can attend.  An Immigration Judge has discretion to decide whether an appeal should be considered on the papers or by way of an oral hearing regardless of the choice that has been made and paid for by an appellant.  So if an appellant has paid for a paper hearing and the Immigration Judge prefers an oral hearing, no further fee will be paid by the appellant but if an appellant asked for and paid for an oral hearing and the Immigration Judge decides to deal with the appeal on the papers, a refund of the difference in lodgement fees will be made on application by the appellant.

The fact that an immigration judge can award costs against the UKBA on a successful appeal can only be a good thing because it means that a more robust and effective decision making process will be put in place since, with the new system, wrong decisions will cost the UKBA money.  The UKBA will be unable to appeal against the award of costs alone except the substantive appeal goes further up the Tribunal chain in which case the issue of costs can be revisited and a decision made to uphold, vary or quash the order of the initial Immigration Judge.  The Upper Tribunal can award costs against the UKBA in a further appeal even where no such award was made at the initial appeal hearing.

As stated above, more information about how these changes will be implemented will be published by the UK government today.  The changes will only affect refusal notices issued from today and so for anyone whose application is refused before today, there is no appeal lodgement fee and the option to lodge the appeal with the refusing post or directly to the Tribunal in the UK is still available.