These international students in Canada didn’t submit test scores because they weren’t asked to. Now, their work permits are refused

2026/01/07 1 Comment

Significant oversight in the online app. Lack of user testing or feedback? Students have a case for reconsideration:

…Over the last few months, immigration experts are seeing a growing number of international graduates like Xu being refused postgraduation work permits for failing to upload language test results, losing their legal status in Canada. They have to stop working immediately and face possible removal.

While many have asked officials for reconsideration, others have reapplied with the faint hope that they would get a second chance. 

“It may sound stupid, but I trusted the system, because I’ve been doing my own study permit and visa applications many times over the years,” said Xu. The Chinese student came here in 2016, first to improve her English before pursuing her master’s degree and PhD.

“There’s no reminder or alert in the system to tell you where to upload the language scores. It should not allow applicants to submit an application when a required document is missing.”

Only now did the 34-year-old woman learn, after the refusal, that the instruction on how to upload the test result had been buried on the Immigration Department website on a separate page that few would have spotted.

Students urge Minister Diab to intervene

An online petition has been launched to urge Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab to reinstate students’ refused applications.

Although the language requirement took effect in late 2024, Vancouver immigration lawyer Will Tao said the issue only emerged this fall due to excessive processing delays. It currently takes more than 210 days for work permit applications submitted inside Canada.

Despite what the Immigration Department called the “technical limitations” that prevent the application portal from installing a new direct upload field for language test proof, Tao is baffled as to why officials can’t just put a simple note there to inform applicants where to upload it.

“That appears only in a separate policy document that does require a lot of searching and digging to find,” he noted. “It’s all automated and now people are getting refused en masse for not uploading a document that you didn’t ask me to upload.”

(Soon after the Star’s inquiry to the Immigration Department about these refusals based on missing language proficiency proofs, Tao noted that officials had placed the upload information on three other webpages, but still not on the application portal.) 

Hundreds of permit applications refused

The department said it has received 162,000 postgraduation work permit applications since the inception of the mandatory language requirement; 815 had been refused up to September due to missing documents that may include the language proficiency proof…

Source: These international students in Canada didn’t submit test scores because they weren’t asked to. Now, their work permits are refused

Filed under Immigration, Language Tagged with , ,

Elkouri: Quand le populisme a la cote

2026/01/07 Leave a comment

More on the lack of grandfathering/grandmothering of those impacted by Quebec’s cancellation of the PEQ (equivalent of PGWP):

…On pourrait croire que de passer de 100 % à 50 % sur l’échelle du bouc émissaire, c’est une façon de mettre de l’eau dans son vin ou d’épargner un peu le bouc. Le fait est que cette cote revue à la baisse est à certains égards encore plus grossière. Car en répondant à la question de Jean-René Dufort, le premier ministre ne s’en est pas pris aux politiques d’immigration, mais bien aux immigrants eux-mêmes.

Dans le contexte de la suppression du PEQ, on parle d’étudiants et de travailleurs francophones ou francisés que le Québec a tenté de séduire à coups de campagnes publicitaires et de missions de recrutement à l’étranger avant de rompre inopinément ses engagements. Des gens qui contribuent déjà à la société québécoise, que ce soit dans le domaine de la recherche scientifique, où l’on compte une majorité d’étudiants étrangers, ou sur le marché du travail. Dans nos hôpitaux, nos CHSLD, nos écoles, nos garderies… Les inviter à déposer leurs rêves au Québec pour ensuite leur fermer la porte au nez en les accusant d’être responsables de 50 % des maux de la société, c’est pour le moins injuste.

Le gouvernement a évidemment le droit d’adopter de nouvelles règles d’immigration plus restrictives. Mais il a aussi le devoir de tenir parole. 

Dans ce cas, cela veut dire au minimum de prévoir des mesures transitoires pour les orphelins du PEQ déjà installés au Québec et plongés dans la détresse et l’incertitude.

« Je me sens jetable, je me sens trahie, et je me sens profondément blessée », confiait une orpheline du PEQ à ma collègue Suzanne Colpron2. De telles histoires crève-cœur se suivent et se ressemblent depuis novembre. Je croule moi-même sous les témoignages. Les dénonciations sont quasi unanimes.

Une pétition qui a récolté 26 000 signatures en un temps record a été déposée à l’Assemblée nationale. Du maire Bruno Marchand à la mairesse Soraya Martinez Ferrada en passant par le maire de Trois-Rivières, Jean-François Aubin, et l’ex-ministre péquiste Louise Harel, du député solidaire Guillaume Cliche-Rivard au député libéral André A. Morin, des chambres de commerce aux cégeps et aux universités, des experts aux citoyens solidaires, on ne compte plus le nombre de voix qui s’élèvent pour dénoncer cette injustice et réclamer une clause de droits acquis.

À ces voix indignées, il faut aussi ajouter celles de 25 retraités du ministère québécois de l’Immigration, libres de dire tout haut ce que leurs anciens collègues, tenus à un devoir de réserve, doivent penser tout bas. Dans une lettre ouverte publiée avant Noël, ils demandent au gouvernement de faire preuve de décence envers ceux qui étaient admissibles à ce programme avant son abolition3.

Jusqu’à présent, le gouvernement Legault a refusé de les entendre. Pour respecter ses nouveaux seuils d’immigration sans obtenir 0 sur 10 en matière de promesses tenues, des solutions sont pourtant possibles. Le premier ministre pourrait s’inspirer de ce que l’ex-ministre de l’Immigration Christine Fréchette préconisait elle-même en 2023 : placer les candidats au volet « diplômés » du PEQ hors seuils….

Source: Quand le populisme a la cote

… One might think that going from 100% to 50% on the scapegoat scale is a way to put water in your wine or spare the goat a little. The fact is that this revised downward rating is in some respects even coarser. Because by answering Jean-René Dufort’s question, the Prime Minister did not go against immigration policies, but on immigrants themselves.

In the context of the abolition of the PEQ, we are talking about Francophone or French-speaking students and workers whom Quebec tried to seduce with advertising campaigns and recruitment missions abroad before breaking its commitments unexpectedly. People who already contribute to Quebec society, whether in the field of scientific research, where there is a majority of foreign students, or in the labor market. In our hospitals, our CHSLD, our schools, our daycare centers… Inviting them to drop off their dreams in Quebec and then close the door in their face by accusing them of being responsible for 50% of society’s ills, it is unfair to say the least.

The government obviously has the right to adopt new, more restrictive immigration rules. But he also has a duty to keep his word.

In this case, it means at least to provide for transitional measures for PEQ orphans already settled in Quebec and plunged into distress and uncertainty.

“I feel disposable, I feel betrayed, and I feel deeply hurt,” confided an orphan of the PEQ to my colleague Suzanne Colpron2. Such heartbreaking stories follow one after the other and have been similar since November. I myself collapse under the testimonies. The denunciations are almost unanimous.

A petition that collected 26,000 signatures in record time was filed with the National Assembly. From Mayor Bruno Marchand to Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada, through the Mayor of Trois-Rivières, Jean-François Aubin, and former Péquista Minister Louise Harel, from Solidarity MP Guillaume Cliche-Rivard to Liberal MP André A. Morin, from chambers of commerce to CEGEPs and universities, from experts to citizens of solidarity, we can no longer count the number of votes that rise to denounce this injustice and claim a clause of acquired rights.

To these indignant voices, we must also add those of 25 retirees of the Quebec Ministry of Immigration, free to say out loud what their former colleagues, bound by a duty of reserve, must think in a low voice. In an open letter published before Christmas, they call on the government to show decency to those who were eligible for this program before its abolition.3

So far, the Legault government has refused to hear them. To respect its new immigration thresholds without getting 0 out of 10 in terms of promises kept, solutions are nevertheless possible. The Prime Minister could be inspired by what former Minister of Immigration Christine Fréchette herself recommended in 2023: placing candidates for the “graduate” component of the PEQ outside the thresholds….

Filed under Immigration Tagged with , ,

See attractions, get attracted: This is one way Canada is trying to help new immigrants decide to stay

2026/01/06 Leave a comment

More coverage for the latest “Leaky Bucket” report (catching up on the report issued last November, CBC only covered this week):

…Highly educated immigrants are leaving faster than those with lower education levels, while those with doctorates are more than twice as likely to leave as those with a secondary education or less, according to the report.

But ICC research shows the antidote to the skilled immigrant exodus is a sense of belonging and optimism about life in Canada, the factor most closely tied to whether newcomers stay long term.

While financial struggles and concerns push many to leave, the data found that the strongest driver of immigrant retention is optimism about the future, measured by immigrants’ confidence in their personal and family prospects, plans for long-term residence in Canada and belief that friends and family can succeed here. 

Even a one per cent increase in optimism boosts the likelihood of staying by 28 per cent, according to ICC data.

“Immigration is a long game. It isn’t just about inviting people to come to Canada as immigrants,” said Shamira Madhany, managing director for World Education Services Canada. “What really matters is how included people feel and how inclusive the system is.”

The Canoo app, which aims to support and promote an early sense of connection among newcomers, has had more than 420,000 members since it was created in 2010. …

Source: See attractions, get attracted: This is one way Canada is trying to help new immigrants decide to stay

Filed under Citizenship, Immigration Tagged with , ,

A look at the workings of Canada’s immigration system — through the eyes of a longtime insider

2026/01/05 Leave a comment

Kudos to Cochrane for writing about his experiences and the impact of large numbers and paper processing:

…“When I worked there, you would give people your business card and you would meet with them face to face,” said Cochrane, who retired from public service in 2015.

“I realized today people don’t even know the name of the officer and they’ll surely never meet the officer,” the first-time published author told the Star.

During his time at the Immigration Department, between 1982 and 2005, the number of new permanent residents Canada welcomed each year almost tripled as public support for immigration grew, unlike what has been seen in the past couple of years.

Officials have moved from meeting clients and the public in person to interacting with applicants via mail-in documents — and now through online portals and webforms. Application processing has turned into factory-like production, boiling down to box-checking.

With the insatiable demand for migration to Canada and a push to digitalize operations, the “depersonalization” of the Immigration Department may be inevitable. But Cochrane said human connection plays a key role in immigration matters, given that any decision made could have far-reaching impacts on people’s lives and a country that’s built on immigration.

It’s through those face-to-face encounters that skilled officers can properly communicate with applicants, assess the genuineness of an application and guide it through the system, he added….

Source: A look at the workings of Canada’s immigration system — through the eyes of a longtime insider

Filed under Immigration Tagged with ,

Immigration department halts skilled refugee jobs program, leaving employers in limbo

2026/01/05 Leave a comment

Another example of the impact of the changes, resulting from previous efforts to ramp up numbers:

…November’s immigration levels plan set out the number of permanent and temporary residents the government plans to accept over the next three years. The plan included specific targets for economic immigration pilots, including the EMPP and another for caregivers. 

The government aims to offer 8,175 permanent-residence places through such economic pilots in 2026, and 8,775 in each of the following two years.

Dana Wagner, co-founder of TalentLift, a non-profit international recruitment company that links displaced people with businesses, said being told about the imminent pausing of the program in a letter two days before Christmas was “very disappointing.” 

“The program has been working extremely well. But this is a signal that the EMPP is not being treated like a serious economic program or a vehicle for talent attraction. You shouldn’t leave employers such little runway to plan and pivot,” she said. 

“Sending a letter right before Christmas when the government signs off for the holiday is an awful way to communicate such a major change at the 11th hour.” 

Several employers that have already offered jobs to displaced people abroad were planning to submit their paperwork to IRCC in January, Ms. Wagner said.

She said those employers include an auto body collision repair company in British Columbia. It has offered a job to an experienced technician from Venezuela living as a refugee in Ecuador, to fill a local shortage.

IRCC delays in processing applications have been “ballooning” and now can take up to 17 months, Ms. Wagner said. Many employers are still waiting for skilled refugees they have hired to arrive in Canada. …

Source: Immigration department halts skilled refugee jobs program, leaving employers in limbo

Filed under Immigration Tagged with , ,

Polgreen: One of America’s Most Successful Experiments Is Coming to a Shuddering Halt [#immigration]

2026/01/05 Leave a comment

Good critique of Trump’s National Security Strategy view on immigration:

…Arguments in favor of migration tend to focus either on its economic benefits or its moral claim on the American psyche. But from the nation’s founding these two have been intertwined in ways both productive and confounding. Over the past year, as I’ve written about migration across the globe, I have often asked opponents of migration whether they would prefer to live in a country people flee from or flee toward. The answer, invariably, is the latter. The recent surge in support for immigration reflects, I suspect, that America’s status as the destination of choice for the world’s best minds is an intense source of pride.

It is also a source of strength. Trump clearly prefers the menacing snarl of hard power, but America’s openness to the world’s most ambitious people — and its unique ability to absorb and make use of human talent — has perhaps been its most potent form of soft power. Why try to defeat the world’s richest country when you might have the chance to join it and reap its ample rewards?

That is not the Trump administration’s way of thinking. For all the talk about abolishing D.E.I. in favor of merit, it seems to believe that for Americans to compete with the best of the world, merit must be redefined in nationalist terms, if not entirely set aside. Its National Security Strategy said so explicitly.

“Should merit be smothered, America’s historic advantages in science, technology, industry, defense and innovation will evaporate,” the document states. However, it continues, “we cannot allow meritocracy to be used as a justification to open America’s labor market to the world in the name of finding ‘global talent’ that undercuts American workers.” Trumpism seems to be seeking a form of talent autarky.

This is a radical change, and one that will surely leave the United States poorer, weaker and more isolated. I cannot help but detect in these nativist outbursts against Indian immigrants and their descendants a profound loss of confidence. The protesters repulsed by the towering Hanuman statue saw it as a threat to their culture, religion and traditions. But to me, that glittering hulk of alloyed metal symbolizes something else: the enduring magnetism of America’s promise, tarnished though it may be.

Source: One of America’s Most Successful Experiments Is Coming to a Shuddering Halt

Filed under Immigration, Trump administration Tagged with ,

Year in review and look ahead

2025/12/23 Leave a comment

Time for my looking back piece, even if a bit self-indulgent.

Most of my time was spent on an analysis of the 2025 election results from a diversity analysis with Jerome Black, highlighting how representation of visible minorities had increased while that of women and Indigenous had stalled. A second area of major work was following and participating in C-3 citizenship discussions and debates. Annual updates on public service diversity and birth tourism, and setting the baseline for appointments that will be made by PM Carney.

2026 will continue with my various annual updates. Jerome Black and I have an analysis in train on the intersectionality of women and visible minority candidate in competitive ridings. I will be analysing the impact of C-3 in relation to age, gender, and country of origin and comparing that with expatriate voting data, given that the latter has grown significantly and the number of expatriate votes cast exceeds the winning margin in a number of ridings. No doubt other issues of interest will emerge.

Lots to keep me busy and engaged, along with maintaining my blog.

Best wishes for the holidays, whichever ones you celebrate.

Print below by my late father.

Citizenship 

Citations

Immigration – Citations

Multiculturalism 

Diversity and Employment Equity

Before the cuts: a bureaucracy baseline from an employment equity lens (Hill Times)

Political Representation 

The diversity of candidates and MPs stalled for some groups in this election (Policy Options, The Hill Times, with Jerome H. Black)

Citations

Filed under C-3, Citizenship, Immigration, Multiculturalism

Adams et al: Writing a new immigration story for Canada

2025/12/23 Leave a comment

It’s both, the contribution immigrants make and the limits of absorptive capacity:

…The Canadian success story about immigration we celebrated just a few years ago has changed, and we are now writing a new chapter. The world is changing rapidly in ways that we cannot expect to avoid, and the path forward will be like navigating rapids in a surging river. Sustaining public and political support for the multicultural and immigrant-welcoming society that Canada has built over the past half-century will require a careful balance between the immigration inflow necessary for economic growth and labour market demand, and our collective capacity to ensure a place (that is, a home, a job, health care, education and other essential public services) for everyone, native-born and newcomer alike. The newly-released federal budget appears aimed in this direction, and time will tell whether it helps us reach such balance.

This new chapter calls upon our leaders across all sectors to reframe the narrative around how we think about newcomers who arrive in our country. The tendency is to think of them primarily as people who require housing, jobs and other supports like language training – as a drain on government funding and places pressure on existing resources. Instead we need to focus more on newcomers as an essential influx of talent and needed skills that can help energize our communities and maintain our current standard of living now and into the future.

Source: Writing a new immigration story for Canada

Filed under Immigration Tagged with , ,

Keller: Canada’s falling population is exactly what the doctor ordered

2025/12/23 Leave a comment

mmMore from Keller:

…There’s a compelling logic to choosing many permanent immigrants from the temporary resident pool. But with such a large pool, and so many more applicants than permanent residence spaces, Canada can afford to be choosy. For the sake of the economy, we must be choosy. 

Unfortunately, that’s not what Ottawa and the provinces are doing. The Carney government gets a small gold star for a couple of quarters of right-sizing immigration quantity, but it gets a question mark, and even a black mark, when it comes to correcting the significant downgrade in immigration quality and selectivity that took place under the Trudeau government.

Source: Canada’s falling population is exactly what the doctor ordered

Filed under Immigration Tagged with ,

Immigration and Crime Shift Canadians Toward Cultural Conservatism

2025/12/22 Leave a comment

Another survey confirming a shift and partisan differences:

The data reveals a 16-point increase over the past 5 years in hostile views of immigrants.

A clear majority (54%) now believe that immigration threatens traditional Canadian customs and values, up from just 38% in 2020, with a small 4-point NET score increase occurring in the past year (from +15 to +19). This isn’t a blip, but a trend with momentum.

The partisan dimension is striking, with those who self-identify with Conservatives (73%) and Bloc (75%) leading this concern in contrast to Liberals (37%) and NDP (33%) Even more telling, attitudes toward legal immigration have soured considerably, with only 39% now viewing it positively, down a stunning 15 points since 2018. Meanwhile, 61% favour making immigration more difficult, up 16 points from 2018’s 45%.

Concern about illegal immigration remains statistically unchanged at 75% viewing it as serious since 2018, but the intensity has shifted. 42% now rate it “very serious,” up from 37% in 2018. Those who self-identify with Conservatives drive this at 88%, but half of the NDP identifiers and almost three-in-four (71%) Liberals also agree.

Canadians aren’t just worried; they are assigning blame. A striking 72% believe the federal government has failed to manage immigration, with 72% saying too many immigrants have been admitted, and 71% linking excessive immigration to housing pressures and declining services. Nearly 3-in-5 Canadians (58%) report that their views on immigration have changed over the past five years, with Conservatives (70%) and Bloc supporters (75%) most likely to acknowledge this shift….

Source: Immigration and Crime Shift Canadians Toward Cultural Conservatism

Filed under Immigration Tagged with ,

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