Close X
Wednesday, December 11, 2024
ADVT 
India

Indians still want to move to Canada despite growing anxiety over political tensions

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 27 Oct, 2023 10:21 AM
  • Indians still want to move to Canada despite growing anxiety over political tensions

As tensions flare between India and Canada, recruitment firms say interest from workers moving between the two countries has not dropped significantly – even though anxiety is building.

The firms attribute the uneasiness some Indians now feel around relocating to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's mid-September announcement revealing "a potential link" between India's government and the killing of a Sikh leader in B.C. that Canada was investigating.

Canada later removed most of its diplomatic presence from India after New Delhi threatened to strip diplomatic immunities from them and their families.

The moves have made many nervous.

"We've definitely seen a large increase in people saying, 'Hey, why should I move to Canada?'" said Ilya Brotzky, chief executive and co-founder of VanHack, a Vancouver-based firm connecting employers and tech professionals around the world.

Before the tensions, he estimated about 95 per cent of the conversations his company had with Indians interested in relocating to Canada were positive. These days, it's dropped to about 80 per cent.

"We've never seen that before," he said. "It's a bit of an alarming trend."

Of the 32,115 international tech workers who migrated to Canada between April 2022 and March 2023, nearly half – 15,097 – came from India, a July report from the Technology Councils of North America and Canada’s Tech Network found.

Indians are often sought after by Canadian companies because of their skills, said Arif Khimani, the president and chief operating officer at MobSquad, a Calgary company that helps businesses with recruitment and visas.

A high proportion of the Indian population has work experience or degrees in engineering, software development and data science – areas that are seeing tremendous growth in demand.

Many are keen to move because they see Canada as a place offering a good quality of life, relative safety, beautiful landscapes and a decent health-care system, Brotzky said.

Entry to Canada also tends to be easier to land than U.S. or European visas, he said: "There's not too many better alternatives out there."

But even before strife with India materialized, he noticed some were growing weary of coming to Canada because of how much it would cost them to buy a home.

The national average home price was $655,507 in September, up 2.5 per cent from September 2022, according to the latest data from the Canadian Real Estate Association.

"The political (aspect) is just one piece of the pie," Brotzky said.

Yet newly-strained relations between Canada and India don't seem to have many thinking twice about immigration between the two countries, said Khimani.

"We're still seeing really, really strong demand if we look at the applications we're getting and there's still a ton from India."

However, people who have already made the move but don't have permanent residency or those who put in visa applications before the current geopolitical climate shifted are anxious.

"What we are seeing, of course, is just the nervousness, the uncertainty of whether people can stay or how long things will take or if things escalate, what does that mean?" Khimani said.

"Obviously we don't have full answers."

Kumar Erramilli has found staff who emigrated from India to work at his Toronto-based life sciences learning platform company ACTO are not worried about the ongoing tensions because they have Canadian citizenship.

However, Erramilli and his two co-founders, who each hail from India, are worried about how they will visit a team ACTO keeps in Hyderabad.

Erramilli usually visits the group every November or December but is currently restricted because he doesn't have Overseas Citizenship of India status, which would allow him to travel between both countries more freely.

India has suspended much of its other visa services for Canadians.

"I'm not able to go and get an Indian visa and go to India right now, which is hindering our workflow significantly," he said.

"In the same vein, I'm not able to get some of my key strategic folks to travel there and come to Canada without any friction, so it's a bit of a struggle right now."

However, he is more hopeful of a return after news Wednesday that India's high commission in Canada would resume processing some types of visa applications for business, medical and conference travel as well as entry for people in India.

 

MORE India ARTICLES

Punjab seeks norms relaxation to assist flood-hit

Punjab seeks norms relaxation to assist flood-hit
Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has already written a letter to the Union Home Minister Amit Shah, saying there is no shortfall in the state disaster relief funds to compensate the victims, and only a change in the norms for compensating the damage is required so that the loss of people can be fully compensated.  

Punjab seeks norms relaxation to assist flood-hit

'Violence in Manipur unpardonable', says PM Modi; calls INDIA 'Ghamandiya Gathbandhan'

'Violence in Manipur unpardonable', says PM Modi; calls INDIA 'Ghamandiya Gathbandhan'
In his more than two-hour long reply to the no-confidence motion, the Prime Minister gave an assurance that peace will prevail in Manipur, and that it will march forward on the path of development. The BJP-ruled state government in Manipur has been trying to resolve the situation prevailing there for the past six years and the efforts will continue in the future too. 

'Violence in Manipur unpardonable', says PM Modi; calls INDIA 'Ghamandiya Gathbandhan'

Fake call centre cheating US citizens busted in Goa

Fake call centre cheating US citizens busted in Goa
The accused persons were directing the victims to pay processing fee/security deposit through online options such as Google Pay gift card, Apple Pay gift card, Walmart gift card and Target gift card.  

Fake call centre cheating US citizens busted in Goa

Smriti Irani slams Rahul Gandhi over his alleged gesture of flying kiss

Smriti Irani slams Rahul Gandhi over his alleged gesture of flying kiss
“Never before has the misogynistic behaviour of a man been so visible in Parliament as what was done by Rahul Gandhi today. When the House of the people, where laws are made to protect the dignity of women, during the course of a session stands witness to a man's misogyny, my question is should he be brought to task?” Irani told reporters here

Smriti Irani slams Rahul Gandhi over his alleged gesture of flying kiss

Manipur unrest: ITLF delegation meets Amit Shah

Manipur unrest: ITLF delegation meets Amit Shah
During the meeting, Shah assured that the deployment of the Central forces in the state will be further strengthened and reoriented to plug vulnerable gap areas, the statement said.  The Home Minister also assured that necessary arrangements will also be made to facilitate transportation and identification of dead bodies, it claimed.     

Manipur unrest: ITLF delegation meets Amit Shah

Four suspected members of Bambiha gang held in Punjab

Four suspected members of Bambiha gang held in Punjab
The criminals opened fire on police and in self-defence, the police party fired back, resulting in the accused sustaining gunshot injuries, he said. Three other criminals were arrested along with three pistols and 20 cartridges and a snatched car.  

Four suspected members of Bambiha gang held in Punjab