• 2020/5/6 14:13
• 留学霸
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Canadian Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino participated in the Webinar question and answer session of the Canadian Bar Association's Immigration Law Section on the morning of May 5 to discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Canadian immigrants in the coming months and years.

He wrote, "Thank you @CBA_News for organizing an excellent webinar! Hopefully the next time we meet it will be in person, but thank you for everything you are doing to support immigrants." in his tweeter.

Marco Mendicino said that immigration is definitely the key to Canada ’s success and economic recovery. Canada will continue to rely on immigrants, and they will become economic drivers. Mendicino observed that COVID-19 will not change Canada's long-term demographic trends. The ratio of Canadian workers to retirees is declining, which means that Canada will continue to need immigrants to drive economic growth. He also pointed out that this is not the first time Canada has faced such a huge challenge, but Canada continues to grow, thanks to immigration to some extent.

Mendicino said that IRCC staff are working remotely, affecting the ability to process immigration applications. Nevertheless, IRCC has set up some systems and tools to enable its employees to continue processing applications. The IRCC has also made corresponding deployments, for example, to expedite the processing of applications for seasonal agricultural workers under the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP). He mentioned that IRCC is maintaining close contact with employers in the agricultural and seafood industries to support the federal government's goal of strengthening Canada's food supply.

Regarding international students, Mendicino stated that IRCC recently made a change in the application for a post-graduation work permit, which enabled international students participating in online courses to continue to qualify for PGWP. These students can complete up to 50% of the course outside Canada.

The IRCC is still negotiating with higher education related parties on how to help international students who will be admitted in September. IRCC will issue more information in the future.