Sharma: Reflection on the 2027 Immigration Levels Plan: Substance Welcome, Presentation Opaque

2026/11/09 Leave a comment

One of the better overviews I have seen and agree with his summary conclusion. Same point on unnecessary obfuscation:

…In short, the 2027 plan clears long-standing backlogs for workers and certain humanitarian populations already in Canada while holding new temporary arrivals steady. The method of announcement, however, continues a pattern of selective presentation that attempts to obfuscate the true scale of permanent-resident admissions.

Source: Reflection on the 2027 Immigration Levels Plan: Substance Welcome, Presentation Opaque

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After their midterm win and Stephen Miller’s promotion, Democrats gear up for a fight on immigration

2026/11/09 Leave a comment

To watch. Likely chaos:

…Immigration and Latino activists lambasted Miller’s promotion, calling it an act of defiance after voters spoke clearly at the polls and a sign the president would continue his immigration policies. California’s Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla, who’s been a key critic of Trump’s immigration agenda, said Trump was choosing to double down by picking Miller and vowed, “So will we.”

It’s unclear if Democrats and the White House will find a middle ground to successfully pass immigration legislation. With Trump in office for another two years, he can veto any Democratic legislation, and Republicans have the money and the personnel to pursue Trump’s immigration agenda regardless of Tuesday’s results.

Republicans during the summer of 2025 supercharged immigration enforcement with $150 billion intended to expand immigration detention capacity, finish the border wall and hire thousands more deportation officers. Earlier this year they frontloaded routine funding for ICE and Border Patrol for the next three years.

“My fear is that enforcement will get worse. And the country will also see that Congress does not have many tools to stop the executive branch because the executive branch power on immigration has grown so vast,” said Andrea Flores, who was a policy adviser in the Obama and Biden administrations.

Conservatives want action from lame duck Congress

Many administration supporters want this current Congress — in the little time it has left — to pass laws solidifying the gains the Trump administration says it has made on border security and immigration. Without codifying changes to asylum law or tightening requirements on employers to verify workers’ immigration status, they warn, a different administration could quickly reverse the new immigration landscape Trump has shaped.

NumbersUSA, an advocacy group that seeks to restrict immigration, has a timer on its website counting down the days until this Congress is over with a warning to “make border security permanent.”…

Source: After their midterm win and Stephen Miller’s promotion, Democrats gear up for a fight on immigration

Filed under Immigration, Trump administration Tagged with , ,

What the data says about Indigenous voting in Alberta’s referendum

2026/11/09 Leave a comment

Of interest. Not surprised on the overall opposition to independence but differences with higher opposition to immigration questions also significant:

Indigenous people in Alberta turned out in massive numbers in last month’s provincial referendum, voted overwhelmingly in favour of remaining a part of Canada and fiercely rejected the other nine questions on immigration and constitutional issues, according to a Globe and Mail analysis.

The Globe looked at 61 polling stations located on First Nations reserves and Métis settlements from the Oct. 19 vote and found that Indigenous voters cast ballots nearly four times more than were cast in the same voting areas in the 2023 Alberta provincial election. Some nations saw a voter increase of 500 per cent to more than 1,200 per cent.

Nearly 95 per cent of Indigenous people voted to remain in Canada, about 20 percentage points higher than for the rest of Alberta.

“[The province] underestimated what the response was going to be from our communities, and it showed at the polls,” said Kainai Nation Chief Travis Plaited Hair.

“They had something to say, and they said it loud and clear that they were not in favour.”

The Globe’s analysis does not take into account Indigenous people who voted at stations off reserves, nor any advance polling or mail-in voting for both 2023 and the referendum.

…On the first half of the referendum questions, regarding immigration, 75 to 85 per cent of Indigenous people voted No compared with 42 to 48 per cent in the rest of the province.

Both Blackfoot chiefs said they believe that their members voted according to strong traditional values, adding that their nations and families extend “beyond the Canada-U.S. border.”

“Anything that has to do with immigration has the ability to affect the treaty rights,” Mr. Crowfoot said.

For question five, on proof of Canadian citizenship being needed to vote in future elections, about 79 per cent of Indigenous voters rejected the idea, versus 42 per cent in the province overall.

Mr. Wildcat said that while the idea wouldn’t necessarily hurt Indigenous people specifically, it would affect marginalized and vulnerable communities.

“Whenever a government puts additional obstacles, and they are obstacles, in the name of secure voting or whatever, it disenfranchises our people,” Mr. Crowfoot said.

Mr. Plaited Hair said not every member “has a passport, and not everyone has a provincial ID or government ID,” adding that many members carry band membership or Indian status cards.

In a statement from the Ministry of Indigenous Relations, the province said the government “will carefully consider how we work to implement the results of the referendum, including proof of citizenship.”…

Source: What the data says about Indigenous voting in Alberta’s referendum

Filed under Aboriginal, Immigration Tagged with ,

John Ivison: A Liberal spending spree, again [immigration]

2026/11/09 Leave a comment

Nails the transparency question even if the government in one sense is being transparent about the one-time numbers. Don’t understand why the government doesn’t simply add a line to the tables that includes the 200,000 (and previous year one-time number) along with a total. Clearer for all and avoids some of the sometimes puerile criticism.

From a policy perspective, there is a legitimate distinction between those already here and those not, and an equally legitimate debate over the numbers being regularized into Permanent Residents:

…After the pandemic, the Trudeau Liberals opened the floodgates to temporary foreign workers. By 2023, there were 971,815 in Canada. The government is cutting the annual target for temporary residents to 370,000 in the period 2027–29.

At the same time, it aims to reduce the number of permanent residents from 471,820 in 2023 to 380,000 annually in the coming years.

The problem is, the way it plans to reduce the temporary resident number is to allow around 200,000 of them to become permanent residents. Given the lower-than-usual education and experience profile of the temporary workers, that means an immigration system that was once the envy of the world will accept fewer than 200,000 of the best and brightest from around the world in 2027. Canada has a fertility rate of 1.26 children per woman, and its population is aging (one in five is now over 65). But nearly half of all voters say there are already too many immigrants coming into Canada.

It would take a brave government to raise immigration levels in the face of such hostility, and this government has just revealed the limits of its courage….

Source: John Ivison: A Liberal spending spree, again

Filed under Immigration Tagged with ,

Some permanent resident applicants left in limbo by changes to Canadian citizenship law

2026/11/06 Leave a comment

To my recollection, this possibility never raised during parliamentary committee hearings by government officials and witnesses:

…CBC News has learned that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada quietly put permanent resident applications on hold for an unknown number of people who could now qualify for citizenship under Bill C-3. The legislation makes those who can prove they have a Canadian ancestor eligible for Canadian citizenship.

That leaves those affected in limbo — without permanent resident status and stuck in a nearly three-year processing backlog of applications for citizenship certificates.

https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/d6dp9/1/

…Briannah Dale, senior communications adviser for IRCC, said under the department’s policies, you can’t be both a permanent resident and Canadian citizen at the same time.

“If someone applies for proof of citizenship while also applying for permanent residence, their permanent residence application will be placed on hold while a concurrent citizenship application is assessed,” she wrote in an emailed response.

“If citizenship is confirmed, the permanent residence application will be considered withdrawn. If citizenship is not confirmed, the permanent residence application will return to its original place in the processing queue and resume processing.”

Dale said an IRCC officer can also put a permanent residence application on hold even if someone hasn’t applied for a citizenship certificate if the officer has “compelling reasons to believe an applicant may already be a citizen under Canadian law.”

Dale said due to “systems limitations” the department can’t say how many permanent residence applications it has put on hold because the applicant may also qualify for citizenship.

However, she said those who already have permanent resident status won’t lose their status while they wait for their citizenship certificate.

The wait time for those who apply today for family sponsorship of spouses outside Canada (and outside Quebec) like Pottier’s wife is 18 months. But the wait time for citizenship certificate applications is now 34 months, in part because of the surge of applications since the adoption of Bill C-3, particularly from Americans.

Between Dec. 15, 2025, when Bill C-3 went into effect and Aug. 31, IRCC has approved 7,900 applications for Canadian citizenship certificates under the new legislation. Another 22,570 people born abroad to a Canadian parent also received citizenship certificates….

Source: Some permanent resident applicants left in limbo by changes to Canadian citizenship law

Filed under C-3, Citizenship Tagged with

Carney government holds immigration targets steady, allows 200,000 temporary residents to apply for permanent status

2026/11/06 Leave a comment

Some of the initial reporting:

The Carney government will hold immigration levels steady in the coming three years, while also announcing it will add 200,000 permanent residence spots in 2027 for temporary migrants already established in Canada.

Despite speculation that the government was ready to reverse course after two years of steep immigration cuts, its budget released Thursday said 380,000 people would be admitted as permanent residents in this fiscal year, the same number as last year.

The economic class will make up 64.4 per cent of the targets, followed by those under family reunification (21.3 per cent) and the rest as resettled refugees, protected persons and on humanitarian grounds.

The budget said that level would be maintained through 2029, and that the number of temporary residents, including students and workers, will be held at 370,000 for the next three years.

After a decade of record-high intake targets under Justin Trudeau that contributed to a housing crisis, strained health care and eroded public confidence in immigration, Ottawa in 2024 started slashing the number of new permanent and temporary residents it would admit and tightening the rules for those already here.

The Liberal government has pledged to reduce the share of temporary residents to five per cent of the country’s population by the end of 2027. Yet, it still stood at 6.7 per cent as of July, with many stuck in the bottleneck for permanent residence, hanging on to the hope to stay for good.

Under tremendous pressure to fulfil that campaign promise, the new plan includes a one-time initiative to help as many as 200,000 people already living in Canada transition to permanent residence in 2027 — equally split between the worker and humanitarian streams. This will be on top of the 380,000 permanent resident targets in 2027.

“I would characterize that as an administrative clearing of the decks,” said Rick Lamanna of the Canadian Immigration Lawyers Association. “These people in most cases have been here for quite a while, living in this temporary, suspended existence. They’ve been vetted. It’s good for them, it’s good for Canada.”

This also means Canada will see one of the largest admissions of permanent residents in history, totalling 580,000, said Ottawa-based immigration lawyer Cédric Marin.

“These are not new admissions,” he noted. “They’re people that are currently inside Canada, that are employed and (some) have a house. But it’s almost a way, in my view, to reduce the temporary resident population that they set themselves.”

Under the one-time measure, provinces will be able to identify workers who have already applied for permanent residence under select federal immigration programs, including the Atlantic immigration program and others that are closed to new applications such as the programs for start-up entrepreneurs, self-employed persons, agri-food workers and home care workers.

With the additional spaces, officials said they also hope to process all remaining applications under the permanent residence pathways for temporary residents from Hong Kong and those in the Ukraine family reunification program.

While this effort is welcomed, the Migrant Rights Network said the 200,000 additional permanent resident spots are a drop in the bucket, given the 2.15 million people who held work or study permits in Canada as of August 2026.

Source: Carney government holds immigration targets steady, allows 200,000 temporary residents to apply for permanent status

…Two cohorts, each made up of 100,000 temporary residents, will be given priority for permanent residency. A workers’ cohort will consist of those who applied for permanent residency through special immigration pathways such as the Start-up Visa Program, Home Care Worker pilot programs, Atlantic Immigration Program and the Agri-Food Pilot.

A humanitarian cohort will process all remaining applications in the Ukraine family reunification pathway and the Hong Kong permanent residents pathway. It will also prioritize permanent residency for spouses and children already living in Canada.

Many of the immigration pathways mentioned were suspended by the government in late 2025 because of processing backlogs. Last year’s immigration-levels plan also introduced an initiative to transition 115,000 temporary residents already in Canada to permanent status as well….

Source: Budget 2026: Ottawa to grant permanent residency to 200,000 temporary residents

January-June year-to-date summary (will be updating once third quarter numbers out):

Filed under Immigration Tagged with , , ,

Renzetti | DEI wins the midterms

2026/11/06 Leave a comment

Nice turn of events after all the nastiness:

…It’s not surprising that the women who won gubernatorial races ran on platforms of restoring public education and opposing data centres. They listened to constituents who are worried about their children’s futures and feel powerless to stop big money rushing in to buy up land in their states. Each of the candidates promoted a people-centred vision of what the future could look like.

These candidates didn’t run solely on their identities. They might even disavow the term DEI, which has been effectively degraded to the status of a leper’s bell — but they represent its value anyway. They ran on economic populism, affordability, the price of groceries, protecting reproductive choice, shoring up education. Each of them spent years in the trenches of public service — serving on school boards, public-health agencies, municipal councils. Not one of them is a billionaire. That’s identity too.

The last decade has been exhausting, watching our southern neighbours turn on each other, and on their most vulnerable. We’ve been forced to watch Nightmare on Pennsylvania Avenue on an endless loop. It seemed like jackal politics might be in the ascendant forever.

That’s why it was so joyful to wake up to new faces, and new possibilities. Big money got defeated in this election, alongside big tech. Expertise, hustle and lived experience won. A different vision of power won.

Source: Opinion | DEI wins the midterms

Filed under DEI, Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

Meggs: Il faut se saisir du plein potentiel de nos pouvoirs en immigration

2026/11/06 Leave a comment

Always worth reading for a Quebec perspective:

…La cible de 35 000 admissions permanentes parmi des résidents temporaires au Québec sera facile à atteindre. Il y a, en fait, déjà plus de 75 000 de ces personnes, ayant franchi toutes les étapes préalables exigées des deux gouvernements, qui attendent la résidence permanente, toutes catégories confondues.

Échanger leur permis temporaire pour un visa de résident permanent est le rêve de leur vie. Baisser leur nombre de 45 000 à 35 000 veut dire cependant qu’il y en aura qui vont attendre encore plus longtemps pour réaliser leur rêve. Dépendant de la catégorie, ces attentes sont déjà d’un an à plus de dix ans.

La baisse du seuil va rendre plus long que quatre ans le temps nécessaire pour diminuer de moitié le nombre de résidents temporaires, sachant que les personnes en attente de la résidence permanente sont comptées comme résidents non permanents par Statistiques Canada.

Pour les titulaires de permis de travail ou d’études, il y a donc trois options :

  • Arrêter d’en ajouter en coupant le nombre de ces permis délivrés et renouvelés. Controversé politiquement, ce sera possible dans le cas du PTET et les permis d’études. Assumer la responsabilité pour le PMI permettrait au Québec d’agir éventuellement sur la balance des permis temporaires.
  • Accorder la résidence permanente aux travailleurs qualifiés et aux conjoints approuvés dans la catégorie familiale déjà au Québec, ce qui dépasserait le seuil de 35 000.
  • Attendre que les permis temporaires expirent et que ces personnes quittent le pays. La grande majorité respecte l’obligation de quitter, même si ce n’est pas leur souhait.

Quant à la catégorie de StatCan nommée « demandeurs d’asile », il serait facile pour le Québec de diminuer leur nombre établi à 190 000 de plus de 42 000, en accordant la résidence permanente aux réfugiés reconnus, mais le seuil de 35 000 bloque ce chemin.

On pourrait inciter davantage de résidents temporaires qui communiquent facilement en français à déménager dans une autre province. Plusieurs le font déjà. D’une pierre, trois coups. La personne obtiendra plus facilement et plus rapidement la résidence permanente, les communautés francophones hors Québec trouveraient un nouvel espoir de pérennité et le nombre de résidents temporaires au Québec baisserait. Pour être claire, cette option n’est pas proposée sérieusement. Elle aurait certains avantages pour les personnes et les communautés concernées, mais ce serait très triste et un aveu d’échec pour le Québec.

Réimaginer ensemble une meilleure façon de faire

Il n’y a pas d’enjeu en matière d’immigration aujourd’hui qui n’est pas lié au virage pris vers un système en deux étapes. Ramener de l’ordre dans la situation actuelle et, en même temps, mettre en place une réforme qui éviterait qu’elle se reproduise à l’avenir est une tâche immense.

Il y a un poème d’Emily Dickinson, repris récemment dans le New York Times, qui vient à l’esprit. « J’habite dans la Possibilité » [2]. Il est très difficile de vivre d’espoir dans nos temps modernes. Mais si nous pouvions retourner à l’esprit de 1978 et de 1991, et retrouver la même transpartisanerie dans ce dossier critique, peut–être qu’on serait à la hauteur de réimaginer ensemble la façon dont nous accueillons les personnes qui acceptent notre invitation à partager notre avenir, celles qui se joignent avec leur famille au Québec et celles qui ont besoin d’une place accueillante et libre pour vivre de façon sécuritaire.

Source: Il faut se saisir du plein potentiel de nos pouvoirs en immigration

…The target of 35,000 permanent admissions among temporary residents in Quebec will be easy to reach. In fact, there are already more than 75,000 of these people, who have already completed all the pre-requisite steps required by both governments, waiting for permanent residence, all categories included.

Switching their temporary permit to a permanent resident visa is their life’s dream. However, reducing their number from 45,000 to 35,000 means that some will have to wait even longer to realize their dream. Depending on the category, these expectations can already range from one year to more than ten years.

The drop in the threshold will make it longer than four years for the time needed to halve the number of temporary residents, knowing that people awaiting permanent residence are counted as non-permanent residents by Statistics Canada.

For holders of work or study permits, there are therefore three options:

  • Stop adding them by reducing the number of these permits issued and renewed. Politically controversial, this will be possible in the case of PTET and study permits. Taking responsibility for the PMI would allow Quebec to potentially act on the balance of temporary permits.
  • Granting permanent residence to qualified workers and approved spouses in the family category already in Quebec would exceed the threshold of 35,000.
  • Waiting for the temporary permits to expire and for these people to leave the country. The vast majority comply with the obligation to leave, even if it is not their wish.

As for the StatCan category called “asylum seekers,” it would be easy for Quebec to reduce their established number to 190,000 by more than 42,000 by granting permanent residence to recognized refugees, but the 35,000 threshold blocks this path.

We could encourage more temporary residents who communicate easily in French to move to another province. Several already do. With a single stone, three strikes. The person would easily and quickly obtain permanent residence, French-speaking communities outside Quebec would find a new hope for sustainability, and the number of temporary residents in Quebec would decrease. To be clear, this option is not being seriously proposed. It would have some benefits for the people and communities involved, but it would be very sad and a confession of failure for Quebec.

Reimagine together a better way to do things

There is no issue in immigration today that is not related to the shift towards a two-stage system. Bringing order to the current situation and, at the same time, implementing a reform that would prevent it from happening again in the future is an immense task.

There is a poem by Emily Dickinson, recently reprinted in the New York Times, that comes to mind. “I Live in Possibility” [2]. It is very difficult to live with hope in our modern times. But if we could go back to the spirit of 1978 and 1991, and rediscover the same transpartisan spirit in this critical dossier, perhaps we could come up with a way to reimagine together how we welcome people who accept our invitation to share our future, those who join with their families in Quebec, and those who need a welcoming and free place to live safely.

Filed under Immigration Tagged with ,

Immigration (Quebec): Une ex-fonctionnaire accusée d’avoir livré plus d’une centaine de faux certificats de sélection

2026/11/06 Leave a comment

Fortunately rare:

Les gestes se seraient produits sur une période d’environ deux ans et demi, entre le 22 août 2016 et le 3 février 2019. L’ex-employée en question, Marilena Ida, était alors coordonnatrice par intérim du Programme de l’expérience québécoise (PEQ).

Dans le cadre de ses fonctions, elle aurait livré au moins une centaine de faux certificats de sélection du Québec (CSQ) « à des candidats qui ne répondaient pas aux critères d’éligibilité » pour l’obtention du document, indique le Commissaire à la lutte contre la corruption (CLCC) dans un communiqué diffusé mercredi soir.

En raison de ces gestes allégués, Marilena Ida est accusée d’abus de confiance et de fabrication de faux documents.

Le certificat de sélection du Québec est obtenu à la fin du PEQ, un programme reconnu pour être une voie rapide à l’obtention de la résidence permanente pour les travailleurs et étudiants étrangers. Après avoir terminé le PEQ et obtenu le CSQ, un immigrant peut demander la résidence permanente au gouvernement fédéral.

Une centaine de candidats non admissibles auraient donc reçu un faux CSQ à la fin de leur PEQ.

Marilena Ida ne travaille plus au ministère de l’Immigration et de l’Intégration (anciennement appelé ministère de l’Immigration, de la Francisation et de l’Intégration) depuis une durée inconnue.

Elle comparaîtra au palais de justice de Montréal le 10 décembre….

Source: Immigration: Une ex-fonctionnaire accusée d’avoir livré plus d’une centaine de faux certificats de sélection

The actions would have taken place over a period of approximately two and a half years, between August 22, 2016, and February 3, 2019. The former employee in question, Marilena Ida, was then acting coordinator of the Quebec Experience Program (PEQ).

In the course of her duties, she allegedly provided at least a hundred fake Quebec selection certificates (CSQ) “to candidates who did not meet the eligibility criteria” for obtaining the document, the Anti-Corruption Commissioner (CLCC) stated in a statement released on Wednesday evening.

Due to these alleged acts, Marilena Ida is accused of abuse of trust and forgery of false documents.

The Quebec selection certificate is obtained at the end of the PEQ, a program recognized as a fast path to obtaining permanent residence for foreign workers and students. After completing the PEQ and obtaining the CSQ, an immigrant can apply for permanent residence with the federal government.

Approximately a hundred ineligible candidates would therefore have received a fake CSQ at the end of their PEQ.

Marilena Ida has not worked at the Ministry of Immigration and Integration (formerly known as the Ministry of Immigration, Francization and Integration) for an unknown period of time.

She will appear at the Montreal courthouse on December 10th….

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Using ChatGPT to analyze open data immigration tables

2026/11/05 Leave a comment

For my quarterly updates, I have been working on how best to compile and analyze the various tables in a more time-efficient manner. Next quarter report will largely use ChatGPT for data tables rather than my previous manual approach.

As an example, the prompt I use for country of citizenship analysis is the following:

Using the following excel file INSERT LINK, prepare a table of quarterly statistics, header row to be quarter, header column to be country, organized from highest to lowest in 2018. Top row should be Canada total. Create separate data table for the top 25 countries, 2018 basis. Create subsequent tables that shows year over year percentage change and one that shows two-year changes. Prepare additional table showing annual comparisons in numbers, and same year-over-year and two year comparison.

Prepare a comparative annual year-to-date table as well.

Ensure thousand separators for numbers with percentages to one decimal place.

Freeze header columns and rows (Country and Canada).

Create one separate table that provides a regional summary, where the six rows are Canada, Asia, Africa, Americas, Europe, Oceania, with the top rows being numbers and below rows by percentage of Canadian total. No separate individual region views.

And here is the result:

IRCC_IMP_CITZ_quarterly_and_annual_tablesDownload

One of the better uses I have found for AI. Saves me from learning python (and yes, ChatGPT also creates python scripts).

Filed under Multiculturalism

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