Canadians of convenience

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The term "Canadians of convenience" became prominent in 2006 in conjunction with the evacuation of Canadian citizens from Lebanon during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict. It is a pejorative term intended to refer to multiple-citizenship Canadians who immigrated to Canada, met the minimum residency requirement to obtain citizenship, moved back to their original home country, but continue to hold onto their Canadian citizenship as a safety-net.

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[edit] Coining of the term

Although the term was used by others (such as Peter Worthington of the Toronto Sun) earlier during the conflict in Lebanon, it was made most prominent by posts by Garth Turner, a then Conservative MP for Halton, on his blog, and the subsequent reactions. Turner questioned the fairness of paying CAD$75,000 for each evacuee, saying, among other things, "that’s a hell of a lot of money to donate to people who do not live here, don’t pay taxes here, and may never come here again in their lives." The actual cost was about $6,300 for each evacuee ($94 million for 15,000 people).

Part of the reason for the backlash against the dual-citizens during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict stemmed from TV news reports that repeatedly featured Lebanese-Canadians in Lebanon complaining about the Canadian government and its evacuation effort. Of the 15,000 evacuated, about 7,000 returned to Lebanon within a month of being evacuated.

[edit] Criticism and support of the term

Turner was criticized by some for suggesting that there are two classes of Canadian citizens. Other editorials supported the use of the phrase Canadians of convenience and said many immigrants meet their minimum residence requirement to gain Canadian citizenship (which, since 1977, can essentially never be revoked -- see History of Canadian nationality law), leave the country, and only call upon their Canadian citizenship again when in need of free medicare (e.g., for an operation) or emergency evacuation from a war zone. The Economist noted that "Of the 5.5 million Canadians born abroad, 560,000 declared in the most recent census that they hold passports from another country. This feeds the belief that some are using Canada as a safety net.

Some of the comments related to the expense associated with welcoming a new immigrant only to see them leave. In addition to immigration processing costs, landed immigrants are entitled to free language training (under provincial programs usually called LINC), welfare, and free medicare. Due to the settlement challenges they face, landed immigrants often rely on government support programs such as welfare and subsidized housing[1] as their employment rate is only 44%.[2] This is significantly lower than the average employment rate in Canada of 72% (see List of countries by employment rate and Economic impact of immigration to Canada).

[edit] Government policy

The official policy of the government of Canada is that a dual-citizen is the responsibility of the foreign government when living in the foreign country; however, in practice Canada generally does not distinguish between dual-citizen and single-citizen Canadians, as was the case during the 2006 evacuation from Lebanon. Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he plans to review current practice.

Canada permits multiple citizenship. Some countries do not grant citizenship to new applicants unless they renounce their original citizenship. For example, Canada currently grants Canadian citizenship to Chinese applicants without requiring that they give up Chinese citizenship; however, Canadians applying for Chinese citizenship are required by China to "not retain foreign nationality."[3]

The C. D. Howe Institute has suggested the possibility that the government charge a $500 fee for passport renewals for non-residents, to cover the costs of supporting non-resident Canadians, and to reduce the number of non-resident Canadians who renew their passports with little intention of actively relying on it.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Housing Is Good Social Policy, Canadian Policy Research Networks, Research Report F50, Family Network, December 2004, URL accessed 20 September 2006
  2. ^ Labour Participation by immigration class, Statistics Canada, URL accessed 2 July 2006
  3. ^ Articles 13 of the Nationality Law of the People's Republic of China, URL accessed 21 October 2006
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