Family reunification plan a short term solution: critics

Toronto may soon be home - a temporary one - to many more parents and grandparents.


Pressed by immigrant families for action on a growing application backlog, Federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney recently announced he would create parent and grandparent "super visas" which could be extended for up to 10 years.


The "super visas" are good for two years, where previously visiting elders had to renew after six months.


"This is clearly not warranted for parents and grandparents because they are a low-risk group," said a government release, which promised the new visas, available as of next month, would be issued quickly. "This means that instead of waiting for eight years, a parent or grandparent can come to Canada within about eight weeks."


This week, groups representing Toronto immigrants, notably in the Chinese community, gave the announcement a mixed reception.


Kenney said he would admit more parents and grandparents to Canada as permanent residents this year - 25,000, compared to 15,500 such admissions in 2010.


But he also announced a "temporary pause" in accepting parent or grandparent applications for up to two years.


"I don't really think he listened to us," said Felix Zhang, spokesperson for a Scarborough-based support group, Sponsor Our Parents, which had asked Kenney not to freeze applications.


Zhang said he sees the "super visa" option as a short-term relief for people waiting for reunification with parents. Kenney, he said, "has to do something; otherwise, people would panic."


At this rate, more than half of the backlog won't be processed in two years, and by then many families seeking reunification will have waited seven years, said Zhang. "What about them?"


Family reunification was a "sleeper issue" in this year's federal election campaign, at least in the Chinese community and media, said Victor Wong, executive director of the Chinese Canadian National Council.


The group welcomed the boost in numbers for 2012, and Wong called the 10-year visa option "one more tool that families can use" but said Chinese-Canadians haven't heard a good reason for freezing applications.


"By cutting it off, you just distress a whole bunch of people."


Reunification with family elders produces growth and jobs in Canada, Wong argued, because people preparing to house their parents renovate homes and buy new furniture.


They can also stop sending cash overseas, he said. "I'd rather they spend the money here."


In addition to having a "written commitment of financial support," families of parents and grandparents arriving on "super visas" must "demonstrate" they have bought private Canadian medical insurance.


This insurance won't be cheap, and seems to follow a tendency in recent Canadian immigration policy to favour wealthier families, said Avvy Go, director of the Metro Toronto Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic.


(Ontario does not give any landed immigrants health coverage for the first few months after they arrive.)


The Canadian system treats spouses and dependent children as the only "real" family members and reunification of parents and grandparents is seen as less important, but that's not a view shared by Asian families, Go said.


Since private health insurance is not a requirement for other visas, it's not fair for "super visas" because not everybody will be able to afford it, said Amy Casipullai of the Ontario Coalition of Agencies Serving Immigrants.


Casipullai said her group is not opposed to "super visas" for people waiting to be sponsored, "but only in that context, not as a replacement" for landed immigrant status.