Canadian immigration minister wants to tighten language proficiency rules
January 27 2012 by Helen Johnson
Canadian immigration minister, Jason Kenney, is calling for some changes to the language proficiency requirements for the Provincial Nominee Program.
The current system allows provinces to nominate people for Canadian visas to fill gaps in the labour market in their specific regions. However, Minister Kenney said he would like to do more to prevent abuse of the system by ensuring that each and every newcomer granted a Canadian visa under the scheme, can speak at least one of the country's two official languages: English and French.
Kenney argues that there is a "correlation" between instances of visa fraud and immigrants who cannot speak English or French. He explained, "Some of the people who have lower language proficiency have come in through these investor schemes, that we've had to shut down because they were quite dodgy.
"Some provinces were allowing consultants to run fast and loose and attract people who had a lot of money but no language proficiency."
Kenney also asserts that those with proficient English or French will be better equipped to protect themselves against unscrupulous agencies that want to help them into the country through fraudulent means.
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