John Ivison: Diab’s ‘lost Canadians’ debacle raises doubt anyone’s in charge at the Immigration Department

2026/07/02 Leave a comment

Not pulling any punches. Almost a death watch:

….It is unclear why the minister didn’t say much of this a lot sooner, even if it involved admitting that the process was badly designed and deeply flawed.

This, remember, is the same department that granted travel documents to Mehdi Taj, an Iranian soccer official who a quick Google search would have revealed had ties to the banned Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

It is the same department that was berated by the auditor general for its handling of the International Students Program, under which 33,660 ex-students were presumed to have left the country but may not have done.

It’s not so much that the Immigration Department seems to be in a state of semi-organized chaos. Diab inherited many of the problems, including the dramatic surge in temporary workers and foreign students that contributed to the housing crisis.

It’s more that she seems completely at sea when it comes to fixing things. Her parliamentary colleagues answer on her behalf in the House of Commons; her deputy minister assumed the same role when she appeared at committee.

As the prime minister weighs his options for the fall session, it would seem inevitable that Diab is demoted in any summer cabinet shuffle.

She seems to be a very nice person.

But she is like a one-legged man auditioning for the job of Tarzan, “a role for which two legs would seem to be the minimum requirement.” In political terms, like Peter Cook’s aspiring Tarzan in a celebrated comedy sketch, Diab has one leg too few.

Source: John Ivison: Diab’s ‘lost Canadians’ debacle raises doubt anyone’s in charge at the Immigration Department

Background: Immigration department blames ‘unclear’ guidance for citizenship document recalls

The immigration department says unclear department guidance for both immigration officers and applicants on how to apply for citizenship-by-descent may have led to people being issued proofs of citizenship without sufficient evidence.

The department said Tuesday that 100 people were told to surrender their citizenship certificates after a “routine review” found documents issued under Bill C-3 had “potentially insufficient supporting documentation.”

The department issued this explanation — and confirmation of the number of people who were told to turn over their citizenship certificates — a full 17 days after the initial emails demanding the surrender of citizenship certificates were sent out….

Source: Immigration department blames ‘unclear’ guidance for citizenship document recalls

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More Haitians will try to come to Canada after U.S. court decision, advocate says

2026/06/29 Leave a comment

Likely. Open data will allow tracking the numbers:

A Montreal-based advocate for asylum seekers says Canada should expect a new wave of Haitians trying to enter from the United States after a court decision allowing the Trump administration to end legal protections for migrants fleeing violence and natural disasters in Haiti and Syria.

Frantz André says he knows of several people who are making the journey north from the United States after learning of the U.S. Supreme Court decision that exposes hundreds of thousands of people to potential detention and deportation.

André says some of the new arrivals will be allowed to stay and file an asylum claim because they have close family in Canada.

Source: More Haitians will try to come to Canada after U.S. court decision, advocate says

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Banerjee and KC: Are algorithms unfairly screening out immigrant job applications?

2026/06/26 Leave a comment

Good discussion of the issues and evidence with sensible conclusion:

…None of this means that AI is inherently discriminatory, nor does it mean employers should abandon digital hiring technologies. Used responsibly, these tools can improve efficiency and help employers identify qualified candidates.

But Canada has spent decades refining how it selects skilled immigrants. Less attention is being paid to the technologies increasingly shaping whether those skills are recognized after arrival.

As AI becomes embedded in recruitment, we need to consider how opportunity is governed once immigrants enter the labour market. If immigration policy selects skilled immigrants, AI is increasingly shaping whether they are seen as skilled workers.

Canada’s future depends on both immigration and artificial intelligence. Ensuring that these two ambitions reinforce rather than undermine one another may become one of the defining policy challenges of the AI era.

Source: Are algorithms unfairly screening out immigrant job applications?

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Critics see Canada’s immigration minister as weak and invisible a year into her mandate. But is she doing exactly what Mark Carney wants?

2026/06/24 Leave a comment

Interesting take:

If Prime Minister Mark Carney wanted a low-key minister to handle the Liberals’ immigration mess and stay out of the headlines, he may have found the right person in Lena Metlege Diab.

Whether or not by design, Immigration Minister Diab, unlike her predecessors, has maintained a low profile. That’s despite relentless attacks by the opposition Conservatives over her invisibility and competence in the high-stakes portfolio.

The MP from Nova Scotia has been lambasted by critics for relying on bureaucrats to answer questions at committee, and being unclear in communicating policies and less responsive than her predecessors.

In the year and a bit since she was tapped by Carney to lead the file, Diab seems to have delivered what the prime minister has asked her to do in returning overall immigration to more “sustainable levels” — at least in terms of slashing the immigrant population.

A Parliamentary Budget Officer report this year projected the share of non-permanent residents will fall under five per cent of Canada’s population by the end of 2027, aligning with the government target.

But the system the Nova Scotia MP inherited is still in flux, rife with uncertainty, backlogs and long processing times — issues that experts say need to be urgently addressed to restore stability and faith in Canadian immigration.

Diab ‘turns down political heat’

“Her mandate certainly was to turn down the political heat on immigration, and I would say that she’s done that successfully,” said Victoria-based immigration lawyer Kyle Hyndman. 

“A lot of the immigration conversation has got really focused on numbers. We’re not talking about bushels of soya beans here. We’re talking about people who are very different in terms of what they bring to Canada and in terms of what they need. This conversation about reaching a sustainable level of immigration is only half of the question.”

And the falling numbers of temporary residents are what Diab has wanted to register with Canadians….

University of Toronto political science professor Phil Triadafilopoulos said Canada’s immigration system is still in transition, rolling back a messy expansion under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, especially after the pandemic. And the repair can only be done in “a piecemeal way,” he added.

He said the issues of temporary residents have built up ever since Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s time, and exploded in 2022 and ‘23 as politicians caved to the demands of colleges and universities to recruit foreign students to offset government funding cuts, as well as the push by businesses seeking easy access to foreign labour.

“The expectation is that most people will leave, but we know from experience that a large number of people will not leave and will overstay and live in a more precarious way,” said Triadafilopoulos.

To Carney, he added, Diab seemed to be the right person to keep immigration issues out of the news cycle because the PM needed someone to do things quietly and not want to be in the news all the time, to “decompress immigration.” His sense is that the Prime Minister’s Office is now steering the boat and trying to return the Immigration Department to an operation led by civil servants…

Source: Critics see Canada’s immigration minister as weak and invisible a year into her mandate. But is she doing exactly what Mark Carney wants?

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Moffatt: A wave of young digital nomads is leaving Canada for cheaper, warmer countries

2026/06/24 Leave a comment

Need better data. But if they file Canadian taxes and thus technically remaining Canadian citizens, does it matter that much compared to those who leave and don’t file Canadian taxes?

…These visas have caused a form of shadow emigration, where talented young Canadians have left the country, but they are not counted in our statistics, forcing policymakers to rely on anecdotes to determine the extent of the issue and how it is growing over time. 

The Canadians who live in work in those countries typically file Canadian tax returns each year, they continue to have Canadian bank accounts and Canadian passports, so in the eyes of data collectors, they still are domestic residents in Canada, even if they have been living elsewhere for years.

Their absence, however, is a loss for Canada. A 2024 study from the Bank of Canada found that two-thirds of Canada’s labour productivity gap with the U.S. stems from differences in the productivity levels of high-income workers in the two countries, and that the emigration of the high-talent workers from Canada to the U.S. is likely a contributing factor….

Source: A wave of young digital nomads is leaving Canada for cheaper, warmer countries

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Canada’s immigration policies are creating new barriers for international students

2026/06/24 Leave a comment

Good example of leanings of immigration scholars, many of whom remain in denial over some of the abuses:

…The International Student Program reflects a deeper contradiction in Canada’s approach to international students. Canada encourages international students to come here and support economic growth. However, those students are now also blamed for abusing the system and exacerbating pressures on social services and housing.

For example, a recent House of Commons report suggested international students misuse asylum claims and recommended a cap on applicants from countries with high student application rates, such as India, Nigeria, and the Republic of Guinea.

There is an urgent need for more equitable policies. The way IRCC connects geopolitics and domestic issues with student recruitment legitimizes discriminatory immigration screening based on students’ race, ethnicity and nationality.

Current caps have led to a reduction of more than 60 per cent in international student enrolment. Yet, the recent Auditor General report showed a significant increase in students from European countries even after the enrolment cap was implemented.

Emma Harden-Wolfson Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education, McGill University

Source: Canada’s immigration policies are creating new barriers for international students

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Canada gave these former refugees a chance. Now they’re pushing back against anti-refugee claims

2026/06/22 Leave a comment

Of note:

…While success stories like hers are common, she said they have been overshadowed by narratives in recent years that portray refugees as a drain on Canada, rather than contributors. The surge of refugees in the country is just a reflection of the rising global displacement as a result of wars and unrest, she noted.

A 2024-25 public opinion poll by the Immigration Department found that just a third of Canadians felt that the impact of refugees on Canada was positive. Forty-eight per cent of respondents said Canada was admitting too many asylum seekers, while 41 per cent said the country was resettling too many refugees from abroad. Just over half agreed that “accepting refugees is part of Canada’s humanitarian tradition.” 

“The more you feed into this negative narrative, the more fearful society and the politicians become, and the more restrictive these policies become,” said Faizi, who was a corporate lawyer specializing in intellectual property rights, before switching to refugee law in 2021. 

That’s why the council has launched a week of action to highlight refugee contributions and show solidarity across Canada with them, leading up to the World Refugee Day on Saturday. It comes in the wake of Ottawa’s new law to restrict eligibility for asylum and rules to limit health-care coverage for refugees. 

The campaign — including an open letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney, highlighting local events organized by its 200 member organizations across Canada and a tool kit to promote the message “We are Better Together” — also followed a report released by UNHCR Canada in early June that looked at the social and economic benefits of welcoming displaced people in need of protection….

Source: Canada gave these former refugees a chance. Now they’re pushing back against anti-refugee claims

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Annual Summary of TR2PR

2026/06/22 Leave a comment

Further to my earlier post providing an annual summary of total immigration: Permanent Residents, IMP, TFWP and international students, did a comparable table for TR2PR, that highlights their comparatively higher increase rates compared to Permanent Residents since 2019 and their higher decrease since the peak of 2023:

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More recent immigrants in Canada are becoming homeowners. Here’s why

2026/06/18 Leave a comment

Of interest:

A rising proportion of recent immigrants are becoming homeowners, nearly catching up with the home ownership rates of their Canadian-born peers, says a new report.

In the three provinces with multiple-year data available, the home ownership rates of permanent residents measured between 2018 and 2021 all rose, according to the Statistics Canada study, which examined recent immigrants’ home ownership trajectories.

“Paired with historically low interest rates starting in 2020, the larger income gains among recent immigrants may have contributed to their increased home ownership rate in 2021, even as ownership rates declined among the Canadian-born population,” said the report released Tuesday.

In Ontario, the home ownership rate for recent immigrants in the fifth year after admission rose from 35.7 per cent in 2018 to 40.3 per cent in 2021. In B.C., it went up from 33.4 per cent to 37.5 per cent. In Nova Scotia, it soared from 34.8 per cent to 48.1 per cent.

During the period, the home ownership rates for their Canadian-born counterparts fell slightly in all three provinces. In Ontario, it dropped from 50.7 per cent to 47.8 per cent; B.C., from 44.7 per cent to 43.3 per cent; and Nova Scotia, from 51.1 per cent to 49.8 per cent.

Statistics Canada said it could be related to recent immigrants’ significant gains in wages relative to the rise among Canadian-born individuals. In Ontario, for instance, recent immigrants’ median family income went up by $14,000, from $61,000 in 2018 to $75,000 in 2021, while it crept up by $2,000 from $107,000 to $109,000 for the Canadian-born….

Source: More recent immigrants in Canada are becoming homeowners. Here’s why

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Annual Summary of Total Immigration 2019-25

2026/06/17 Leave a comment

Someone asked me whether there was an easy table summarizes total immigrants, temporary and permanent. Generated this table using the annual totals in the various IRCC open data sets. 2023 was the highest total for all categories save for Permanent Residents. Greatest increase from pre-pandemic 2019 to peak 2023 was IMP, followed by TFWP and then international students. Greatest decrease from peak 2023 was for international students followed by IMP.

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