6/23/2022 Express Entry: Canada Invites 636 PNP Candidates as Minister Offers Date for Next All-program DrawCanada invited 636 Express Entry candidates to apply for permanent residence on June 22. All invited candidates had previously received a nomination from a Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) and had a Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) of at least 752. The minimum score was relatively high because Express Entry candidates get an automatic 600 points added to their score when they receive a provincial nomination. Without the nomination, the lowest-scoring candidates would have had 152 base points. In the previous draw, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) invited 932 Express Entry candidates with scores of at least 796. Could This be the Last PNP Draw?Yesterday, CIC News spoke with Immigration Minister Sean Fraser at the Collision Conference in Toronto, where the minister said IRCC is “tentatively” looking to resume all-program draws on July 6. This past April, Fraser announced that Express Entry invitations for Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) and Canadian Experience Class (CEC) candidates will resume by early July, but at that time did not offer a date. Since September 2021, IRCC has only held draws for PNP candidates. IRCC has temporarily paused draws for CEC and FSWP candidates to reduce the Express Entry backlog, which was exacerbated by the pandemic. IRCC’s application inventory of the three Express Entry programs has improved since the announcement. As of June 1, it stands at 31,603 persons compared to 40,889 at the end of April. Although all-program draws could resume in two weeks, it may not be the end of PNP draws forever. Before the pandemic, IRCC occasionally held PNP-only draws. IRCC sees the PNP as paramount to supporting the economic development regions across Canada. Further, Bill C-19 is on its way to being passed in Canadian Parliament, which will allow IRCC to invite candidates whose profiles match the government’s economic priorities. For example, the government may hold occupation-specific draws for candidates who are working in an occupation where there is a labour shortage. What is Express Entry?Express Entry is the application management system for Canada’s three most popular immigration programs: the Canadian Experience Class, the Federal Skilled Worker Program, and the Federal Skilled Trades Program. PNP candidates in the Express Entry pool have already qualified for at least one of these programs. Express Entry uses a points-based system, the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS), to rank candidates’ profiles. The top-scoring candidates receive an Invitation to Apply (ITA), and can then apply for permanent residency. New findings suggest that the belief that restricting immigration is “not racist” reflects a defensive form of ingroup identity, rather than concern for one’s ingroup. The study, published in the journal Political Psychology, revealed that the belief that it is not racist to support immigration restrictions was linked to collective narcissism, support for intergroup hostility, and support for the alt-right.
A number of past studies have explored citizens’ attitudes toward immigration. A 2018 study by Kaufmann revealed that the majority of people in the United States and 18 other countries feel that supporting restrictions on immigration for cultural reasons is not racist. Instead, people view it as a reflection of racial self-interest, or concern for one’s ingroup. Researchers Aleksandra Cichocka and her team conducted a study to uncover the psychological characteristics that are tied to this belief that immigration restrictions are not racist. The study authors proposed that if the belief is motivated by concern for one’s ingroup, it should be associated with ingroup identification — attachment and solidarity with one’s ingroup. But if this belief is motivated by a desire to defend the privileged position of one’s ingroup, it should be associated with collective narcissism — the assumption that one’s ingroup deserves special treatment. “The idea for the study came from a talk Eric Kaufmann gave at Kent,” explained Cichocka, a reader in political psychology. “We were fascinated by his findings that most people, across various countries, did not see preferences for immigration restrictions as racist. Rather, most respondents would agree that wanting to restrict immigration to slow down ethnocultural change is merely an expression of self-interest.” “In his analysis, Kaufmann focused on how party affiliation or ideology differentiate those who believe immigration restrictions are racist versus not. We decided to check what intergroup attitudes are related to these different beliefs. Are they related to a concern for one’s nation or ethnic group? And would they translate into hostility or aggressiveness towards newcomers?” Four studies were conducted among different samples from the UK, Poland, and the U.S. In each study, the participants read a statement describing a member of their ingroup supporting a proposal to curb immigration. This ingroup member was described as someone who “identifies with her group and its history.” After reading the statement, participants indicated whether they felt this person was racist, not racist but racially self-interested, or whether they did not know. In every sample, participants were more likely to say that the person was racially self-interested than racist. And in all four samples, collective narcissism was consistently linked to a greater likelihood of thinking the person was not racist. By contrast, there was conflicting evidence for the link between ingroup identification and belief that the person supporting immigration restrictions was not racist. Ingroup identification was unrelated to this belief in the UK study, negatively related to this belief in the Polish study, and positively related to this belief among the two U.S. samples. However, the positive relationships found in the U.S. studies were smaller than the positive relationships between collective narcissism and belief that immigration restrictions are not racist. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said that all Democrats supported "comprehensive immigration reform" and that they were still working out the details in a CNN interview Monday.
During an appearance on CNN's "State of the Union," host Dana Bash asked Warren about Title 42 and her colleagues that have come out against the administration's move to lift it. "Almost a dozen of your fellow Democratic senators are expressing concerns about this. You support lifting title 42, so what is your plan to handle a likely surge in migrants? And are you confident they will be treated humanely?" Bash asked the senator. Warren said that Title 42 was not "consistent with our values" and "doesn't keep us safer." "The Biden Administration is putting plans in place to deal with people who are asking for amnesty and humanitarian relief at the border," the senator said. "But keep in mind, we need comprehensive immigration reform. And that’s something all the Democrats are on board for. We have to work out the details. We still need to be in that fight, though. That’s where we need to make significant change." Bash also asked Warren about the midterm elections and the Democratic Party's chances. Warren said that if the Democrats don't pass their agenda in the next 200 days, they would lose big in the November midterm elections. |