Freebird

Today Statistics Canada released new census reports, and the Globe and Mail published a set of interviews with immigrants. One recent refugee from Myanmar living in Newfoundland had this to say:

"I feel very safe. It's freedom," she says. "It's a nice place. I'm not afraid anywhere. I'm not afraid [of] any soldier but Burmese. I still [feel] like a freedom, like a bird fly in the sky."

That and the rest of her story sure puts my bitching about tasers into perspective. What a wonderful place I live, where that's the worst that happens.

A world unwelcome

Tom Ridge told the NY Times “The welcome mat has a little dust on it right now. We have to spruce it up a bit.”

Well, that's an understatement. People I meet go to great lengths to avoid traveling through what was once known as the Sweet Land of Liberty; it has now become a rogue state of the worst reputation. It seems like everybody has a story about being mistreated at the border or the visa office, and people will pay hundreds extra to avoid connecting flights there.

... and the chocolate ration has been increased
to four grams per month!

Aside from having flushed its hospitality industry, The US no longer attracts the brightest and best students and workers; they're now looking at Europe, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Heck, they're flocking to Dubai. You know you're in trouble when you can't compete for labour with a country whose working conditions have been described as "less than human". Richard Florida, who coined the term "creative class", documents this in The Flight of the Creative Class.

For a real-world example, direct your gaze to the building across the street from my office: Microsoft just opened a
global development facility in Richmond, BC. Three hours by car from their headquarters in Redmond, it is designed to allow Microsoft to recruit the best and brightest to work for them and live in an industrialized nation with a functioning civil society. They plan to employ 800 people there. Those would otherwise be jobs in Redmond if the US didn't have its priorities seriously out of order.

Diane Finley: Conservative glamour queen

"Canada's New Government" (which has been in power for almost two years) is all about controlling image. Note the spectacular Diane Finley. Yes, yes, I know, she has a condition that requires her to wear dark glasses. But does she also have a condition that makes her curl her lip like Billy Idol? Furthermore, does the Conservative Party have a condition that makes them unable to judge the suitability of photographs? Or do her staffers just hate her? What other possible reasons would prompt someone to post a photograph like this on the front page of her ministry's website?

Selling Ontario to Atlantans

Somebody asked me how to recruit folks in the Atlanta area to move to Ontario. It was a great move for us – our situation required that we leave the states, as my husband is not a US citizen and we couldn't stay there any longer. So Canada was great for us on that level, and for gay people a whole hell of a lot better place to live in general. Not having to listen to constant anti-gay rhetoric in our daily life is quite liberating, and we don't miss the constant reminders of second-class citizenship in every official capacity, from taxes to insurance to hospital visits. Similarly, Black and Hispanic friends who have left the states for Canada have been generally happy, as have various non-US people who went there to work for a while (particularly Moslems, and some Asians and eastern Europeans, and notably expatriate Canadians sick of the states).

Progressive/liberal straight white Americans like to say they want to move, and I've read stories about them, but I've never actually seen it happen (they're kind of like unicorns). The tax disadvantage is quite profound, with the mortgage interest deduction in the states, the lower federal and state income taxes, sales taxes, etc. The real estate situation in Atlanta is hard to beat, especially if size is your criteria and you don't mind driving for hours a day. Livable communities are a lot easier to find in Canada, but for homeowners the price would be very difficult: Atlanta's in a slump, so they'd have to unload their gargantuan white elephants in a buyer's market, then buy a crackerbox in a seller's market in Ontario (or rent, which isn't so bad). Very few straight white folks would be feel any urge to make a switch at present. The healthcare system is a possible magnet, though Americans have been fed a line of fear on that one too. Perhaps people who want to desert from the armed forces, or skip out on their student loans? Maybe people who don't like having a lot of retail selection but do like paying more? (I'm reaching here. :)

So disenchanted minorities of all stripes, recent immigrants without green cards or citizenship (the process here is much faster and easier), recently graduated international students... there's the sweet spot. Otherwise, I would think it would be hard to sell an Ontario opportunity in Atlanta.

Canadian immigration

Adolfo and I get a lot of questions about Canadian immigration. We first came to Canada on a NAFTA work permit based on letter by my employer (issued in less than an hour at the border), and once we were here we applied for permanent residency. The process took 21 months from the time we arrived until we got our residency cards.

Canadian immigration is pretty straightforward, as the basic federal system works on a point system: you get points for education, work experience, youth, children, and language abilities, and once you cross a threshold (barring any criminal or health problems) you're in. That's the process we followed. There are also programs where some provinces (not Ontario) can select you based on specific labour needs they have: construction (and everything else) in Alberta, construction in British Columbia, etc. With these programs there are few prerequisites, and you can come to Canada very quickly. There are also numerous work visa programs.

We worked with an immigration lawyer when we came, and it was very helpful. If your case is in any way problematic, or you are under time pressure, I highly recommend consulting a professional to understand your options. You may wish to work with a lawyer in the province where you plan to settle, as they will probably be the most familiar with the provincial nomination programs.

Our lawyer was Peter Rekai in Toronto. We found him and his staff to be very knowledgeable and professional; and another friend also had a very good experience with him. I have also seen many mentions of barbara findlay in Vancouver, who handles many lesbian and gay immigration cases (including landmark cases).

I am happy to answer questions, but IANAL and am not qualified to give legal advice. The best advice I can give is to get started today, because every day you procrastinate further delays the end of a sometimes stressful process.