Happy New Year! And welcome to the January edition of Thinkr.

Contents:
Relocation and Immigration news
Upcoming events
Editorial
Archive

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More interesting nuggets for everyone
involved with recruitment and relocation:

Most Polite Cities in the World
Source: Reader's Digest

Most Polite Cities in Canada
Source: Reader's Digest

Average Canadian Incomes
Source: Canadian Business

Think About it

E-LMO Program Expanded

HRSDC announced an additional 21 occupations for the E-LMO (Expedited LMO) program. This new list includes additional tradespeople and some engineers. This is great news for additional qualifying employers.

Visa-exempt: Czech Republic and Latvian Citizens

CIC announced that citizens of the Czech Republic and Latvia no longer require temporary resident visas to travel to Canada. These citizens, like all other visa-exempt citizens, with proper documentation have the option to apply for work permits at the port of entry.

Canadian Embassy in Prague closes

Effective December 5, 2007, the Canadian Embassy in Prague will close as citizens of the Czech Republic no longer require temporary resident visas to enter Canada. Immigration issues are now handled through the Canadian Embassy in Vienna, Austria.

Updated: Working Holiday program for Australians

As of January 2, 2008, the working holiday program for young Australians wishing to come to Canada to work and holiday has been updated. Australians qualifying for the program may now apply for work permits that are up to 24 months in duration. They may also re-apply as many times as desired and there are no quotas for the number of working holiday permits issued each year.

New Alberta Provincial Nominee forms

Alberta PNP updated their forms and updated their website, too. Poke around the site while you're downloading the new forms.

Canadian Immigration Tips

Authored by our Principal, Marlene Jan, for the Karmichael Group, this article examines the current work permit processing climate and tips for navigating the long processing times.

Global Migration Report

This special report is a multi-article look at the impact of global migration. The global movement of people from country to country builds a global workforce and encourages prosperity. Fearing immigration rather than finding ways to effectively embrace it can hurt economies.

Expat Work-Life Balance Survey

This survey looked at responses from over 400 global expatriates and found that over two-thirds worked harder on assignment than they did at their home location. This results in stress to their work lives, personal lives and impacts their overall effectiveness. The expats felt that they did not have company support in addressing these issues.

Asia as an Expat Destination

Asia is becoming increasingly popular as an expat destination. It is a diverse and complex environment for expatriates. This report provides a summary of the most popular Asian desination countries and potential challenges expats will face.

Japan's changing workforce

The Japanese labour market was famous for its "salarymen" who signed on to work for a company for life, working themselves to the bone, knowing the company would look after them. With economic realities changing, companies shifted towards contracts, part-time employment and other non-permanent arrangements. The implications meant less loyalty and a more flexible workforce.

These exciting learning and sharing events capped off a great 2007:

Sharing

We teamed up with the BC Provincial Nominee program to co-present to a great group at SFU Business Career Management Centre's Employing International Students event.

Learning

The learning is continuous and we updated our immigration knowledge at the CAPIC National Conference. The immigration association's national conference's presenters included policy makers from Ottawa, veteran immigration lawyers, and provincial nominee representatives from across Canada.

We also had the opportunity to hang out with the academics at the "Tale of Two Cities: An Intercultural Observation of Olympic Games Preparation in Vancouver and Beijing" forum. We gained new insights into the different treatment of the Olympics from an intercultural studies perspective.

Think Ahead

Immigration Basics

Start off 2008 right with a healthy dose of Canadian Immigration. Our Immigration Basics workshop unravels the mysteries and intricacies of Canadian Immigration. The Immigration Basics workshop has been designed to cover the theoretical and the practical, giving you enough information to be knowledgeable, but not overwhelmed.  The focus is enabling you to take control of your company’s immigration needs by building this expertise in-house.

Relocation Basics

This workshop to tackles the complex and potentially mind-boggling world of Relocation. We’ll look at the 3 P’s of developing a killer relocation program – from Philosophy to Policy to how it works In Practice. And then we’ll turn the tables and look at it from the candidate’s perspective to make sure you’re prepared to answer their tough questions.

Get all the latest Immigration and Relocation Events on our website.

Good Reads:

The Art of Happiness
Authors: His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler

Managing Energy, Not Time
Source: Harvard Business Review

Energy Management
Source: BC HRMA HR Voice

Rage Against the Routine
Source: Canadian Business

Career Guide: Take Control
Source: Canadian Business

The Allure of Extreme Jobs
Source: FastCompany

Notes from the Universe
Source: The Adventurer's Club

Think Tank

Carry Forward

It's the start of a new year and the traditional time to make New Year's resolutions. You've read the articles and heard the tips about putting a positive spin on your resolutions and how to stick to them. Before you go writing that list, be sure to reflect back on 2007 and think about all the good habits you developed. Pat yourself on the back! And carry those forward to 2008. Some of the best resolutions may be maintaing ones from last year and building on them. Acknowledge you've already made some excellent progress and keep the momentum going.

And if you have no new resolutions for 2008, there's nothing wrong with you. It's great to be happy with exactly where you are and relish it!

"In order to practise the application of joyful effort successfully, one must have the ability to concentrate, to focus on events, actions or goals. That in turn depends on whether or not you have the ability to excercise your power of judgement, to judge between what is desirable and what is undesirable, what is negative and what is positive."

- His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Wishing you a fantastic 2008,

Marlene
Principal, Think Relocation Consulting