Put marriage in perspective

For the past two weeks, I have discussed how some Canadians are being taken advantage of by the foreigners they married and sponsored to Canada.

Shortly after their arrival, their spouses show their true colours and abandon their sponsors and claim welfare, which their sponsors will have to repay.

What can be done to avoid this situation?

First, some perspective is in order. Although I regularly hear of such cases, it represents a small percentage of the total number of couples I see. The problem is not so much in the numbers of victims involved, but in the sharpness of the pain they feel when they realize the hurt they suffered at the hands of their spouse is only a precursor to the economic burden that will follow when the state demands repayment of up to three years of welfare benefits.

Canadians who are considering marrying foreigners should consider whether there are strong economic advantages for their spouses to immigrate to Canada. If so, they should be open to the possibility that it may be a factor in their spouse’s decision to get married. In such cases, a marriage contract should be considered. While the agreement might provide for a reduction in the foreign spouses’ entitlement under the agreement for welfare benefits received, the agreement cannot relieve the sponsor from his/her obligation to reimburse the Crown. If the foreign spouse’s first language is not English, the agreement should include an affidavit of translation confirming the contents of the agreement were fully translated before the agreement was executed.

Our immigration laws could also use some fine tuning.

In our system, the risk of marriage breakdown is shouldered entirely by the sponsor. No disincentive exists to dissuade the foreign spouse from collecting welfare. Their status in Canada is not threatened and they have no duty to repay the benefits received. This dynamic needs to be re-examined.

Our immigration laws render foreign nationals inadmissible to Canada for financial reasons “if they are or will be unable
or unwilling to support themselves” in Canada.

However, this provision does not apply to permanent residents. Perhaps, if it applied to sponsored spouses, they would be less likely to claim welfare if they knew that, in certain situations, it could lead to their removal from Canada or could result in a shared obligation to reimburse the Crown.

Our laws grant full and unconditional status to sponsored spouses from the moment of their arrival here.

In the United States, foreign spouses are only given conditional permanent residences status if, on the day they are admitted to the U.S. as a permanent resident, they were married for less than two years. In such cases, the spouses must jointly apply to have the condition lifted within 90 days of the second anniversary of the applicants’ acquisition of conditional status. Undoubtedly, a similar provision in our laws would create even more bureaucracy in a system that is already far too complex.

However, it just might spare someone a lot of pain and misery.