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Canada woos Irish immigrants in search of jobs

Posted: Oct 9th, 2012, 5:27 am
by oneh2obabe
Richard J. Brennan
National Affairs Writer

Irish immigrants helped build Canada since its early days. They are now being asked to pitch in again.

A job fair over the weekend in Dublin, at which Canada and Canadian companies were well represented, drew nearly 8,000 job-hungry Irish hoping to escape hard times on the Emerald Isle.

To underscore the fact that the red carpet is out, Canada’s Immigration Minister Jason Kenney was front and centre in the Irish capital, with an appearance on Ireland’s popular Late Late Show to explain how Canada is making it easier for young people to emigrate from Ireland.

Canada is in hot competition with Australia and New Zealand — favoured destinations for Irish immigrants since the economic crash defanged the once-roaring Celtic Tiger.

“We are trying to raise the profile of Canada because we have seen huge numbers of highly educated young Irish going to Australia,” Kenney told the Star before leaving on the four-day visit. “So this is a test drive on our effort to have a more proactive recruitment-based immigration system.”

Kenney said he only has to look around the parliament buildings in Ottawa to see the contributions the Irish made to Canada. “There are shamrocks (engraved in the stone) that is a reminder that the Irish are one of the founding peoples,” he said.

Alice O’Grady, 24, is one of those who left Ireland for greener pastures in Canada. Originally from Bantry, a small town in County Cork, O’Grady has been here less than three months and is currently busy handling PR for a car rental agency.

“I love it. I would actually hate to go home,” said O’Grady, who lives in east-end Toronto with her Irish boyfriend.

To sweeten the pot, Canada will increase the length of work visas for young Irish and double the quota of those who may arrive through the International Experience Canada (IEC) program.

Beginning in 2013, Citizenship and Immigration Canada will increase the number of spaces available for Irish, aged 18 to 35, by 1,000 to 6,350 and will seek to nearly double the current IEC quota to 10,000, beginning in 2014.

The IEC allows young Irish to travel and work in Canada for up to one year; they get an open work permit, which allows them to work for any Canadian employer. In exchange, young Canadians can likewise travel and work in Ireland.

Currently, Irish youth can participate twice in the IEC for a maximum of 12 months each time. Beginning in 2013, however, they will be eligible to take part in the IEC only once but for a period of up to two years, the department said.

One employer seeking Irish workers is the Labrador-based Iron Ore Co. of Canada. The company, which also attended the Dublin job fair, needs 200 skilled trades — electricians, heavy duty mechanics and millwrights among them — over the next five years and is convinced that Ireland can supply them.

Newfoundland and Labrador have “really strong Irish roots and a very strong Irish cultural heritage, so we believe that would be a really great fit,” said Heather Bruce-Veitch, the company’s director of external relations.

Toronto’s John Harrington, a registered Canadian immigration consultant with several Irish clients, said people “are cold-calling me from Ireland” looking for work.

“Their economic recession has brought a lot of that about. I see a lot of the skilled trades, electrician, plumbers, engineers,” he said.

But he cautioned that anyone who comes over as a labourer won’t have an opportunity to immigrate to Canada “unless you marry someone here. It’s all based on the skill level of your occupation.”

An excited Jack Price, 24, is coming to Canada in two weeks.

“I managed bars in Ireland, so hopefully I will get into the bar business,” said Price, also from Bantry.

Price, a qualified sailing instructor, said he “fell in love” with Canada when he visited in 2010 for a Georgian Bay sailing competition.

According to the Irish Times, attendance was down about 25 per cent compared with the same event last March, when attendees lined up for over three hours to get in and many people were turned away.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/arti ... ch-of-jobs

Re: Canada woos Irish immigrants in search of jobs

Posted: Oct 9th, 2012, 6:24 am
by Smurf
Isn't it funny how many Canadians will sit and complain about no jobs basically refusing to leave town to get one. Meantime it seems like Europeans and others will move around the world for a job. Maybe if you're actually there it is no different and we just see the ones that are willing to move but they do seem more transient.

Time for Danada to get in gear and get our own unemployed trained and filling these jobs.

Re: Canada woos Irish immigrants in search of jobs

Posted: Oct 9th, 2012, 8:44 am
by grammafreddy
Isn't it sad that the government of Canada will spend that kind of money trying to attract skilled workers and tradespeople from other countries rather than spend the money to help Canadians upgrade and improve their skills and/or relocate so they can fill those jobs like the ones which will be coming up in Labrador?

The two Irish people who are interviewed in the article ... the girl filling a PR position in a car rental agency and the fellow who wants to come to Canada to work in a bar ... that's not skilled labour and those jobs should be going to Canadians first.

Re: Canada woos Irish immigrants in search of jobs

Posted: Oct 9th, 2012, 1:55 pm
by Smurf
Agreed 100%. But further to what I was saying I believe many Canadians want huge pay, no work (especially not hard), regular hours (no evenings , weekends or holidays) and on and on. I remember doing interviews when we had our business and it was scary. It would be interesting to see the attitude if these people coming in.

Re: Canada woos Irish immigrants in search of jobs

Posted: Oct 9th, 2012, 2:09 pm
by Rwede
grammafreddy wrote:Isn't it sad that the government of Canada will spend that kind of money trying to attract skilled workers and tradespeople from other countries rather than spend the money to help Canadians upgrade and improve their skills and/or relocate so they can fill those jobs like the ones which will be coming up in Labrador?

The two Irish people who are interviewed in the article ... the girl filling a PR position in a car rental agency and the fellow who wants to come to Canada to work in a bar ... that's not skilled labour and those jobs should be going to Canadians first.



Better change the outlook of some lazy-assed, self-entitled Canadians that you can train to accept the job and work. Otherwise, you'll be forced to look elsewhere. Too many socialists in this country who think the world owes them a living for doing nothing.

Re: Canada woos Irish immigrants in search of jobs

Posted: Oct 9th, 2012, 2:31 pm
by grammafreddy
This seems like quite a vicious circle then ... what will the end result be in, say, 20 years from now?

Current Canadians on welfare while the new immigrant workers pay the taxes to shelter and feed us?

Somehow I don't see that working out too well for us.

Re: Canada woos Irish immigrants in search of jobs

Posted: Oct 9th, 2012, 2:34 pm
by OnTheRoadAgain
there is no guarantee that twenty years from now there will be a welfare system, employment insurance, or even old age security or medical coverage.

Re: Canada woos Irish immigrants in search of jobs

Posted: Oct 9th, 2012, 3:12 pm
by theyeti
funny talkers all of em

Re: Canada woos Irish immigrants in search of jobs

Posted: Oct 9th, 2012, 3:25 pm
by Captain Awesome
grammafreddy wrote:Isn't it sad that the government of Canada will spend that kind of money trying to attract skilled workers and tradespeople from other countries rather than spend the money to help Canadians upgrade and improve their skills and/or relocate so they can fill those jobs like the ones which will be coming up in Labrador?


Well, I don't think they're spending that much money on attracting people. Job fairs are not exactly capital intensive investments, and immigrants from the economical side of view are way more profitable for the economy. And Canada is seriously lacking skilled people.

Re: Canada woos Irish immigrants in search of jobs

Posted: Oct 9th, 2012, 4:52 pm
by steven lloyd
grammafreddy wrote:This seems like quite a vicious circle then ... what will the end result be in, say, 20 years from now?

Don’t worry grammy – we’ll all be dead, ...
... bored to death from reading the same old we're all lazy-assed, self-entitled Canadians rhetoric.

Re: Canada woos Irish immigrants in search of jobs

Posted: Oct 9th, 2012, 8:08 pm
by grammafreddy
steven lloyd wrote:
grammafreddy wrote:This seems like quite a vicious circle then ... what will the end result be in, say, 20 years from now?

Don’t worry grammy – we’ll all be dead, ...
... bored to death from reading the same old we're all lazy-assed, self-entitled Canadians rhetoric.


Yeah, yer right. I'll certainly not be here to care.

I must be losing my marbles anyway ... imagine me suggesting government spend money on any kind of social anything!!!! :ohmygod:

Image

Re: Canada woos Irish immigrants in search of jobs

Posted: Oct 10th, 2012, 6:53 am
by juz516
Canada has been doing these job/education fairs all over the world for years.....Mexico (annual), UAE, Oman.....

Re: Canada woos Irish immigrants in search of jobs

Posted: Oct 11th, 2012, 9:34 am
by Rwede
steven lloyd wrote:
grammafreddy wrote:This seems like quite a vicious circle then ... what will the end result be in, say, 20 years from now?

Don’t worry grammy – we’ll all be dead, ...
... bored to death from reading the same old we're all lazy-assed, self-entitled Canadians rhetoric.




http://www.conferenceboard.ca/hcp/detai ... anada.aspx



"Low productivity levels present an enormous challenge for Canada’s future economic prosperity. In 2008, Canada’s level of productivity was US$35, much lower than that of the United States, at US$44. This earned Canada a disappointing 16th place among its 17 peer countries on the level of labour productivity. Only Japan was lower. Worse still, Canada’s productivity level has fallen to 80 per cent of the U.S. level from a high of 90 per cent in the mid-1980s. Despite a broad and growing consensus that Canadian productivity needs to be improved, the gap with the U.S. is widening, not narrowing."

Re: Canada woos Irish immigrants in search of jobs

Posted: Oct 13th, 2012, 12:29 pm
by theyeti
well get to work rwede its lazy ppl like u who let it get so bad im working now no time to type