Conservatives plan to try and amend asylum system rules in border security bill

2025/11/21 Leave a comment

Will be interesting to what role the Bloc plays in committee. May well end up with the committee making amendments and the government and NDP rejecting all as was the case with C-3:

Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel Garner said Thursday she plans to try and “amend the heck” out of the government’s border security bill, Bill C-12, with a host of measures targeting the asylum system. 

Her proposed changes include disallowing asylum claims from people who transited through Europe or another G7 country on their way to Canada and denying access to social benefits, except emergency medical treatment, for those with a failed asylum claim.

“I think Canadians want some change in this regard. Canada’s system for allowing and accepting asylum claims is pretty generous,” Rempel Garner said at a press conference on Parliament Hill.

“So somebody who’s failed a review, I think it’s fair that the only federal benefits that they receive is emergency health care and I think a lot of Canadians would agree.”

Rempel Garner said she also plans to propose changes to speed up the deportation of non-citizens if they are convicted of a crime or if their pre-removal risk assessment isn’t successful.

This includes clarifying the definition of “serious criminality” in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to be a conviction of an indictable offence, or a hybrid offence where the Crown proceeded with an indictable charge. 

Rempel Garner also said she will propose a ban on repeat pre-removal risk assessments if the initial one fails unless new evidence of changed circumstances is presented. 

She said increased rates of permanent and temporary immigration, in addition to increased asylum claims, have “broken” Canada’s system and contributed to declining support for immigration.

“I think everybody in Canada, (of) every political stripe, should be deeply concerned with public polling data that shows that Canadians are losing faith in the immigration system,” Rempel Garner said. …

Source: Conservatives plan to try and amend asylum system rules in border security bill

Some initial reactions:

…Fen Hampson, president of the World Refugee & Migration Council, said “there are arguments to be made for tightening up the system to prevent abuses but by the same token you don’t want to swing wildly in the opposite direction.”

He said banning people from claiming asylum who had passed through an EU or G7 country would bar Canada from accepting people fleeing war-torn states who, for practical reasons, have to pass through Europe to get to Canada. 

“You are likely going to have to stop somewhere on your way to Canada and it may be a few days or it may be more than that,” he said. “Few asylum seekers can book a ticket to fly directly to Canada.”

The border and immigration bill – known as Bill C-12 – will be considered clause by clause next week by MPs on the public safety committee. 

Ms. Rempel Garner told a press conference on Thursday that her party will table their amendments then. One would end federal benefits for failed claimants of asylum, beyond emergency health care…

Source: Conservative amendments to borders bill would make sweeping changes to asylum system, I’m going to amend the heck out of C-12 to fix Canada’s broken immigration system. (Rempel Garner’s substack post)

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Ontario cancels fast-track immigration program for skilled trades

2025/11/20 Leave a comment

Sigh…. Will see if the minister responsible, Piccini, resigns or not:

Ontario has quietly suspended a fast-track immigration stream for skilled tradespeople and is cancelling all current applications to the stream, leaving candidates who were awaiting decisions in limbo − and at risk of losing their right to live and work in the province.

The Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) allows the province to recruit and retain foreign workers by granting permanent residency to those with in-demand skills, and has previously been touted as a critical means of filling labour shortages.

Qualified workers can be nominated by employers or invited by the province to apply based on their skill set. Last year, the province nominated about 4,100 candidates through its skilled worker stream − with the Labour Ministry describing the OINP as the “best tool the province has” to fill job gaps. The government has previously forecast that it will need 100,000 skilled tradespeople over the next decade to meet its infrastructure goals.

But the Labour Ministry’s oversight of the program has also attracted scrutiny from the province’s Auditor-General’s office, which last year identified weaknesses in detecting “integrity concerns.”

On Friday, an update posted to the OINP website said an internal review of the skilled trades initiative had “identified systemic misrepresentation and/or fraud,” prompting the Labour Ministry to suspend the stream.

That afternoon, candidates were notified by a director at the Labour Ministry that their applications had been terminated, according to a ministry e-mail obtained by The Globe and Mail.

Source: Ontario cancels fast-track immigration program for skilled trades

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Highly skilled immigrants are twice as likely to leave Canada, report shows

2025/11/20 Leave a comment

Makes sense, given the more educated have more mobility possibilities. But nevertheless highlights the retention issue:

The more educated an immigrant is, the more likely they are to leave Canada, a new report on immigration data and patterns suggests.

It comes as the federal immigration and health ministers testified on barriers to attracting immigrants to work in the health care sector on Tuesday.

New immigrants are leaving Canada “at near-record rates, with highly educated and highly skilled immigrants leaving Canada at twice the rate of those with less education and lower skills,” a new report by the Institute of Canadian Citizenship and the Conference Board of Canada found.

The ICC releases an annual report which studies the causes of onward migration — or migration of people first into, then out of Canada using data from Statistics Canada.

The likelihood of leaving Canada goes up as the level of education increases, the report found….

Source: Highly skilled immigrants are twice as likely to leave Canada, report shows

Report link: https://forcitizenship.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/The-Leaky-Bucket-2025-Nov.-17.pdf

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Les immigrants réclament une clause de droits acquis pour le PEQ

2025/11/18 Leave a comment

Understandable. Always creates problems when rules and regulations change without grandfather clauses or other transition measures:

Le ministre de l’Immigration, Jean-François Roberge, a provoqué une onde de choc dans la communauté immigrante en annonçant la semaine dernière l’abolition du Programme de l’expérience québécoise (PEQ), une voie rapide pour accéder à la résidence permanente. Appelant à une vaste mobilisation à Québec lundi, des candidats à l’immigration réclament le rétablissement du PEQ et une clause de droits acquis (communément appelée clause « grand-père » sous l’influence de l’anglais) pour ceux et celles qui sont déjà sur le territoire, et dont le rêve québécois est désormais menacé….

Au cabinet du ministre Roberge, on dit comprendre les inquiétudes, mais on indique qu’aucune clause de droits acquis n’est envisagée. Les demandes reçues avant la suspension du programme seront traitées et toutes les nouvelles demandes devront être transmises par l’entremise du nouveau PSTQ, où « les diplômés du Québec qui ont une expérience de travail et les travailleurs étrangers déjà sur le territoire » seront favorisés.

Source: Les immigrants réclament une clause de droits acquis pour le PEQ

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Illegal migration tearing UK apart, Mahmood says

2025/11/18 Leave a comment

Will see what today’s announcement and details reveals:

Illegal migration is “tearing the country apart”, the home secretary has said, as she prepares to unveil major plans to overhaul asylum policy.

New measures set to be announced by Shabana Mahmood on Monday will include people granted asylum needing to wait 20 years before they can apply to settle permanently.

The plans will also see those granted asylum have their refugee status regularly reviewed and those whose home countries are then deemed safe told to return.

Mahmood told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme she saw tackling illegal migration as a “moral mission”.

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the Conservatives would deport illegal migrants “within a week”, while Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey called for asylum seekers to have the right to work.

The changes are aimed at making the UK a less attractive destination for illegal migrants, leading to reduced small boat crossings and asylum claims.

Mahmood is also to announce the UK will stop granting visas to people from Angola, Namibia and the Democratic Republic of Congo if their governments do not rapidly improve co-operation on removals.

A Home Office source said the countries were being targeted “for their unacceptably low co-operation and obstructive returns processes”.

As first reported in the Times the threat of the visa ban for certain countries comes after thousands of illegal migrants and criminals from the three nations were said to be in the UK.

Many specific details and practicalities of the sweeping changes to asylum policy are yet to be made clear, and will be set out by Mahmood on Monday…..

Source: Illegal migration tearing UK apart, Mahmood says

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Globe editorial: Canada’s muddled immigration plan won’t bring in the world’s best talent

2025/11/17 Leave a comment

Sometimes being too cute in presenting numbers attracts more attention….

…The federal government’s claim that the plan “stabilizes targets for permanent resident admissions” is misleading. The nominal target for new permanent residents next year is 380,000, slightly lower than this year’s 395,000. 

But if the 148,000 from the one-off initiatives were included over the next two years, as they should be, the number given permanent resident status would jump to 454,000, assuming an even split. The Liberal government is creating superficial distinctions to blur reality, much as they are doing with “capital” and “operating” spending in the budget. The reality is that the government is increasing permanent resident targets for the next two years.

The federal government should focus on bringing the bulk of economic migrants through its national programs. And Ottawa should resist the urge to micromanage the labour market, and instead focus on restoring the skills-driven approach that will identify people most likely to prosper, and to help Canada prosper.

Source: Canada’s muddled immigration plan won’t bring in the world’s best talent

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Canada’s cap on international students helped lower rents. But will it bring colleges and universities down as well?

2025/11/17 Leave a comment

Some good quotes:

..André Côté, interim executive director of the DAIS think tank at Toronto Metropolitan University, told a Parliamentary committee this fall that it’s clear the international student program had grown “a little out of control.”

There had been a huge increase in the number of foreign students, mainly in college programs, who were unlikely to go on to well-paying jobs, Mr. Côté said. And there was never going to be enough spots for all those who wanted to stay in Canada long-term, he added.

“As much as it stinks to close campuses and to lay off staff, I look at all this and say we had a system that grew far too big for its britches,” he said to the committee. “It was a bit of a reckoning that had to happen.” …

Amir Khajepour, a professor of engineering at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, says he typically has 40 to 50 graduate students and postdocs working in his lab. His research has attracted grants and industry partnerships focused on autonomous vehicles, underground mining, robotics and health care. But he’s struggling to fill available positions.

“We are not looking for just anyone. We are looking for the best students from the best universities with the best credentials,” he said.

In the last year he has accepted about 20 to 30 international applicants, but only four have been able to obtain study permits, as processing times have increased, he said, adding his lab is down to about 30 students.

Prof. Khajepour said he doesn’t understand why the government was previously unable to distinguish between top students coming to attend prestigious universities and people whose primary purpose is immigration.

“You are damaging research. In Canada, you are in a good position to attract the best. You are not even using this opportunity,” he said.

Source: Canada’s cap on international students helped lower rents. But will it bring colleges and universities down as well?

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Palestinians living in Gaza lose lawsuits that would force Canada to process crisis travel visas

2025/11/15 2 Comments

Of note (inability to leave Gaza for biometrics):

Palestinians in Gaza who applied to join relatives in Canada two years ago under Ottawa’s crisis immigration policy but haven’t received travel visas lost their lawsuits trying to force officials to act despite security problems in the war-torn region.

Four similar court actions asked the Federal Court to order officials with Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to process their temporary resident visa applications.

Justice Henry S. Brown said the stories of applicants in Gaza were “heartbreaking” but he could not issue the orders they sought.

The court cases stem from Ottawa’s announcement of a “temporary public policy to facilitate temporary resident visas for certain extended family affected by the crisis in Gaza,” which took effect on Jan. 9, 2024.

It was supposed to provide quick refuge for Palestinians with relatives who are either Canadian citizens or permanent residents and willing to be an “anchor relative” in Canada.

The Gaza policy was capped at 5,000 visas. Court heard that almost two years later there are about 4,200 unprocessed applicants.

The policy was similar in purpose to emergency policies for Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion, Afghans fleeing the Taliban’s return to power, and those in danger zones after an earthquake in Türkiye and Syria. The policies remove some criteria normally needed to enter Canada to speed things up in a crisis.

…He agreed with the applicants that the government has a legal duty to process visa applications made under the policy. He also agreed with the government that officers did not have a duty to process applications within a particular timeframe.

“I am satisfied the Applicant has a legitimate expectation to his application being dealt with in a timely manner. However, this expectation only arises when the Applicant meets all the conditions of the Policy and provides biometric information (which he is unable to do),” Brown wrote.

Brown found that Canada’s policy did not allow visa officers to override other regulations on immigration, and those regulations require a biometric check. The government argued that Ottawa has a duty to maintain the integrity of Canada’s immigration system and Brown agreed.

“The root cause of the Applicant’s failure to provide his biometric data is of course the changed operational context, namely the closure of the Rafah crossing which made obtaining and submitting biometrics impossible.”

He said because of that, the applicants did not meet the threshold for a court order forcing the government to act because that required all elements of a process to be complete before unreasonable delay can be determined.

All cases were denied.

Source: Palestinians living in Gaza lose lawsuits that would force Canada to process crisis travel visas

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François Legault gonfle les chiffres sur les faux demandeurs d’asile

2025/11/15 Leave a comment

Quelle surprise:

Pour justifier ses politiques, le premier ministre François Legault a répété jeudi que la moitié des demandeurs d’asile réclamaient le statut de réfugié sous de faux motifs, alors que des données officielles récentes démontrent plutôt que de 22 % à 39 % des dossiers sont rejetés pour cette raison.

« On sait de façon historique que la moitié ne sont pas de vrais demandeurs d’asile », a dit M. Legault lors de la période de questions à l’Assemblée nationale.

Le premier ministre répondait alors à une question de la co-porte-parole de Québec solidaire, Ruba Ghazal, sur le manque de ressources pour les itinérants. « Il y a plusieurs causes à la crise de l’itinérance qu’on vit actuellement », a-t-il répondu avant d’évoquer les problèmes de santé mentale, la crise du logement et l’afflux de demandeurs d’asile.

« On en a fait beaucoup, mais la demande explose », a-t-il dit, avant d’affirmer que « la moitié des demandeurs d’asile ne sont pas de vrais demandeurs d’asile ».

Plus prudent, son ministre de l’Immigration, Jean-François Roberge, avait soutenu en matinée que « de 40 % à 50 % […] ne sont pas de réels demandeurs d’asile »….

Source: François Legault gonfle les chiffres sur les faux demandeurs d’asile

To justify his policies, Prime Minister François Legault repeated on Thursday that half of asylum seekers were claiming refugee status on false grounds, while recent official data show rather that 22% to 39% of applications are rejected for this reason.

“We know historically that half are not real asylum seekers,” said Mr. Legault during the question period in the National Assembly.

The Prime Minister was then answering a question from Québec solidaire’s co-spokeswoman, Ruba Ghazal, on the lack of resources for itinerants. “There are several causes for the homelessness crisis we are currently experiencing,” he replied before mentioning mental health problems, the housing crisis and the influx of asylum seekers.

“We have done a lot, but demand is exploding,” he said, before saying that “half of asylum seekers are not real asylum seekers.”

More cautious, his Minister of Immigration, Jean-François Roberge, had maintained in the morning that “40% to 50% […] are not real asylum seekers”….

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StatsCan Study: The contribution of foreign-born mothers to Canadian births from 1997 to 2024

2025/11/14 Leave a comment

Of interest:

Since 2009, Canada has been experiencing a decline in fertility, which accelerated in 2017. In addition, the country saw unprecedented annual population growth from 2022 to 2024 on account of strong international migration. In this context, the study “The contribution of foreign-born mothers to Canadian births from 1997 to 2024” sheds new light on the contribution of foreign-born women (i.e., those born outside Canada) to births in Canada over the period from 1997 to 2024 using vital statistics data on births.

In 2024, more than two in five newborns (42.3%) had a foreign-born mother, a proportion that nearly doubled in just over 25 years. Also, nearly three in five babies (57.0%) born to mothers over the age of 40 years had a foreign-born mother in 2024. In contrast, among babies born to mothers aged 19 years and younger, just over 1 in 10 (12.8%) had a foreign-born mother.

Among all births in Canada, the proportion attributable to mothers born in India increased nearly fivefold from 1997 to 2024, rising from 2.1% to 10.3%. As a result, India was the leading country of origin for new foreign-born mothers in 2024, followed by the Philippines (3.1% of all births) and China (2.0% of all births).

In 2024, Ontario and British Columbia (48.7% each) had the highest proportion of births to foreign-born mothers, while the lowest proportion was observed in the Atlantic provinces (23.6%).

From 1997 to 2024, the largest increases in the number of births to foreign-born mothers were observed in Saskatchewan (+437%), the Atlantic provinces (+298%), Alberta (+264%) and Manitoba (+206%).

According to the 2021 Census of Population, the adjusted proportion of foreign-born women among women of childbearing age was estimated at 32.3%. This is slightly lower than the proportion of births to foreign-born mothers that year (33.0%), a trend that has been observed in the last five censuses of population. This suggests that foreign-born women are overrepresented among mothers who give birth in Canada compared with their proportion of the Canadian population.

From 2022 to 2024, 96% to 98% of Canada’s annual population growth was due to international migration (new immigrants and non-permanent residents), while the remainder was due to natural increase (births minus deaths). However, without the contribution of foreign-born individuals to births and deaths, the natural increase in Canada would have been negative since 2022.

Source: Study: The contribution of foreign-born mothers to Canadian births from 1997 to 2024

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