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Citizenship
Immigration and Citizenship
http://dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/Collection/Ci63-16-1999E.pdf
During the last five years, Canadian citizenship was granted to an average of 150,000 persons per year (1999).
About 85 percent of immigrants become Canadian citizens.
To apply to become a Canadian citizen:
You must be a permanent resident of Canada (landed immigrant);
You must have lived in Canada for at least three of the past four years;
You must be at least 18 years of age to apply on your own;
You must complete an application form and mail it, along with the appropriate documents, photographs and fee, to the CPC in Sydney, Nova Scotia (contact a Call Centre to obtain an application form and determine the steps to follow);
You must be tested on your knowledge and understanding of English or French, of Canada as a nation, and of the rights and responsibilities of Canadian citizenship (you will be notified by mail as to where and when to take the test);
If you pass the test, you will be invited to a citizenship ceremony where you will take the Oath of Citizenship and receive a certificate of Canadian citizenship.Immigration Data
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/policy/sds/sds-e.html
About 300,000 copies of a plain-language citizenship study guide, A Look at Canada, were distributed in 1996. The guide outlines the responsibilities and privileges of Canadian citizenship. Under the authority of the Immigration Act, over 100 million examinations of persons seeking to come into Canada are carried out at ports of entry each year. Of a total of 312,013 immigrants, refugees and visitors assessed in 1995 for medical admissibility, some 20,400 (or 6.5%) were found "admissible with surveillance", "temporarily inadmissible" or "inadmissible".
In 1996, 5,838 persons were removed from Canada, including 1,838 criminals and 2,464 failed refugee claimants.Government of Canada Events
http://www.canada.gc.ca/whats/nel_fg_e.html
Canadian Multiculturalism Day - 27 June: Celebrates Canada's cultural richness and diversity and the contributions made by various cultural groups and communities to Canadian society.
Citizenship Week - 17-23 October (third week of October): Recognizes the value of immigration and citizenship and focuses on the rights, privileges, obligations and responsibilities of citizenship.Citizenship Education for Democracy in the 21st Century
http://www.bctf.ca/events/PublicEdConf/report98.html
The purpose of the conference program is to look forward to what the possibilities might be for citizenship education in the very near future rather than dwell on perceived inadequacies of school programs today. To that end the conference was designed to both introduce a wide range of ideas about citizenship and to allow all participants considerable opportunity to help chart the course for the future.Citizenship Act (Right to Citizenship)
http://parl11.parl.gc.ca/35/1/parlbus%5Cchambus%5Chouse%5Cdebates/124_94-11-16/124PB1E.html
Citizenship should come not only with a list of rights. It should also come with responsibilities which help make us better citizens and our country one of the very best to live in… New Canadians seldom take their place in Canada for granted. The freedoms we enjoy and the wealth and beauty of the land should make us all uniquely proud to be Canadians, but the pride in the land comes from participation and shared responsibilities for the future of our families and our communities… Nationhood is built around shared values, a shared history, indeed a shared commitment to the country. This calls for responsible interaction and a commitment to being in this country. It is a willingness to become part of the community and to be committed to the pursuit of learning together what it takes to make the country great.Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat - Canada's Performance 2005: The Government of Canada's Contribution
http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/report/govrev/05/cp-rc06_e.asp
This announcement is consistent with the October 2004 Speech from the Throne, which committed to modernizing Canada's Citizenship Act to reaffirm the responsibilities and rights of Canadian citizenship and Canada's values of multiculturalism, linguistic duality, and gender equality. In 2005, the Government of Canada will also undertake its final year of its campaign "Canada: We all Belong" to promote core Canadian values of citizenship to newcomers and all Canadians. This campaign addresses discrimination by celebrating diversity and cultivating a sense that not only do newcomers belong to Canada but Canada also belongs to them.The Changing Context of Cultural Policy and Citizenship in Canada
http://66.46.139.215/ccrndocs/library/3.Colloquium_Presentations/Foote_-_Changing_Context.pdf
Culture and citizenship are two very broad and dynamic realities that are shaped and influenced by a broad range of contextual factors that are changing rapidly in Canada and globally. Change in systems is nothing new but increasingly rapid change of a potentially transforming nature is changing the way we live, the scope and power of cultural and citizenship-related goods and services created, produced and consumed, and our capacity to identify, measure, evaluate and understand their effects and implications… Key questions: Are today’s changes more rapid and influential (system changing) than traditional change in the respective cultural environments? Is change more revolutionary today and in the future than it is evolutionary? Based on existing knowledge and information gathering and analytical systems, as well as on possible futures instruments, can we predict a reasonable amount of the future, at least over the short- and medium-term? What might get in the way of using futures analysis to identify existing historical trends and to predict change in the future?Values and State Control of Migrants: The Case of Canada
http://www.yorku.ca/crs/Publications/OCEP%20PDFs/H%20A%20Values%20and%20State%20
Controls%20of%20Migrants-%20The%20Case%20of%20Canada.PDF
The current Act contains inconsistencies and…some fundamental provisions are unclear and open to interpretation by the courts and to abuse from people seeking Canadian citizenship for the numerous advantages it provides... The explanation and rationale for the Act seems to echo the concerns of the academics. In formal terms, the values are consistency and clarity for interpretive purposes for both the academic analyst and the state bureaucracy. In ethical terms, the prime values are equity and fairness for the academic analyst. However, for the state bureaucrat and policy maker in Canada, the overall value was not equity or fairness - whatever the public relations spin - but "strengthening the value of Canadian citizenship." (Citizenship of Canada Act, 1 ). Equity or fairness, as well as humanitarianism, were qualifications in the application of the principle of adherence to a core of Canadian values...Migrant Workers: Best Practices Regarding Integration and Citizenship
http://www.iom.int/documents/officialtxt/en/timothy%5Fowen.pdf
Organizations which provide services that meet more than one settlement need tend to be more successful as settlement agencies. This has been called a holistic service model, or simply one that responds to the multiple needs of an immigrant family. Organizations which need to refer their clients from one service provider to another, at different locations in a city, risk losing them… Not only are programs which are run by immigrants more effective at addressing the needs of the people they serve, but the opportunities (paid and voluntary) that organizations provide to immigrants are in themselves beneficial to their settlement and integration.Citizenship Education in Canada
http://dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/Collection-R/LoPBdP/BP/bp326-e.htm#INTRODUCTION(txt)
This paper provides information on citizenship education in this country, touching upon its various aspects and participants in its development and provision, including governments and the voluntary sector. It is an introduction to a complex subject, emphasizing its evolution in recent years. A brief discussion is included of certain relevant developments in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Historically, the idea of citizenship was based on the concept of membership in a homogeneous cultural group, and focused on duties pertaining to the well-being of that group. In the modern world, however, immigration patterns and improved international transportation and communications have brought about closer relationships among different cultural groups within the global community. With growing heterogeneity of populations and interdependence among nations, new notions of citizenship are developing and citizenship education has become an increasingly complex issue.
Citizenship and Citizenship Education
http://fcis.oise.utoronto.ca/~daniel_sch/lclp/c&ce.html
Citizenship education for what kind of citizenship? Status: Inclusive citizenship; Identity: Pluralistic citizenship; Civic virtues: Critical and caring citizenship; Agency: Active citizenship... Citizenship education: Main orientations; Adult citizenship education in Canada: An overview; An international agenda for adult citizenship education.Policy: Values, Diversity, and Implementation
http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/research/cld/images/policy%20lit%20review.doc
Between the 1890s and 1920s citizenship education focused on assimilation and Canadianization... Citizenship education in the 1920s through to 1960s may be characterized as education as socialization and social living... Citizenship education in the 1960s to the 1980s began to reflect the broader and more inclusive notions of citizenship becoming evident in Canadian society at large... Osborne (1996) declared the 1990s as the beginning of the disappearance of citizenship education in Canada.Immigrants, Multiculturalism and Canadian Citizenship
http://www.pearson-shoyama.ca/Hot_Button/immigran.htm
Most of the focus of multiculturalism policy (and most of its funding) has been directed to promoting civic participation in the larger society, and to increasing mutual understanding and cooperation between the members of different ethnic groups. More generally, the multiculturalism policy has never stated or implied that people are under any duty or obligation to retain their ethnic identity/practices "freeze-dried", or indeed to retain them at all. On the contrary, the principle that individuals should be free to choose whether to maintain their ethnic identity has been one of the cornerstones of the policy since 1971, and continues to guide existing multiculturalism programs.Finding the Balance: Citizenship, Immigration and Security
http://www.atlantic.metropolis.net/events/Sovereignty%20in%20the%2021st%20century%20security.doc
Immigrants and Refugees: Security Concerns versus Civil Liberties, The Issue of Balance, The Sovereignty Issue... What balance is to be struck between individual rights protections and the obligations individuals owe to every other individual in the world to ensure protection of those rights? What balance is to be struck between the rights to perpetuate a group identity and to provide particular protections for members of one’s own nation versus the obligations to treat everyone equally under the law? What balance is to be struck between a state’s obligations to ensure the security of its own territory and the people on it and the obligation states assume to protect others who lack the support of the states in which they are members? These are the real questions – not balancing our fear of threats against the preservation of individual liberties.The Dominion: Citizenship as "contribution" and alternative economies
http://dominionpaper.ca/features/2004/02/03/what_if_we.html
From a social justice perspective, the following things about our economy and its definition of contribution are troubling: Those who have little or nothing cannot be seen as contributors. At best, they are tolerated… Those who already have some will end up higher on the virtue scale whenever additional criteria are added. The order never changes… The interactions within this dominant economy are not required to be between actual persons. They often aren't.A Canadian Union Perspective on Education and Citizenship: The role immigrant experience of labour markets and work
http://home.oise.utoronto.ca/~psawchuk/SAWCHU~2.PDF
While more frequently we find analysis of the relation between immigration and labour markets, discussions of citizenship – involving issues of identity, values, expectations, experiences, rights and responsibilities – have not typically been examined for the ways that it is defined and actively created within labour markets, workplaces and the economy. In particular, it remains very rare that issues of citizenship are explicitly linked with a union perspective on immigration, educational credentials and work. This article seeks to make such linkages, placing them amongst the broader discussion of citizenship and education, by drawing on a recently completed study focusing on the recognition of foreign credentials in the economy and the experiences of new Canadians that result.An Expression of Diversity and Inclusiveness
http://www.psc-cfp.gc.ca/speech/2003/mawani/nm032103_e.htm
Canadian identity is hard to define. The subject itself is a unifying national pastime, inviting endless analysis in the media, in literature, and in policy discussions. Canadian identity is hard to define precisely because we Canadians are always maintaining a delicate balance. We must constantly manage the tension between the forces of cultural diversity and the need for national unity. "We are inviting people to come to this country on the basis that they will become citizens in three to five years. This is unlike any other country in the world… We have the unspoken and understood concept that immigration means citizenship".A Research-based Focus on Literacy and Citizenship Education Issues
http://international.metropolis.net/events/israel/papers/hebert.html
Being a Canadian citizen is to do more than vote and pay taxes; it also means participating fully in the social, economic and political life of the country. Just when citizenship conceptions and practices as well as the construction of self in a new context have taken on greater significance and are even more challenging than ever before, we have seen that adult newcomers to Canada receive an inadequate preparation for active citizenship in a democratic society, be it in citizenship education programs or in literacy programs, preparing them for integration and social, economic, civic, and political participation. Without ensuring that new Canadians are adequately prepared to participate actively in a democratic society, we are failing to assure that this society reflects the cultural diversity which characterizes it and failing to assure that all citizens, new and old, can make a difference to how our country works.2nd Nova Scotia Immigrant Women’s Round Table - A Summary Report
http://www.novascotiaimmigration.com/images/documents/wroundtable.pdf
Under the theme of Canadian citizenship, participants’ main concern was that three years was too long to wait for citizenship... Issues: lack of clarity and information on rules for citizenship waiting periods, which vary in length; three years for citizenship is too long; immigrants who have become Canadian citizens become ineligible for CIC-funded programs and services. Suggestions: reduce waiting period to apply for Canadian citizenship; encourage government to broaden client eligibility for programs and services to Canadian citizens who were previously permanent residents.Does Canada have courage and vision for the future?
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/canada2020/essay-griffiths.html
Without a strategic culture born of shared challenges and equipped to advance common national goals, Canada risks becoming a shadow of its former self; a collection of disparate regions, interests and groups all bickering over the unearned spoils of a resource-based economy destined eventually to go bust.Citizenship Program
http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/est-pre/20052006/CI-CI/CI-CIr5602_e.asp#II_A
Another of CIC's overarching goals is to direct and support the citizenship program and to effectively promote the value and understanding of immigration and citizenship. Planned spending:
2005-2006; 2006-2007; 2007-2008
$71.1M $51.8M $46.8MMake Immigrants Take Oath of Loyalty
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=455b97a8-6e5b-4720-bde4-2b5113fa4bc3
If newcomers breach Canada's values, they should be deported.45% of Canadians Fail Mock Citizenship Exam Similar to One Immigrants Take to Become Canadian Citizens
http://www.ipsos-na.com/news/pressrelease.cfm?id=993
45% of Canadians would not be granted citizenship on the basis of having failed the Citizenship Exam, a necessary step for immigrants to be granted citizenship. Since successful applicants need to correctly answer 12 out of 20 questions, only 55% would pass the exam. Dominion Institute National Citizenship Exam Survey, 1997.What does the government owe dual citizens who live elsewhere?
http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/canada/article.jsp?content=20060814_131837_131837
More than half a million people in Canada hold two or more passports, according to the 2001 census. More than half of them are European, with dual British Canadians alone accounting for 90,000. Canadian citizens, whether dual or not, are abroad in large numbers with 250,000 living in Hong Kong, while close to a million reside in the U.S… Dual citizenship has helped newcomers integrate. Immigrants to Canada are more likely to take out citizenship than are immigrants to the U.S., even accounting for factors such as country of origin and education level. The number of immigrants who took the final step of becoming full Canadian citizens rose from 60 % in 1971 to 75 % in 2001, while they fell in the U.S. from 64 % in 1970 to 40 % in 2000… The trend benefits Canada because citizens become more integrated socially and politically into their adopted country.Education and Activities
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/citizen/menu-promotion.html
Canada continues to be a place where immigrants find hospitality, opportunity and hope for the future. Find out about the journey immigrants take from first arriving in Canada to becoming Canadian citizens. - Read about how you, your class or your community group can get involved.