By Tara Carman, Vancouver Sun | Link to Article
The federal government has quietly doubled the number of Irish workers allowed to enter the country without the usual check to ensure Canadians aren’t being displaced.
By Tara Carman, Vancouver Sun | Link to Article
The federal government has quietly doubled the number of Irish workers allowed to enter the country without the usual check to ensure Canadians aren’t being displaced.
The International Experience Canada visa allows anyone aged 18-35 from 32 countries party to a bilateral youth exchange agreement with Canada to work in the country for up to two years without a Labour Market Opinion. Most participants come from Europe and Australia.
Under most worker immigration streams, employers are required to first post the job in Canada for a reasonable length of time. They must then submit proof they have done so to Employment and Social Development Canada, which assesses the impact hiring that worker would have on the Canadian labour market. A positive labour market opinion, or LMO, is required for most foreign workers before Citizenship and Immigration Canada will issue a visa.
The International Experience class is exempt from that requirement because it involves quotas based on reciprocal agreements with other countries. It is subdivided into working holiday, young professional and internship/co-op streams. In B.C., it is most often associated with Australians working in Whistler or bartenders from the U.K.
Citizenship and Immigration Canada spokeswoman Amanda Lannan insisted the purpose of the program is primarily to “facilitate an economic and cultural exchange.”
“Reciprocity is an important part of that and we will be doing more to encourage Canadian youth to participate,” she said in an emailed statement.
But the Canadian government has raised those quotas significantly in recent years for Ireland in particular, a country employers here often look to as a source of skilled workers. The number of Irish workers allowed to come in on the visa increased to 10,750 this year from 4,000 in 2010. Ireland has the second-highest number of places under the program after France, where the allocation of 14,000 spots has not changed since 2010.
Read more at http://www.vancouversun.com/Ottawa+doubles+number+Irish+workers+allowed+year+visas/9734986/story.html