Re: Federal immigration policies give Ontario fewer skilled workers, McGuinty says

Arizona tried and that case is ultimately destined for the Supreme Court.  
However that, arguably, had more to do with trying to prevent illegal 
immigration and not about coming up with rules/regulations for admitting 
residents.  You still hear about "states rights" arguments but such real rights 
are few and far between.  Apparently the Commerce Clause makes everything 
interstate commerce, (cough - bullshit- cough).

Also,  preemption is a pretty well established doctrine in the US.   Basically, 
if a state law conflicts with a federal one the state law has  to go.  Deciding 
whether/how a law conflicts is the tricky part and usually when the Commerce 
Clause card gets played.  


So short answer made long, no the states don't have the power to decide who gets 
to immigrate, establish residency or become a citizen of the country.  And I'm 
not aware of any states clamoring for the power to do so.  But you could make a 
good argument that some of the border states are in a better position, both in 
location and first hand knowledge, to make such calls.

Mike F.  
(not sure if he answered the question.)







________________________________
From: Peter Chattaway <petert-LOVM4QxV+tDq6eQxt3vRmLDks+cytr/[email protected]>
To: Daniel Amos off-topic listserver <[email protected]>
Sent: Thu, April 21, 2011 10:45:55 AM
Subject: [DADL-OT] Federal immigration policies give Ontario fewer skilled 
workers, McGuinty says

Do the American states have powers like this, or agitate for powers like this?

- - -

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ontario-demands-more-immigration-powers-to-compete-with-manitoba-quebec-bc/article1992729/


KAREN HOWLETT AND LAURA CONRAD
Globe and Mail Update
Published Wednesday, Apr. 20, 2011 11:23AM EDT
Last updated Wednesday, Apr. 20, 2011 8:58PM EDT

Ontario is seeking a new deal on immigration that would give the province more 
autonomy over selecting talented newcomers and designing programs to integrate 
them into Canadian society.

The top-down approach to immigration dictated by the federal government is 
leaving Canada’s most populous province at a competitive disadvantage, Premier 
Dalton McGuinty said on Wednesday. At a time when Ontario is attempting to 
rebuild its economy, it is losing highly skilled immigrants with the best 
prospects of landing good jobs to other provinces.

This is not a new problem for Ontario. But Mr. McGuinty has chosen to raise it 
now, less than two weeks before the federal election, because he said the 
campaign provides an ideal opportunity to address his concerns. Last week, he 
called on the federal party leaders to put health care and the need for a new 
10-year funding accord on the agenda and said he was pleased that it has since 
become a bigger topic of discussion.

On immigration, Mr. McGuinty’s main complaint is that three other provinces – 
British Columbia, Manitoba and Quebec – have been given more control over 
designing and administering settlement and language training programs. Quebec 
has the broadest powers, allowing it to select which immigrants become 
residents.

“The reality is, right now, we’re being held back by an uneven playing field,” 
Mr. McGuinty told reporters.

But his pleas likely will fall on deaf ears. Successive federal governments have 
used immigration policies and funding for settlement services as tools to help 
them make inroads into ethnic communities.

Former Liberal governments led by both Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin used these 
programs to boost their support in the Greater Toronto Area. Immigration 
Minister Jason Kenney, Stephen Harper’s point man on ethnic politics, has done 
the same for the Conservatives, said Matthew Mendelsohn, director of the Mowat 
Centre, a public-policy research group, and a former top Ontario government 
bureaucrat.

“The federal government doesn’t want to give up the power to go into community 
centres from a variety of different ethnic backgrounds with a $200,000 cheque,” 
Mr. Mendelsohn said in an interview. “They don’t want to give up the power of 
political patronage.”

Ontario was at one time the destination of choice for the highly skilled worker. 
But immigration policies introduced by the Conservative government have tilted 
the playing field in favour of the resource-rich Western provinces, leaving 
Ontario with a shrinking share of highly skilled workers from other countries.

Ontario remains a magnet for immigrants. Every year, the province attracts the 
highest share of newcomers to Canada. But only 18 per cent of Ontario’s 
immigrants were so-called economic-class workers in 2010, ranking the province 
below the national average. In 2001, by comparison, Ontario ranked second 
highest in Canada, with 25 per cent of immigrants in the economic class.

Eric Hoskins, Ontario Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, said new federal 
rules introduced in 2008 make it easier for a global pool of resource-sector 
workers to move to the top of the queue.

In the past, Canada typically brought in the lion’s share of its immigrants 
under the federal skilled worker program, which rated applicants with points for 
things such as university degrees, job experience and whether they spoke English 
or French. But in 2008, the Conservatives limited the processing of applications 
under that category to 38 job descriptions.

The list, which has subsequently been cut to 29 descriptions, is out of step 
with Ontario’s economic priorities, Dr. Hoskins said. Ontario, which can no 
longer count on manufacturing for its prosperity, is trying to build a 
knowledge-based economy.

“There are very few jobs on that list that reflect the future of the Ontario 
economy,” Dr. Hoskins said in an interview.

As well, he said, if Ontario was able to design and administer its own 
immigration programs, it could offer one-stop-shopping services to newcomers 
more efficiently and for less than what Ottawa spends.

In Vancouver, Guastavo Herrera said his wife was able to take advantage of the 
services British Columbia offers to newcomers when they moved to the city from 
Mexico in 2007.

“When we came here, my wife didn’t speak any English. … I was working so it was 
impossible for my wife to go to school,” said Mr. Herrera, who has a degree in 
veterinary medicine, as well as a master’s in business administration, and is 
the owner of a restaurant in downtown Vancouver called Laguna Blu.

His wife found a social-service provider in Surrey, where she was able to study 
English as well as learn about Canadian laws and customs while receiving free 
childcare for the couple’s two children. The organization, known as 
S.U.C.C.E.S.S., provides a variety of services to immigrants in British 
Columbia.

“If we didn’t find S.U.C.C.E.S.S. things would have been a lot harder,” Mr. 
Herrera said.


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