Oh Canada! Warmer times for immigration in the Great White North

Canada is already home to an eclectic diverse global diaspora. (Representational Photo/Source: Michael Descharles via Unsplash)

The United States of America, the poster child for capitalism, an economic behemoth, a geopolitical goliath, and a bastion of tech supremacy. Yet, the US has spent the last decade being worried about its place in the pantheon of economic powerhouses. Innovation and the evolution of the times mean there is a sense of inevitability of a newer, more ambitious, and resourceful nation dislodging the US from the top of the totem pole.

A more pronounced worry for Washington has been that of a country stealing its best resources, hijacking its ideas, and piracy of its unique products. To be fair there is one such country starting with C that’s taking away or rather welcoming America’s top talent. Before we go down this rabbit hole, I’ll say no, not China, but it's Canada. The Great White North is warming up to immigrants as it always has, but particularly to many distressed South Asian employees who eventually waved the white flag of surrender to the bureaucratic labyrinth of American immigration.

In 2020, I wrote about how I spent over a decade between Singapore and the United States navigating the pangs of immigration bureaucracy and being dependent on the benevolence of migration policy.

For an immigrant, the right visas are a precursor to employment. Call it prosaic, but having a job, not the visa, or not getting the green light from the employment authorities is sort of having a car with no fuel.

Express Entry

Canada has played distant second fiddle to its southern neighbour, and some would argue, its relevance, as a preferred destination for migration, has been accentuated by the very fact it borders the United States. Unlike its more boisterous southern neighbour, Canada has largely displayed more public largesse in welcoming immigrants. Since 2015, the Canadian government has gone about luring high-skilled economic migrants through a system named Express Entry. It’s a one-quick click, click, click stop (online) method of acquiring permanent residence in Canada.

However, I facetiously call Canada, the Benjamin Button process of immigration; that is immigration in reverse. In the two countries that I have lived in, Singapore and the United States, one can live there for two decades, be well on the path to the immigrant dream, with a house, a spouse, an illustrious job, and a well-paying salary, and one slip from the cup and the lip, in the form of a policy change, a visa not renewed, a job loss and the grim reaper of immigrant dreams shall unfurl itself.

Canada on the other hand shows you the immigrant irony of being able to acquire a “permanent residence” without even being a resident. Almost in its Quebec quirky way of saying “never been to Montreal, no worries can apply to be a permanent resident from wherever you are”. And one could secure it from sitting in a faraway desolate desert, and then make safe passage to a Tundraesque Toronto, and begin the Benjamin Button process of immigration. As permanent residents, they now need to reverse their lives and figure out the resident life part- house, job, friends, and their favourite Tim Horton’s local shop.

Canada hasn’t really reinvented the wheel. They’re not the exception to a points-based system, other commonwealth countries in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia use it too. Ottawa has realised that the United States’ loss can be its gain.

Fading American Dream

Restrictive policies, immigration limbo, visa delays, and unwilling employers have eroded that image of “The American Dream” for economic migrants. It’s no wonder that signs in California, the tech capital of the world, and immigrant visa central, say H-1B problems, pivot to Canada.

For the cynic, Canada is a giant Scandinavia, colder and as socialist with more French speakers, whose relevance is accentuated by bordering the United States. Precisely so, despite its reputation as a more welcoming country, as compared to its southern neighbour, Canada isn’t necessarily exhibiting immigrant altruism. But prudent pragmatic migration policies to remain economically competitive. Its economy is one-tenth the side of the United States, and the world’s largest economy, which once pioneered an eclectic mix of immigrant visas to draw the world’s best technocratic talent is now missing the forest for the trees in its archaic, regressive, and moribund immigration policies.

Canada is already home to an eclectic diverse global diaspora. The Sikh community from South Asia has been far and present, long before the days of Express Entry. But a more flexible Canadian immigration system has seen several people uproot their existing immigrant stories in places like Singapore, UAE, Australia, and the US and set sail for windier yet metaphorically warmer shores.

Back in the day, the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in the US, not only ended segregation but played a role in ending the race-based immigration quota system opening the doors to many an Indian immigrant, who may not have thought of crossing the Atlantic beyond the familiarity of the colonial Empire.

The Indian diaspora in the US would go on to create its own version of the American Dream. From the ubiquity of Dr Patel, the pleasantly cliched Indian winner in Spelling Bee championships, the Silicon Valley CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, and those at the highest echelons in the public sector, starting with the incumbent Vice President, House of Reps, and Governors.

The Canadian Express Entry could be as seminal in creating a new generation of talent and the starting chapter in the book of Indo-Canadian ties.

Akshobh Giridharadas is a Washington DC-based former journalist. Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.