Communities report high demand for pilot offering permanent residency for rural jobs

2026/06/15 Leave a comment

Of note. Will be interesting to see an eventual IRCC evaluation of the program covering retention issues:

A pilot immigration program to help rural communities find skilled workers for hard-to-fill jobs saw 800 people receive permanent residency in the first two months of this year — and hundreds of applications are streaming in for a limited number of available spaces.

The Rural Community Immigration Pilot, or RCIP, began in 2025. It allows 14 small communities across Canada to recommend people with skills and jobs in selected sectors for permanent residency.

Each community can select up to 25 fields as priority professions for their area — anything from health and manufacturing to skilled trades and transport….

Source: Communities report high demand for pilot offering permanent residency for rural jobs

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FIFA World Cup is drawing thousands of visa applications to Canada. Here are the countries with the highest refusals

2026/06/15 Leave a comment

Of note:

…Ghana, whose national team will play at Toronto Stadium on Wednesday, topped the list of visa applicants, with 1,953 applications submitted between Nov. 14, 2025, when Ottawa first announced its special visa measures, and March 31, the latest data available. Ghana also had the most refusals.

The West African country was closely followed by the 1,793 applications received from Colombia, which is in the tourney but is not scheduled to play in Canada. India (1,393), Nigeria (1,293) and Pakistan (1,085) rounded out the top five source countries; none of these three qualified for the tournament.

Preliminary data from the Immigration Department suggested there were more visas refused than granted among applications with the “FIFA World Cup 26” flag. The countries with the highest refusal cases were: Ghana (1,423), Pakistan (797), India (687), Nigeria (557) and Colombia (461).

Concerns have swirled over travellers being scammed or taking advantage of the event to gain easy entry to Canada for asylum and work opportunities since social media posts emerged late last year, falsely advertising that visitors can work without work permits during the World Cup, and offering help with cover letters and coaching for visa applications to attend games.

Not only did Canadian officials step up their scrutiny, they also campaigned to combat misinformation and disinformation about Canada’s immigration system through public engagement and advisories.

Of the total 4,625 of visas approved, 1,076 were issued to Colombians, topping all countries. China, which did not qualify for the Cup, came a distant second, at 327. It’s followed by Ecuador (257), the U.S. (239) and India (188). (American citizens don’t need visas to come here, but U.S. permanent and temporary residents do.)…

Source: FIFA World Cup is drawing thousands of visa applications to Canada. Here are the countries with the highest refusals

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The world’s wealthy are migrating like never before

2026/06/15 Leave a comment

Good survey from The Economist. No fan of these programs as generally minimal benefit to the host country:

….Yet the wealthy can find that a warm welcome sometimes goes cold. In January 2025 Spain, once a popular destination, cancelled its €500,000 ($577,000) residency programme in an effort to curb property speculation. In April the European Union’s Court of Justice ruled that Malta’s scheme broke eu law because it “commercialised” citizenship (though the island’s “citizenship-by-merit” programme, which admits entrepreneurs, has since gained traction). In April this year Argentina cancelled a tender to set up an investment-migration programme, issued only in December, which had drawn interest from 11 firms. Last month Portugal extended most migrants’ waiting time for passports from five years to ten.

Many governments are facing pressure to increase the diligence of their citizenship and residency programmes, notes Mr Klasko. The big issue is: “Do you as a country know the background of people who you are giving passports to?” In other words, geopolitical uncertainty does not only trouble the rich. But plenty of countries will take them—and plenty of advisers are eager to help them choose. 

Source: The world’s wealthy are migrating like never before

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Anglin: What’s driving Alberta separatism? Don’t overlook immigration

2026/06/12 Leave a comment

While there is merit to some of his arguments with respect to “generation squeeze,” Anglin neglects to mention provincial complicity, save for Quebec, in supporting high levels of immigration. After all, prior to launching the immigration-related referendums, Alberta supported higher numbers of Provincial Nominee Program and did not oppose higher numbers of international students or temporary workers, reflecting the same pressures by interest groups across the country.

As to his “Canada is broken para,” suspect it is more on the basic economic impacts more than the “wokification” as the polling he cites indicate:

…What is the source of this desperation? The sheer quantity and poor quality of the Liberal migration boom is not the only reason for job scarcity and soaring housing prices, but it’s a big one. Young voters also connect the resulting complexity in Canadian society to the takeover of their schools, government programs, and private HR departments by DEI programs that pigeon-hole them as avatars of their race, and what appears to be an official decision not to enforce the law against jarring cultural practices and open hate in our streets.

When young Albertans look at the national institutions that are meant to bind us together, they see the progressive “wokification” of the Canadian Armed Forces, a politicised, scandal-plagued, and mostly incompetent RCMP, and two-tier justice and immigration-based sentencing from the courts. Add to this a broken public health-care system, a sclerotic national economy sustained by a migration Ponzi scheme, and the denigration of Canadian history, symbols, and traditions…

Source: What’s driving Alberta separatism? Don’t overlook immigration

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Surprising drop in refugees and forcefully displaced people worldwide, UN reports

2026/06/12 Leave a comment

Of note:

Forced displacement from wars and persecution around the world fell for the first time in a decade, according to the United Nations refugee agency.

The latest data showed the number of people who were forced to leave their homes and remained displaced at the end of 2025 dropped by four per cent to 117.8 million from 123.2 million a year ago, the UNHCR said in a report released Thursday.

The decline reflected a sharp increase in the number of international refugees and internally displaced individuals who returned home last year in some of the countries with the largest displacement such as Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and Syria.

In 2025, almost 5.4 million people had to flee and seek safety across borders, predominantly in neighbouring countries. The majority came from eight countries: Sudan (952,700), Ukraine (788,100), Venezuela (455,300), South Sudan (232,800), Burkina Faso (221,300), Afghanistan (191,400), Mali (177,200) and Myanmar (165,400).

Meanwhile, returns of both internationally and domestically displaced people rose by 50 per cent, reaching 14.7 million, the second highest level since records began 60 years ago. Returnees to the Democratic Republic of Congo (3.6 million), Sudan (3.6 million), Syria (3.3 million), Afghanistan (two million), Ukraine (718,300) and Myanmar (415,200) accounted for 92 per cent of all returns.

But in many cases, there’s little to celebrate….

Source: Surprising drop in refugees and forcefully displaced people worldwide, UN reports

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Réouverture du PEQ pour deux ans: Québec acceptera les demandes d’admission par phases

2026/06/12 Leave a comment

Needed:

Le ministre de l’Immigration, François Bonnardel, a précisé mercredi les modalités de cette réouverture promise par Christine Fréchette lors de la course à la direction de la CAQ. Une première vague d’admission, « sans plafond », s’adressera aux travailleurs étrangers et aux diplômés qui répondaient déjà aux critères du programme au moment de son abolition, le 19 novembre dernier.

Du 2 juillet au 31 octobre, les personnes ayant obtenu un diplôme québécois ou accumulé une expérience de travail « d’au moins deux ans dans les trois dernières années », en date du 19 novembre 2025, pourront déposer une demande. Le ministère de l’Immigration estime que de 8000 à 12 000 personnes pourraient être admissibles.

D’autres phases seraient ensuite ouvertes pour les immigrants qui ne remplissaient pas toutes les exigences au moment de l’abolition du programme, mais qui étaient en voie de le faire. Les détails de ces prochaines phases seront définis ultérieurement, en fonction du nombre d’immigrants qui postuleront au PEQ au cours de la première phase, a précisé M. Bonnardel.

Des discussions avec Ottawa

Le PEQ permettait d’obtenir rapidement le certificat de sélection du Québec (CSQ), requis pour obtenir la résidence permanente, et s’adressait aux travailleurs et aux étudiants étrangers. Son abolition au profit du Programme de sélection des travailleurs qualifiés (PSTQ) avait été dénoncée par les milieux économiques, municipaux et par de nombreux immigrants temporaires.

Source: Réouverture du PEQ pour deux ans: Québec acceptera les demandes d’admission par phases

The Minister of Immigration, François Bonnardel, clarified on Wednesday the modalities of this reopening promised by Christine Fréchette during the race for the leadership of the CAQ. A first wave of admission, “without ceiling”, will be aimed at foreign workers and graduates who already met the criteria of the program at the time of its abolition on November 19.

From July 2 to October 31, people who have obtained a Quebec diploma or accumulated work experience “of at least two years in the last three years”, as of November 19, 2025, will be able to apply. The Ministry of Immigration estimates that 8,000 to 12,000 people could be eligible.

Other phases would then be opened for immigrants who did not meet all the requirements at the time of the abolition of the program, but who were in the process of doing so. The details of these next phases will be defined later, depending on the number of immigrants who will apply for the PEQ during the first phase, said Mr. Bonardel

Discussions with Ottawa

The PEQ made it possible to quickly obtain the Quebec Selection Certificate (CSQ), required to obtain permanent residence, and was intended for foreign workers and students. Its abolition in favor of the Skilled Worker Selection Program (PSTQ) had been denounced by economic and municipal circles and by many temporary immigrants.

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America is depopulating at record levels. Here’s what the numbers say

2026/06/12 1 Comment

Of note. As is the case for Canada, largely driven by fewer immigrants and temporary residents:

…In 2025, net migration in the U.S. turned negative — with the loss of some 150,000 people by some estimates — a trend not seen since the Great Depression. Further declines are expected in 2026 and 2027, Brookings Institution, a public policy think tank has found.

While the U.S. data does not capture outbound emigration, many of its citizens are reportedly turning up in Europe and bordering countries — for education, housing and even long-term care needs. In 2025, more Americans moved to Germany and Ireland than the other way around, a change attributed to “a life away from the rat race at home” by London’s I Paper. The Czech Republic, Spain and Netherlands have reported similar highs….

The U.S. government is also dealing with a backlog of Americans renouncing their citizenship, with embassies in London, Sydney and most Canadian major cities reporting wait-lists stretching into months, the Guardian reported in April. One in five Americans said in a November Gallup poll that they would like to leave the country, twice as many as 10 years ago.

Between four to nine million Americans live abroad, a figure that is likely an undercount due to people flag-poling with tourist visas, travellers who straddle borders and students with long-term visas being left out of the count, according to the Wall Street Journal. The paper noted that newer emigres are ordinary citizens seeking better housing opportunities, telecommuting or choosing to retire somewhere cheaper….

Source: America is depopulating at record levels. Here’s what the numbers say

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International students: Secondary and less share growing

2026/06/11 Leave a comment

Although not that surprising given the cuts to post-secondary international student levels, nevertheless striking how the share of secondary and less of all students has grown dramatically over the past number of years as per the following charts:

The numbers of secondary or less have stayed relatively stable, 2023-25, between 115,000 and 125,000. In contrast, numbers of post secondary fell from 544,000 to 263,000 and other studies from 47,000 to 21,000.

Unfortunately, appears to be few studies on this part of the education sector. ChatGPT did find this Global Affairs study that had the following conclusions:

“1. Global Affairs Canada – Elementary and Secondary Schools Sector Paper (2023)

This is probably the best national overview.

Key findings include:

  • Approximately 92,000 study permit holders were at the “secondary or less” level in 2022.
  • About 30,000 fee-paying international students were enrolled in Canadian public schools.
  • Most international students are concentrated at the secondary (high school) level.
  • British Columbia and Ontario account for more than 80% of K–12 international students.
  • School boards reported increasing competition for spaces due to population growth and immigration. “

Unfortunately, can’t find the actual study on the GAC website.

Seems like there may be some good masters thesis possibilities in this under-covered sector.

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StatsCan: Racialized postsecondary Canadian students

2026/06/11 Leave a comment

Useful data visualizations broken down by new entrants and enrolled, visible minority group, gender, age, field of study. Some interesting variations by group, gender and field of study.

In terms of enrolled, Chinese have the highest percentage in STEM (40 percent) with Black’s the lowest (20 percent), followed by not visible minority (22 percent). For new entrants, similar pattern but with tighter percentage in STEM, Chinese (49 percent), Black (27 percent), not visible minority (29 percent).

Worth exploring.

Source: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/71-607-x/71-607-x2024020-eng.htm

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US judge blocks Trump’s $100,000 H-1B visa fee for highly skilled foreign workers, calling it unlawful

2026/06/10 1 Comment

Courts working (apart from SCOTUS):

A federal judge on Monday struck down a US$100,000 fee U.S. President Donald Trump imposed on new H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers, concluding that it constituted an unlawful tax Congress never authorized. 

U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston issued the ruling in a lawsuit filed by 20 Democratic state attorneys general challenging a fee Trump announced in September that dramatically raised the cost of obtaining H-1B visas, which tech companies in particular rely heavily on to bring on foreign workers. 

The administration argued the fee constituted a lawful monetary penalty that the president was authorized to impose under federal immigration law, which gives him the power to restrict the entry of certain foreign nationals when he deems it “detrimental to the interests of the United States.”…

Source: US judge blocks Trump’s $100,000 H-1B visa fee for highly skilled foreign workers, calling it unlawful

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