The Globe has developed fictional profiles of prospective immigrants. We asked two experts to assess the candidates. Who would you choose?
TOM
Tom is a 45-year-old man from the United States who plans to move his geological survey business to Calgary. Over the past few years, he's worked with more and more Canadian clients and has decided to relocate to the heart of the Canadian oil patch, hoping it will help him expand his company. He isn't worried about culture shock - in his frequent trips to Canada, he's seen very few differences between the two countries. He would bring his wife, a stay-at-home mother, and their three children. But Tom and his family plan to keep their home in Texas and have no intention of applying for Canadian citizenship. At heart, they'll always be American.
Martin Collacott: Tom's an interesting case because he doesn't want to apply for Canadian citizenship. It's something that's going to happen with two countries side-by-side with similar cultures. It's very easy for him to retain an attachment to the United States. Our situation is almost unique with the United States to have two countries with almost identical cultures and similar political cultures where people can move back and forth [under NAFTA]quite easily and fit very easily into the job market. The fact that he [won't]become a Canadian suggests that he's probably going to go back and retire in the United States.
Sharryn Aiken: Clearly this is somebody who's going to be able to hit the ground running from a contribution-to-the-economy point of view. But on the other hand, we see a family that has no intention of applying for Canadian citizenship and wanting to maintain their home in Texas. The question that I would have about this family is really should we be making room in our program for people who really have no intention of making a long-term commitment to the country? Because after all, our immigration program is really premised on the notion that it's about becoming citizens, unless you're coming as a temporary worker. We put the resources in the program in order to expand the population base in Canada. Based on the current rules, I'd have no choice but to accept him. But I would be thinking to myself this is not really what our immigration program should be doing.
Jill Mahoney