ICYMI: World Cup leads to 175 asylum claims from visitors who arrived in Canada for matches

2026/07/28 Leave a comment

Not surprising. About 0.07 percent of total visitors:

…Visitors to Canada who applied for visas to attend the FIFA World Cup have so far lodged 175 asylum claims, including from Senegal, Ghana and Egypt.

Canada played host to 13 games in Toronto and Vancouver in June and July, issuing 26,000 visas to visitors. Spain won the international tournament on Sunday by defeating the previous reigning champion, Argentina.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada declined to say how many of the refugee claims were made by soccer players or support staff from visiting teams.

The number of claims could still increase, including from foreign nationals who overstay the terms of their visa and later claim refugee status. ….

Source: World Cup leads to 175 asylum claims from visitors who arrived in Canada for matches

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ICYMI – Urback: Canada does not owe international students a path to residency

2026/07/28 2 Comments

Suspect this represents a majority view even if federal and provincial governments, along with education institutions, were complicit:

…None of this is fair in the very colloquial sense of the word. The Canadian government was explicitly marketing student visas as a path to permanent residency by inviting foreigners to “study, work and stay in Canada,” and prospective students responded in droves. In 2023-24, there were 428,077 student visa-holders in Canada, which was up nearly 50 per cent from just before the pandemic. And the reason why that number exploded was not because people from Punjab were suddenly ecstatic about the opportunity to learn hairdressing at the Eikonic Academy in Mississauga, but because everyone knew it was an easy way to start a new life in Canada. You could even work as much as you wanted while you ostensibly studied for a degree to take back home.

The Canadian government cannot and should not do anything now to placate the international students protesting for PGWP access, even though Ottawa played a major role in setting their expectations in the first place. Canadian residency cannot be for sale, even if the Canadian government dangled the prospect just a few years ago. This is an unfortunate outcome for those who risked everything to start a new life in Canada, but the process was always that: a risk. 

Source: Canada does not owe international students a path to residency

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Nicolas | Tiers pays sûr, vraiment?

2026/07/27 Leave a comment

Hard to see the STCA surviving the court challenge:

…Empêcher les demandes d’asile de personnes ayant transité par les États-Unis est décrié comme un problème majeur par les défenseurs des droits de la personne depuis des années. Mais avec Trump et la violence politique de l’ICE, la situation s’est lourdement encore aggravée. Lorsque le statut de protection temporaire pour les Haïtiens prendra effectivement fin, et que les expulsions massives reprendront malgré la gravité de la situation à Port-au-Prince, comment Ottawa pourra-t-il se justifier de toujours considérer les États-Unis comme un « pays sûr » ? Et sinon, ces personnes devraient aller où, au juste ? Quelle avenue, quel avenir leur restera-t-il, encore ?”

Source: Chronique | Tiers pays sûr, vraiment?

… Preventing asylum applications from people who have passed through the United States has been decried as a major problem by human rights defenders for years. But with Trump and the political violence of the ICE, the situation has worsened even more. When the temporary protection status for Haitians actually ends, and mass expulsions resume despite the seriousness of the situation in Port-au-Prince, how can Ottawa justify still considering the United States as a “safe country”? And if not, where exactly should these people go? What avenue, what future will they have, again?”

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U.S. deportation roundups are surging while staying out of the public eye

2026/07/24 Leave a comment

Of note:

…The experience here is indicative of what is happening across the country. Mass roundups are escalating even as the White House has mostly stopped publicizing ICE raids since federal agents gunned down two U.S. citizens during immigration operations in Minneapolis in January.

ICE arrested 39,563 people in June, its highest-ever monthly total, according to figures released this week by the agency. That same month, Republican lawmakers authorized a further US$70-billion for the deportation campaign. In July so far, ICE is approaching an average of 1,500 arrests a day.

And after being largely out of the public eye since January, the dragnet is attracting renewed attention after ICE shot and killed two immigrants – Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas and Joan Sebastián Guerrero in Maine – during traffic stops this month….

Source: U.S. deportation roundups are surging while staying out of the public eye

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Immigrant volunteers provide a safety net to help newcomers navigate life in Canada

2026/07/23 Leave a comment

Important supports:

…Language barriers, unfamiliarity with the system and, sometimes, their immigration status can daunt newcomers when they receive health care in Canada – a process that can be profoundly different from what they were used to in their home countries, and sometimes more expensive. 

To alleviate these problems, many immigrant volunteers go beyond the confines of formal organizations and programs, bridging fellow newcomers to the Canadian health care system and other supports. Many of them are aunts, uncles, sisters and brothers in diaspora communities where kinship extends beyond blood relations. They translate, manage documents and connect people with resources. Often, their presence is all that’s needed, especially for those who are alone in Canada.

Ms. Simbre, 46, has been assisting immigrants from the Philippines since 2012 with health care, labour and legal issues – both through formal networks such as Migrante Ontario and Kababayan Multicultural Centre, and informally through word of mouth. She came to Canada in 2007 as a live-in caregiver. She now serves on the board at Kababayan and works as a research assistant at the York Centre for Asian Research. …

Source: Immigrant volunteers provide a safety net to help newcomers navigate life in Canada

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Michael Barutciski: Gruesome beheading attempt in Belfast a warning against fast-track asylum processes

2026/07/23 Leave a comment

Valid concern but even thorough vetting will not catch everything and everybody:

…This is somewhat similar to the “file review” policy adopted by Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB), which was recently criticized by The Globe and Mail’s editorial board. This expedited process does involve a background check, which could result in these individuals being found in security databases, and brief interviews with immigration officers and Canada Border Services employees still occur, but experts suggest the questioning during these interviews isn’t sufficient. They believe that in-person hearings are required to probe for inconsistencies in their application details or any connections an applicant may have to terrorist groups.

Contrary to Canada, the U.K. dropped its fast-track process on July 2. British politicians appear to now recognize it was naive to establish a hearing-free process. The Canadian Parliament, on the other hand, continues to allow the IRB to maintain its distinct approach, which the UN considers a gold standard, even though critics see it as a major pull factor which makes it attractive to asylum seekers. Legislation will be needed to limit the IRB’s independence and its tendency towards overly generous procedures.”

“As western countries reform the institution of asylum, the Belfast situation should warn us of the dangers when governments tolerate porous borders and allow their generosity to be abused. The unacceptable violence of extremist protesters in response to the attempted beheading should be dealt with by police and not provide cover for ignoring legitimate concerns that were left unaddressed for too long.

Moreover, we need to stop the cosmopolitan naiveté masquerading as moral superiority: it is not xenophobic to suggest that asylum seekers who have barely been vetted could represent a potential security risk. The challenge is to develop appropriate procedures that balance humane treatment with prudence in a way that reassures local populations.”

Michael Barutciski is a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and a professor at York University’s Glendon School of Public and International Affairs.

Source: Michael Barutciski: Gruesome beheading attempt in Belfast a warning against fast-track asylum processes

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ICYMI: The math of Canada’s immigration enforcement no longer works—and organized crime knows it

2026/07/23 Leave a comment

Correct assessment of the incentive structure and the relative neglect of enforcement:

…None of this implicates the overwhelming majority of newcomers, who are law-abiding and who are organized crime’s primary victims. Their exposure is the sharpest measure of the failure. As Sundberg put it: “Canada expanded migration without expanding enforcement. We built a much larger system, but not a stronger one—and organized crime has taken advantage of that.”

What these numbers describe, taken together, is an incentive structure. When 550 officers face 33,000 warrants—and net the pile down by barely a thousand a year—low removal figures signal not a low threat but a low probability of being caught, and syndicates recruit accordingly. If nothing changes, CISC’s estimate, already north of 4,000, will keep climbing; screening will remain conviction-based while the threats are network-based; and the next tranche of indictments will again be unsealed in an American courtroom rather than a Canadian one. The syndicates have already run these numbers. There is little evidence, so far, that Ottawa has.

Source: The math of Canada’s immigration enforcement no longer works—and organized crime knows it

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Thousands of home care workers are stuck in limbo as permanent residency stream faces delays

2026/07/21 Leave a comment

Another policy and operational failure:

…In March, 2025, they applied for permanent residence through a dedicated immigration stream for home care workers. The program took 5,500 applications on a first-come, first-served basis, a fraction of total demand. Those who managed to get their applications accepted through an online portal were ecstatic, convinced that they were now on a straightforward path to obtain Canadian permanent residency. 

But more than 15 months later, they have received no updates from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada on their applications. Many are now living in Canada on expired work permits, unable to legally work. Others hold work permits that are expiring in the near future, and are frantically searching for alternative immigration pathways. All are hoping that someone in the group chat will provide a sliver of information or a positive update that will offer them a lifeline to remain in the country.

IRCC’s website states that the current PR processing timeline for home care workers is a whopping 76 months – far longer than the average wait time for other immigration streams. There are roughly 38,000 total applications in the queue for home care workers, including those from other years….

“When you reduce the total permanent resident quota, you have to make tough decisions on what applications you want to process first. Right now, it is clear that care workers are not being prioritized,” said Lou Janssen Dangzalan, a Toronto-based immigration lawyer. …

Source: Thousands of home care workers are stuck in limbo as permanent residency stream faces delays

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Tombe: Population aging doesn’t have to slow us down

2026/07/17 Leave a comment

Good discussion and analysis of an aging population and the economy:

…The lesson for Canadian policymakers is not that we need not adapt to rapidly changing demographics. It is that slower growth is not a necessary consequence of them.

If we respond to labour scarcity by adopting new technologies, shifting the composition of economic activity, and boosting productivity, we may fully offset the drag of an aging population on growth.

That requires investment. If barriers prevent firms in Canada from investing at the levels they otherwise would, or prevent economic activity from reallocating toward more capital-intensive sectors, then we may well find that aging is a drag on growth after all. But it is not a future we are stuck with.

There is also value in ensuring that policy is not artificially increasing labour scarcity, just in case innovation doesn’t save the day. Some policies encourage people to exit the labour force. Others weaken work incentives by raising taxes to fund ever more generous elderly benefits. Considering reversing these policy choices should be a part of the conversation.

Canada’s population will age. Whether it slows our growth is a separate question, and the answer largely depends on us.

Trevor Tombe is a professor of economics at the University of Calgary, the Director of Fiscal and Economic Policy at The School.

Source: Population aging doesn’t have to slow us down

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Court ruling opens door for Canadian immigration delays — and minister’s power — to be challenged

2026/07/17 Leave a comment

Hard to argue against“transparent and intelligible justification” in any area of government, unfortunately “more honored in the breach than the observance”:

…In a judgment released last week, Federal Court Justice Michael Battista said the minister, despite the legal authority to set priorities, still has the duty to provide “transparent and intelligible justification” for application processing delays.

“What Justice Battista is saying is that implementing ministerial instructions in itself doesn’t make them reasonable and doesn’t justify a delay,” said Ottawa-based immigration lawyer Jacqueline Bonisteel, who is not involved in the case.

“It’s not enough for you to have suddenly pivoted and said, ‘Now this is the processing time.’ They still need to provide a reasonable, intelligible justification for the delay … (this ruling) allows us some fuel to push back on the use of these instructions in all different areas.”…

Source: Court ruling opens door for Canadian immigration delays — and minister’s power — to be challenged

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