John Ivison: How do the Liberals fix skyrocketing immigration? By lowering the entry standards

Beyond the header and the analysis, there is a need for a number of lower-skilled immigrants, both temporary and permanent. The question revolves around the level and the percentage of all immigrants and of course, many family class and refugees already provide a source of lower skilled levels, as does the Provincial Nominee Program in some cases.

Hopefully, the annual immigration plan will provide some clarity and not result in any further deskilling of economic immigrants as Skuterud fears.

But all too true about the aversion of the government to deport visa overstayers and undocumented migrants, noting correctly that “every single one has the potential to be a front-page Toronto Star sob story.”

…But the growth in college-level foreign student enrolments and the expansion of the low wage stream of temporary workers mean there are many migrants who would not meet the requirements of the skills-based points system.

Ottawa has now revealed its solution — that from this fall, it will create a new economic class of permanent residency candidates for people with high school education or less, who would not otherwise have qualified to stay.

Mikal Skuterud, a professor of economics at the University of Waterloo, said this is a first for Canada. He said he believes the measure is, at least in part, a “release valve” to address the bulging population of visa overstayers.

“Many of these non-permanent residents will never obtain skilled jobs and the current economic class selection system makes it difficult to prioritize applicants working in less-skilled jobs over high-skilled applicants. That’s the trade-off being made to avoid a growing undocumented population,” he said.

It is not clear yet how many of the 300,000 slots allocated for economic immigrants in 2025 will be filled from the new stream, but every one that is will be at the expense of a higher qualified person applying from abroad and going through the Comprehensive Ranking skills-based points system that has been the backbone of Canada’s successful immigration policy.

OECD data from 2021 showed that Canada was by far the most successful of its peers in picking immigrants with high levels of education — more than 70 per cent — compared to just 20 per cent with medium (high school level) education. That could soon change.

As Skuterud notes, there are going to be many frustrated foreign computer science graduates from Canada’s top universities who find their chances of coming to Canada permanently are now much reduced. “That’s not good if we’re genuinely concerned about labour productivity in this country,” he said.

The Immigration Department said no information is available on numbers or a timeline because “this initiative is at the proposal stage, with no certainty of being implemented.” But it is hard to see what else the government can do.

Ottawa obviously has no stomach to dramatically increase outflows of undocumented immigrants — deportations reached 16,205 in 2023 and every single one has the potential to be a front-page Toronto Star sob story.

The Liberals have already cut student visas by 35 per cent and limited the percentage of any given workforce that can be made up of low-wage foreign workers to 20 per cent from 30.

But these measures will take time to work — most students are here on multi-year visas and are eligible for a three-year work permit after graduation.

Against that background, turning temporary workers and students into permanent residents looks like a work of political genius.

But at a stroke, it undermines the integrity of a skills-based immigration system; reduces Canada’s ability to attract the best and brightest; and, rewards those who have overstayed their visa by providing them with an option to permanent residency.

“The deskilling of Canadian economic immigration continues,” said Skuterud.

No wonder the public is losing confidence.

Source: John Ivison: How do the Liberals fix skyrocketing immigration? By lowering the entry standards