On June 12, 2015, Canada’s National Defence Minister Julio Fantino on behalf of Canada’s immigration minister, Chris Alexander announced the creation of a new Italian-language resource to help promote Italian immigration to Canada via Canada’s online processing system for economic immigration, Express Entry. The news release can be found here.
I think that recognition by the Federal Government of the imbalance of immigration from certain parts of the world is a good thing. More Italian immigrants to Canada, where many of our top politicians, athletes, and businesspeople have Italian roots is also a fundamentally good thing.
I also think providing resources in languages outside of Canada’s two national languages is fundamental and crucial to attracting top-class immigrants. Before an applicant goes off to taking language exams in one of the two languages, they often times (and many years prior to actually landing in Canada) have to decide to begin the very process of pursuing permanent residence. Without access to resources in the native language of Applicants, it is ripe for individuals who purport to know what they are doing (ghost consultants and the like) to provide immigration services. Many of these services are substandard and ultimately illegally performed.
My major qualm with the Federal Government’s launch of an Express Entry Italian page is that I believe it is not good optics to have resources available in one language and not other languages. With something like the Express Entry Italian page I understand that it is not as simple as creating a page and paying interpreters to translate the resource into many languages. There are discussions that need to be had with consulates, even with domestic governments who do (particularly in the case of China, the country I am now in) the type of web resources available on sensitive issues such as immigration.
However, to provide a page in Italian that is not correspondingly available in Arabic, in Farsi, in Hindu, or in Mandarin suggests Canada is aiming its resources at immigrants from select countries rather than the most economically and socially desirable immigrants from around the world. Optically, I hope many more third-language resources are made available to explain an Express Entry system that frankly is counterintuitive and confusing for many overseas applicants.
