Classified report reveals how India’s Bishnoi gang uses Canada’s student visa program

2026/08/07 Leave a comment

Another example of policy failure:

…A classified intelligence report obtained by Global News reveals the Bishnoi gang’s Canadian franchise has relied heavily on Indian youths who, like Brar, entered the country on student visas.

Written by the Canada Border Services Agency, the report cites the gang’s “growing operational presence in Canada” and “demonstrated use of Canada’s immigration programs for criminal purposes.”

“Investigations increasingly identify Indian foreign nationals on study permits and work permits as participants in these organized criminal activities,” the CBSA’s Intelligence and Investigations Directorate wrote.

“The sustained expansion of Bishnoi-linked extortions and the involvement of student permit and work permit holders raises significant concerns for CBSA operations.”

The “Tactical Guide,” titled “The Bishnoi Gang: An Emerging Threat in Canada,” was circulated in December 2025 to help immigration officers tackle the crime group as it preyed upon the country’s South Asian communities.

Although classified, a copy made public by the court shows how the government’s controversial foreign student program may have contributed to Canada’s Indian gang problem….

Source: EXCLUSIVE: Classified report reveals how India’s Bishnoi gang uses Canada’s student visa program

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Rempel Garner: Integration must be immigration’s first principle.

2026/08/07 Leave a comment

Always interesting to see how the Conservatives are engaging on immigration and citizenship. Needless to say, they favour the citizenship guide which has remained unchanged since the Harper years (5 Liberal immigration ministers and counting):

…The Liberals’ lowering of language knowledge standards signalled that a common language is not necessary for national unity or to fully participate in Canadian society. The Liberals’ prioritization of business groups that profit from large numbers of low-skilled temporary foreign workers signals that it’s okay for Canada to develop a caste system of labour. Their tolerance of violent foreign ideology has led to increases in acts of hate perpetrated on Canadian soil, particularly towards the Jewish community. Their abysmal screening processes have allowed agents of terrorist regimes to enter Canada and normalize and spread violent foreign ideology and gang activity within Canada’s borders. The Liberals’ recent Bill C-3, which allows Canadian citizenship to be passed down ad infinitum to people with no significant connection to Canada, erodes the value of Canadian citizenship. Their attempt to erase Canada’s national symbols says there was no national identity for newcomers to integrate into to begin with. And their decision to bring in too many people too quickly for jobs, housing, healthcare and other social supports to keep pace has led to scarcity and its negative competitive consequences.

But the most damaging part of a decade of Liberal destruction of the true first principle of Canada’s immigration system is the impact on people who came to Canada and upheld their end of the deal. These folks comprise the vast, overwhelming majority of immigrants to our country. When the Liberals allow others to get away with breaking the rules, they risk entire communities getting tarred with the same brush.

This is why Prime Minister Mark Carney’s recent false claim that “they have taken back control of immigration” is so dangerous. The lived experience of many Canadians says otherwise. On any given morning there is another major story of the system failing (today was no different). 

And integration metrics still do not drive immigration policy.

The good news is that this state of affairs is reversible, which is why Canada’s Conservatives have spent the past year proposing major legislative and policy changes. Rules must be enforced, and the safeguards that once ensured Canada’s immigration system prioritized building the Canadian people and our national identity must be restored. Expect more to come in the fall.

Immigration policy that forgets its first duty – to build and strengthen the Canadian people – will eventually unmake the country it claims to serve.

That cannot be allowed to come to pass.

Source: Integration must be immigration’s first principle.

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The U.S. Unauthorized Immigrant Population Reaches New Levels and Diversifies, MPI Estimates Show

2026/08/04 Leave a comment

More interesting analysis by MPI:

The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) today released its latest estimates of the size of the unauthorized immigrant population in the United States, pegging the number at 15.8 million in mid-2024, after hovering in the 11 million range throughout the decade beginning in 2010. 

The increase is primarily driven by record unauthorized arrivals at the U.S.-Mexico border and the Biden administration’s wide use of humanitarian parole programs to reduce chaos at the border. As a result of these grants of parole and other Biden administration moves, MPI estimates that, as of mid-2024, a maximum of 40 percent of unauthorized immigrants in the United States held a liminal (or “twilight”) status providing them temporary protection from deportation, such as Temporary Protected Status (TPS), Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), humanitarian parole or pending asylum application. 

The MPI estimates, developed in concert with Jennifer Van Hook, a demographer at The Pennsylvania State University’s Population Research Institute, derive from a residual method that subtracts estimates of the legally resident foreign born from the total immigrant population recorded in the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS). The most recent ACS is for 2024. 

The estimates reflect the growing diversification of the U.S. unauthorized immigrant population, due to the widening array of nationalities arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border over the past several years from within and beyond this hemisphere. The Mexican share of the unauthorized immigrant population was 35 percent as of 2024—a sharp decline from the 62 percent share in 2010 and 49 percent in 2019. …

Source: The U.S. Unauthorized Immigrant Population Reaches New Levels and Diversifies, MPI Estimates Show

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Why hundreds of international students are suddenly being denied Canadian work permits: ‘We have done nothing wrong’

2026/08/04 Leave a comment

Necessary correction and a reminder that governments and stakeholders need to be more mindful of raising expectations and avoid creating situations that require reversals or tightening:

…Government says update was to ‘clarify’ criteria 

In 2024, Ottawa made drastic changes to the international student program amid a public backlash against the soaring temporary resident population, in part by restricting access to the coveted postgraduation work permits. 

International graduates must meet new language proficiency requirements and those completing public college diploma programs will only be eligible for postgraduation work permits if their field of study is linked to labour market shortages in Canada.

According to data obtained recently by Vancouver immigration lawyer Steven Meurrens, the approval rate for postgraduate work permits has dropped by 8 percentage points from 87 per cent in 2023 to 79 per cent as of November 2025.

The Immigration Department said there have been no changes to the eligibility criteria for the post-graduation work permit (PGWP) program, and the website was updated just to “clarify” the existing rules involving non-credit programs.

“To be eligible for a PGWP, applicants must complete a program of study that leads to a degree, diploma, or certificate from a designated learning institution,” it explained in an email. “This long-standing requirement does not include general interest programs, ESL/FSL programs, and other types of non-credit programs.”

The department said it does not track data specific to non-credit study programs and therefore couldn’t provide the number of postgraduation work permit refusals based on this ground.

Source: Why hundreds of international students are suddenly being denied Canadian work permits: ‘We have done nothing wrong’

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Immigrants were expected to solve Canada’s aging crisis. Here’s why birth rates are falling

2026/08/03 Leave a comment

This study has deservedly getting a lot of coverage:

…Her story — a 1.5-generation immigrant who arrived as a child, built a career, navigated cultural expectations and made calculated decisions planning a family — is one that researchers say is becoming increasingly common among immigrants and their children in Canada, with significant implications for how we think about population growth.

Over the last two decades, fertility rates among immigrants and their children have shifted markedly, researchers say, and the trend affects debates over immigration levels, which streams to prioritize, and which source countries best support long-term population growth.

“Population aging is about the relative size of different generations,” said Rachel Margolis, a professor in demography and sociology at Western University.

“If we add in a lot of working-age people and they have a lot of kids, it adds to both. But if we add a lot of working-age people and they don’t have that many kids, we still have a smaller kid generation and it contributes even more to population aging.”

Fertility gaps among immigrant groups

Margolis co-authored a new Western University study that used Canadian long-form census data from 2001 to 2021 to estimate birth rates across immigrant subgroups by generation, immigration stream, temporary and permanent status and source country.

Immigrants still have higher fertility than native-born Canadians, but the gap has narrowed over two decades, from 0.24 births in 2001 to 0.11 in 2021. First-generation immigrants — those who arrived after age 15 — have the highest fertility of any group. But the 1.5 generation, those who came as children like Wijesingha, have even lower fertility than both their first-generation and Canadian-born peers.

Fertility rate is the average number of children a woman is expected to have over her lifetime; the magic number of children needed for a generation to replace itself is 2.1, to maintain the population.

Among immigration streams, family-class permanent residents have the highest fertility rates, followed by refugees, with economic immigrants at the bottom of the three. Adding to the mix, temporary residents — international students and foreign workers — have the lowest of all. And across nearly all of Canada’s top 10 source countries, fertility rates have fallen since 2001, with most now below the 2.1 replacement level — and far below what those same countries produce at home. 

Margolis said she was surprised by the wide gap in fertility between the women coming to Canada and their counterparts back home. For instance, in 2021, immigrant women from India had a birth rate that’s three-quarters of a birth less than their counterparts back home; similar trends were observed for newcomers from other countries….

Source: Immigrants were expected to solve Canada’s aging crisis. Here’s why birth rates are falling

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Immigration department refused more than 20,000 visas from World Cup fans

2026/07/30 Leave a comment

Of note:

The immigration department refused more than 20,000 visa applications from foreign nationals who applied to come to Canada for the FIFA World Cup, official figures show. 

Canada played host to 13 games in Toronto and Vancouver in June and July, issuing 26,000 visas to visitors, including people invited by FIFA to work at the tournament. 

However, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada refused another 20,845 visa applications related to the tournament. It refused an additional 205 electronic travel authorizations for visa-exempt foreign nationals. 

Among the refused visa applications were 3,135 from Ghanaian fans. IRCC approved only 470 visas for Ghanaians, whose national team played Panama on June 17 in Toronto. …

According to new data provided to The Globe, the department refused applications from 1,965 Nigerians who wanted to come to Canada for the international soccer tournament, which Canada co-hosted with the United States and Mexico. Only 220 Nigerian fans who applied for visas were approved to come here for the World Cup….

Toronto immigration lawyer Stephen Green said Canada’s immigration officers would have closely vetted applications, including to see if applicants had enough money to support themselves while they were here. 

“They were checking for whether or not someone would leave at the end of their proposed visit,” he added. 

Templar Kalundu Iga, director of policy and global strategy at the Canadian Centre for African Affairs and Policy Research, said the comparatively high volumes of visa applications from Nigeria and Ghana were not surprising, with both being major footballing nations. 

But he said there was a “pronounced disparity between approvals and refusals,” noting that 90 per cent of applications from Nigeria were declined and 87 per cent from Ghana.

“The World Cup could have been used to deepen our understanding of African tourism, diaspora mobility and investment flows, while connecting immigration policy to the objectives of Canada’s Africa Strategy,” he said in an e-mail. “Instead, the data risk presenting African mobility principally through the language of immigration risk.”…

Source: Immigration department refused more than 20,000 visas from World Cup fans

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MPI: Population Aging Is Here. Immigration Can Offer Half an Answer.

2026/07/30 Leave a comment

Another analysis on the limits of immigration to address population aging and low fertility rates:

Countries around the world face a demographic transition that is arriving faster than many governments have planned for, as falling fertility and aging populations place growing pressure on workforces, tax bases and the public systems that support retirees. 

The scale of the change is now visible well beyond the wealthy countries that have long grappled with aging populations. China’s annual births have fallen to levels not recorded since 1949, and comparable declines are underway in countries across Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, leaving many countries old before they grow rich, with shrinking workforces and rising costs for pensions and health care. 

A new Migration Policy Institute (MPI) policy brief finds that treating immigration as a numbers game—rather than planning for integration and workforce participation—leaves much of its demographic dividend on the table. 

In many fast-aging, wealthier countries, governments have long leaned on immigration as a response to shrinking, aging workforces, but the math does not support that expectation at scale, Meghan Benton, director of MPI’s Global Program, writes in Population Aging Is Here. Immigration Can Offer Half an Answer. Holding worker-to-retiree ratios steady through migration alone would require a 75 percent increase in the combined population of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries by 2050—a level of growth few, if any, publics would accept. 

Immigration should be understood as a partial lever rather than a substitute for broader demographic strategy, which must include retirement-age extensions, productivity investments, family-friendly policies and social security reforms, the brief notes. 

On the immigration front, Benton argues that governments need to pay greater attention to whether newcomers and their families can participate fully in the economy; failure to do so leaves real fiscal value on the table when integration is treated as secondary. 

The brief sets out several principles for better leveraging immigration, including prioritizing the skills and career stage of arriving immigrants; treating integration programming, including language training, as an investment rather than a cost; folding immigration into the same long-term planning governments already apply to pensions, housing and infrastructure; addressing pension gaps for aging immigrants through portable retirement funds; and ensuring immigration narrows rather than widens global inequality by investing in skills partnerships that connect training, mobility and local development. 

The brief also cautions against assuming artificial intelligence can quickly substitute for immigration. Benton notes that prioritizing high earners may be difficult given rising low-skilled labor shortages in sectors such as elder care, agriculture, hospitality and construction, which remain largely resistant to near-term automation. Governments will need to prioritize those with flexible skills. 

“While immigration cannot solve population aging, it can be a useful demographic and economic lever—if it is employed more effectively,” Benton writes. “The next few years will provide a real-time experiment in the success of policies that prioritize immigration versus other economic levers to help countries navigate population aging, including extending retirement age, investing in productivity advances and reforming social security systems. Different models are already taking shape.” 

Source: Population Aging Is Here. Immigration Can Offer Half an Answer.

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Immigrants to Canada have adopted the country’s low-fertility rates, new research finds

2026/07/30 Leave a comment

Not new but further confirmation that immigration has a limited impact on overall population growth:

Economic migrants, who make up the bulk of Canada’s immigrants, have adopted their new country’s behaviour in one significant area — they have very low fertility rates, new research suggests.

“Immigrants are feeling the low-fertility pressure of Canada here, like everyone else,” says demographer and sociologist Rachel Margolis, a professor at Western University, and one of the authors of a new paper on immigration and fertility.

Even groups with relatively high fertility — family stream and refugees — are also below the replacement level of 2.1 children, according to the research. Additionally, the top three source countries Canada draws immigrants from are low-fertility nations. The total fertility rate in India, the top source country, for instance, has dropped to 1.9 children per woman.

At a record low of 1.25 children per woman, Canada has entered an “ultra-low fertility” era. In 2024, it joined a list of several countries, including Finland, Italy and South Korea, with a fertility rate below 1.3.

Canada grows its population and bolsters the economy through immigration. But that short-term solution for population loss doesn’t address long-term population aging, according to the study….

Ramos highlights that it’s probably time for the country to consider a population strategy. “I think Canada’s policy has largely focused on economic issues and treated other issues as challenges to the economy, whereas really, underlying most of the economic issues are demographic issues.

Source: Immigrants to Canada have adopted the country’s low-fertility rates, new research finds

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Barutciski: The UN’s Refugee Convention finds itself at a crossroads 75 years later – because of how it’s being interpreted

2026/07/29 2 Comments

Sort of inevitable that conventions get reinterpreted over time but always useful to assess that reinterpretation and the impact of these changes. But yes, empathy and understanding required in both directions:

…The 75th anniversary of the Refugee Convention offers a critical opportunity to change this unsustainable trajectory. Today, the greatest threat to refugee dignity is not domestic xenophobia, though societies must remain vigilant against it. It may be a maximalist and activist reading of the historic treaty pushed by open-border advocates that has stifled candid, pragmatic debate. 

Refugee protection can only survive if it retains the democratic support of host populations. Without it, public goodwill will continue to dry up, leaving governments to scramble with short-sighted, improvised burden-shifting schemes. 

Crucially, sovereign states are not permanently bound by expansive judicial decisions, even if it is reasonable for the interpretation of international treaty law to evolve. National parliaments possess the authority to amend domestic legislation to clarify ambiguous legal terms. By codifying precise thresholds for asylum, most legislatures can effectively override a judiciary and restore the structural parameters originally intended by the treaty.

The central predicament is that few political leaders in the West possess the courage to confront the contradiction characterizing modern refugee law. Instead, mainstream politicians maintain a facade of humanitarian concern, failing to recognize that sustainable policy requires empathy in both directions – toward needy foreigners, and toward the citizens asked to absorb them. 

Source: The UN’s Refugee Convention finds itself at a crossroads 75 years later – because of how it’s being interpreted

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Indian students arranged marriages of convenience for spouse work permits to Canada, warned New Delhi migration official

2026/07/29 Leave a comment

The warnings were there:

The number of Indian undergraduate students applying to come to Canada has dropped over the past few years, in part because Ottawa ended a program granting the spouses of international students work permits, an internal government communication shows. 

The communication discloses how marriages of convenience by some Indian students had enabled their spouses to accompany them to this country to work and to help them pay for their studies.

A 2025 e-mail report, obtained under access to information laws, to immigration department officials from Canada’s High Commission in New Delhi discusses a number of integrity issues involving Indian students, including marriages of convenience.

Marriages linked to immigration to Canada were advertised in Indian newspapers and dating apps, according to the report.

But a change in the rules in 2024 by then-immigration minister Marc Miller closed this avenue to Canada for international students’ spouses. …

Richard Kurland, an immigration lawyer who obtained the e-mail through an access to information request, said Canada can pick who it wants to come here to study and “that should mean only the people who can afford to study in Canada without working.”

“Study permits should not be a dating trampoline to Canada,” Mr. Kurland added. 

The number of Indian study permit holders dropped to 93,840 in 2025 from 188,125 in 2024 and 277,950 in 2023, according to IRCC figures, reducing a key revenue stream for many colleges and universities. 

Syed Hussan, executive director at Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, said he thought the drop in numbers was because “people are choosing not to go to countries where they cannot go with their families.”…

Source: Indian students arranged marriages of convenience for spouse work permits to Canada, warned New Delhi migration official

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