Group Sponsoring

There are many Canadian citizens who want to know whether they could sponsor to Canada their siblings still remaining in their country of birth.

Under Canadian immigration law, only those within the ‘family class’ can be sponsored. And those falling in this category are: spouses, dependent children, adopted children, parents, grandparents, orphans and ‘other relatives’. For an extended explanation of the Family Class, please refer to backgrounder on Family Class Immigration.

But there have been questions whether the remaining siblings who are married with children could be sponsored. Some say there the option is available under Group Sponsoring. When this question was put to Ravi Jain, an immigration lawyer in Toronto, he says there is no way a married sibling could be sponsored under a category called ‘group sponsoring’.

The only way a married sibling could come to Canada would be through the skilled worker system.

Group of 5 (G5)

But the Canadian government has an avenue open for refugees to be sponsored. Called Group of 5, or G5, this allows a group of five or more Canadian citizens, or those with permanent residence, to sponsor a refugee. The person to be sponsored should fulfil the criteria for refugee under Canadian refugee law or the UN convention on refugees. Generally, the refugee should be able to prove he or she has a well founded fear of being prosecuted because of race, religion etc, and should be living outside the country of birth (where he or she fears persecution). For more information, go to the Citizenship and Immigration Canada website’s section on G5 sponsorship.

Call for Canada to Bring in More Indian Students

India can expect more attention from Canadian universities and even the government’s officials responsible for immigration.

This, after an expert study called for dedicated effort to woo Indian students, not just as a source of foreign exchange, but also as an investment in cementing firm political, economic and cultural relationships with an emerging powerhouse.

In his study, titled ‘A New Direction for the Canada-India Relatiionship, Professor Ryan Touhey castigates the current status of Canada’s efforts to attract Indian students.

And Touhey has hard numbers to back up his complaint: Of the more than 150,000 Indian students going abroad every year for studies, less than three percent – about 4,000 – come to study at the various universities and colleges in Canada. Compare this to the 80,000 that go to the USA and 40,000 to Australia every year. Even New Zealand, which has much weaker links to India than Canada, with its more than half a million Indians spread throughout the country, gets more than 6,000 students every year.

Economic & Political Advantages

For one thing, attracting foreign students is good for the economy, as they pay much more than what locals pay for their studies.

A case in point is Australia.

Since the nineties, Australia has invested heavily in attracting Indian students with a number of annual events throughout the country. The foreign students sector itself is said to be the third largest foreign exchange earner, with annual earnings of about 12 billion dollars. And the estimated 100,000 Indian students are the second largest group next to Chinese.

The importance Australians pay for their foreign student component was very evident during the racially motivated attacks on Indian students in May of this year. Conversations were held at the highest level between officials of both countries, and recently even the Australian deputy prime minister was in India to reassure that Indian students are welcome.

But it is not just economy that benefits from having Indian students, says Prof. Touhey.

It is also about building future relationships.

India, along with China, is emerging as an economic powerhouse and nations are hurrying to build relationships with current leaders of those nations. But today’s students are future leaders and once they return to their home countries and rise up in life, they will fondly remember all things Canadian, and this will help Canada politically, says the study.

80,000 Foreign Students Come to Canada Annually

About 80,000 foreign students come to Canada every year and recently the government announced it was keen on increasing this number. At present, Canada offers a host of incentives for foreign students and these include allowing them to work here after studying and an easier path to permanent residency in the country.

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