Donald Trump and two Republican Senators have presented an immigration plan that would move the country towards what they call a ‘merit-based’ or pointing system that rewards highly skilled workers. This plan can easily cut the immigration to United State by around 50 percent over the coming decade.
President Trump has mentioned Canada as an example for the US to emulate when it comes to immigration. However, the plan presented by Trump and Senators Tom Cotton and David Perdue at the White House, known as the Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy named RAISE Act, shows significant differences from the Canadian immigration system.
In Canada, The immigration announced cap for 2017 were set at a target of 300,000, applications which represents nearly one percent of the Canadian population. This figure does not include the many hundreds of thousands of Foreign workers and students who come to Canada each year, many of whom go on to become permanent residents.
Trump’s plan would bring US immigration from a current rate of just over one million ‘Green Cards’ issued per year to around just over half a million. This significant reduction represents around 0.15 percent of the U.S. population. Therefore Canada’s immigration levels would then be around six times greater than the U.S.
The Trump immigration plan places a greater emphasis on skilled workers than previously and removes certain family reunification categories. The proposal would no longer give green card preference to the extended family or adult children of immigrants who already live legally in the US. The plan would also end diversity lottery visas and curb the number of refugees offered permanent residence in the U.S.
Opponents of the plan argue that it does not increase skilled immigration, but rather cuts non-economic categories like family reunification and the diversity visa while creating a points-based system for employment-based green cards that does not actually increase the numerical intake cap.
Though the plan has a long way to go before becoming law and could face resistance in Congress from members of both parties, the direction of the US executive and legislative branches is certainly not moving in the direction of welcoming more immigrants. Quite the opposite, in fact not only potential applicants for immigration to the US face uncertainty as to whether they may be eligible to apply in the future, but existing applicants also often face long wait times that can go into many years.
Although the new U.S. Immigration plan does not provide details of the points breakdown for various factors that may be under consideration, though President Trump has said that individuals would favour applicants who can speak English, financially support themselves and their families, and demonstrate skills that contribute to our economy.” The President also stated that new immigrants to the US would be prevented from collecting welfare.
In Addition to many different immigration programs that qualified applicants would be able to apply to immigrate to Canada, the Canadian government decentralized immigration system and hands certain powers to the provinces, which can then set eligibility criteria for entry to their labour markets through the Provincial nominee programs.
It is worth to mention that although president Trump admires the Canadian immigration system, yet there is no similarity between the new U.S. changing proposal with the Canadian Immigration policies and there is no state involvement in future US immigration system.
