New immigration minister says Trump presidency could prompt best and brightest to choose Canada 

2025/03/22 Leave a comment

Of note (HESA also made a similar pitch):

The new Immigration Minister Rachel Bendayan thinks the Trump presidency is creating an “incredible opportunity” for Canada to attract the best and brightest from around the world – including talented people currently living in the United States.

In her first interview since being appointed to the portfolio in the cabinet shuffle last week, Ms. Bendayan said she had already discussed with fellow ministers the prospect of successful and highly educated people wanting to live here instead of the U.S.

“What I’m hearing is that people are thinking more and more about Canada, whether it’s in the United States, and Americans thinking about making the trip north, or quite frankly right around the world,” she said. “I think we could attract some of the best minds around the world, just as the United States once did. I think there’s an incredible opportunity to attract the best and the brightest, including from the United States to Canada.”

Donald Trump has criticized Canada’s immigration policies, implying they are lax, an accusation that Ms. Bendayan said is ”very far from the truth.”

She said Canada has “a robust immigration system” and “we take security very seriously.”

She said there is already a lot of co-operation and information sharing with the U.S. “in order to make sure that North America is a secure environment” and that is increasing.

But Ms. Bendayan said she wanted to make further reductions to the number of migrants living in Canada – including temporary migrants.

Last November, the government sharply tightened migration targets as part of its annual immigration levels plan. Ms. Bendayan said she wanted to maintain a downward trend for both permanent and non-permanent residents.

She said figures released this week showing a big reduction in the number of temporary residents are “important and certainly trending in the right direction.”

“But that number still needs to continue to come down,” she said….

Source: New immigration minister says Trump presidency could prompt best and brightest to choose Canada

Filed under Immigration Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Yakabuski: Mark Carney turns the page on Justin Trudeau’s postnational Canada 

2025/03/22 Leave a comment

Of note:

….To be sure, Canada’s identity is strong, resilient and regenerative enough to survive without The Bay. But at a time when Canada’s existence is being threatened by our superpower neighbour and erstwhile best friend, we need leaders who are unafraid of celebrating the history of a country that remains one of the world’s most envied.

Mr. Carney seems to get it. “The ceremony we just witnessed reflects the wonder of a country built on the bedrock of three peoples: Indigenous, French, British,” he said after being sworn in on Mar. 14. “The office of Governor-General links us through the Crown and across time to Canada’s proud British heritage …Our bilingual identity makes us unique. And the French language enriches our culture.”

Of course, it will take more than replacing the words “Canadian Heritage” with “Canadian Culture and Identity” in a ministerial title for Mr. Carney to prove he is an uninhibited Canadian nationalist willing to challenge those who disparage our history and our (yes, flawed) heroes, all while encouraging a respectful dialogue about our past and future.

Still, Mr. Carney does appear to have turned the page on postnational Canada – an entity which, it must be said, only ever existed in our ex-PM’s imagination. In this respect Mr. Carney has more in common with Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, a stalwart defender of Canadian symbols and all things John A. Macdonald. They are both post-postnationalists.

Vive le Canada.

Source: Mark Carney turns the page on Justin Trudeau’s postnational Canada

Filed under Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

Urback: The chilling case of Mahmoud Khalil should enrage anyone who purports to support freedom

2025/03/22 Leave a comment

Agree (writing this from LA):

…We’d also be foolish to assume that what starts with Mr. Khalil will end with him. There could be a genuine risk to Canadian visitors in the United States when the government will so willingly forfeit due process rights for non-citizens. (The plight of Canadian Jasmine Mooney, who was sent to a detention centre for nearly two weeks after trying to renew her visa, is evidence of that.) The administration could very well move from targeting green-card-holders to citizens, similarly relying on obscure legal provisions. Or they could ignore the law altogether, which Mr. Trump has recently signalled he has few qualms about doing.

In short, Mr. Khalil’s case is a chilling sign of U.S.’s slide into autocracy. Those on all sides of the Israel-Palestine debate should resist it.

Source: The chilling case of Mahmoud Khalil should enrage anyone who purports to support freedom

Filed under Immigration Tagged with ,

LoP: Immigration Detention in Canada 

2025/03/22 Leave a comment

Another useful primer by the Library of Parliament:

Canada’s immigration detention system is governed by the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations(the Regulations) and the international human rights treaties ratified by the government. The Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) is responsible for managing the detention process of foreign nationals and permanent residents, while the Immigration Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada reviews immigration detention decisions.

Canadian legal framework for immigration detention

The reasons for which a foreign national or permanent resident may be detained in Canada are set out in the IRPA, and include detention:

  • upon entry into Canada, to complete an examination and confirm identity;
  • for suspected inadmissibility on grounds of security, human rights violations or serious crimes;
  • based on a reasonable belief that the person is a danger to the public; and
  • based on doubt that they will appear for an examination, an admissibility hearing or a related legal proceeding.

The Regulations set out further factors to be considered when determining whether to detain an individual, including any past criminal convictions, links to organized crime, organized human smuggling or trafficking, or unwillingness to cooperate with government officials to establish their identity.

According to the CBSA’s recent data on persons detained, by ground for detention, most individuals are held for administrative reasons and pose no risk to the public.

When a person is detained, the Immigration Division reviews the grounds for detention within 48 hours and again within the next 7 days, then every subsequent period of 30 days. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms requires that a person subject to the IRPA’s detention review process has access to a meaningful and robust review that considers the context and circumstances of their individual case. Every person must have a real opportunity to challenge their detention. During the detention review, the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, through designated officials, must demonstrate that there are reasons that continue to warrant detention. The Immigration Division may order the release of a foreign national and impose any conditions it deems necessary.

There is no limit to the period for which a person can be held in immigration detention. As shown in Table 1, in 2023–2024, a person held for immigration purposes was detained, on average, for 19 days. However, the median shows that, between 2012–2013 and 2023–2024, one half of immigration detainees were held for three days or less….

Source: Immigration Detention in Canada

Filed under Immigration Tagged with ,

Discovery of secret list of alleged Nazi war criminals in Canada raises questions about government secrecy

2025/03/22 Leave a comment

Of note (embarrassing to various Canadian governments that refused their release):

U.S. researchers have found what they say is a late draft of a secret list of more than 700 suspected Nazi war criminals believed to have settled in Canada after the Second World War, prompting fresh calls for the federal government to finally unseal and release the full list.

A research team led by UCLA historian Jared McBride, an expert on war crimes in the Second World War, has unearthed what he concludes is an annotated version of the list of alleged war criminals in this country examined by a 1986 Commission of Inquiry led by retired Superior Court of Quebec judge Jules Deschênes.

Anonymized descriptions of such individuals living here were published in Part 1 of the Deschênes inquiry report. But the second half of the report, naming them, has been kept secret for decades, despite calls to release it, including from historians, Jewish groups and the Canadian Polish Congress.

Last year, the government rejected an access to information request from The Globe and Mail to make it public. The Globe has seen the list of names, and accompanying notes on their investigation, unearthed by the UCLA team.

Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, senior director of policy and advocacy at the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, said “there is no longer any rationale for the government to continue to keep these documents secret.”

“The government must immediately release the full case files and once and for all reckon with the truth instead of preserving the shameful cover-up that has shielded war criminals for so many years,” she said.

Prof. McBride found the partly redacted ledger, which includes notes on identity checks, in a batch of documents collated by the RCMP in the Canadian government’s archives….

Source: Discovery of secret list of alleged Nazi war criminals in Canada raises questions about government secrecy

Filed under Holocaust, Immigration, Multiculturalism Tagged with , , , ,

‘Rising problem’ of ghost consultancies hits man who lost $12K trying to get Canadian visa for wife

2025/03/21 Leave a comment

Another example:

Krishan Jogia turned to an immigration consultancy before landing in Toronto in 2023, only to realize later — after spending thousands of dollars — that he had been dealing with a “ghost” consultancy apparently operating illegally in Canada.

Jogia, a dual Canadian-Australian citizen, sought the services of Canada Global Migration Consultants (GMC) for a Canadian visitor visa for his wife, Luana Cabral de Carvalho. They eventually received it, but things didn’t go as smoothly when they tried again for her spousal visa.

WELCOME TO CANADAIs it worth immigrating to Canada? These newcomers say it comes at a cost
IN DEPTHRegulator taking too long to rule on ‘bad actor’ immigration consultants, critics say
“Canada GMC visually, like if you’ve seen their YouTube, Instagram and website, comes off as very polished,” Jogia said. “When you call them, you get a proper help desk with hold music and everything.”

However, in early 2024, Jogia said, their consultant “just disappeared.” For months, he said, the consultancy kept ignoring them and shuffled them around to different colleagues. The two were able to get hold of that consultant, who is a registered immigration consultant, directly. He told them, in an email seen by CBC News, that they left Canada GMC due to “their unethical work practices.”

“We started really aggressively trying to pursue a refund, and that’s when they just stopped replying and just ignored us,” Jogia said.

Source: ‘Rising problem’ of ghost consultancies hits man who lost $12K trying to get Canadian visa for wife

Filed under Multiculturalism Tagged with

Todd: 10 reasons fewer newcomers are becoming Canadian citizens

2025/03/21 Leave a comment

Good overview:

The pandemic mattered, somewhat
COVID might account for 40 per cent of the decline in naturalization rates in the five years before the 2021 census, estimate Fou and Picot. But Fou emphasizes that, even after removing the pandemic effect, “the citizenship rate declined at a faster pace from 2016 to 2021 than during any other five-year period since 1996.”

Canada has lost comparative advantage
With Canada performing poorly in the past decade in regard to GDP per capita, the country isn’t offering the solid wages it once did. Meanwhile, many other countries are doing better than they did in the past.

It’s revealing that the immigrants most likely to apply for citizenship are from countries with grim economies and severe civil strife, including such as Iran and Pakistan. Citizenship take-up is lower among newcomers from countries such as Britain and India.

Andrew Griffith, a former immigration department director now with the Institute for Canadian Citizenship (ICC), adds that many migrants with high-tech skills are using Canada as a stopover, where they can build up their credentials to eventually access the U.S. marketplace, which is harder to get into but has much higher-paying jobs.

Housing crisis
“Unaffordable housing is the top reason not to naturalize,” said Daniel Bernhard, CEO of the ICC. “This suggests that it’s a question of optimism about the future. If Canadians aren’t optimistic about our future overall, we shouldn’t be surprised that non-citizen residents of Canada feel the same way.”

Canadian citizenship has been devalued
Separate from debates over whether too many Canadian politicians have been overstressing the problematic aspects of the nation’s identity and history, migration specialists point to specific signs of devaluation.

Griffith believes Ottawa’s move to shift most citizenship ceremonies online has been discouraging for some.

He also thinks Canadian citizenship was diminished when the country moved to “unlimited voting rights for expatriates.” It used to be that non-resident citizens couldn’t vote after being out of the country for five years, but now it’s possible for millions to vote in federal elections regardless of how long they’ve been outside the country.

Ottawa has also “removed preferential hiring of citizens in the public service,” said Griffith. One now need only be a permanent resident to apply.

China is making things tougher
China has been among the top three sources of newcomers to Canada, where immigrants make up one out of four residents. But retired immigration lawyer Samuel Hyman notes China has been lately forcing its citizens to choose “whether they want to continue to have access to their wealth and assets in China” or be prepared to become Canadian citizens and struggle with far fewer rights in the homeland.

Lack of dual citizenship can discourage
Relatedly, the appeal of Canadian citizenship could be decreasing for people from nations like China and India in part because they don’t allow dual citizenship. As Hyman said by way of example, a migrant from India who becomes a Canadian citizen loses the right to inherit or buy property in India.

Citizenship uptake
Popular internet discussion forums, such as on Reddit, are devoted to foreign nationals in Canada discussing the financial and social-services consequences of obtaining citizenship in Canada while losing it in one’s homeland.

International tax scrutiny has expanded
The government of Stephen Harper stepped up tax scrutiny of offshore wealth, said Hyman. That put pressure on people with luxury lifestyles to report to the Canada Revenue Agency on how and where they made their money. It may have contributed, Hyman said, to Canada losing its appeal to some high-net-worth individuals.

Overemphasis on self-interest
While many commentators now highlight the value of Canadian pride and loyalty, some immigration advisers stress mere transactional self-interest. They advise clients that if they become citizens they can spend more time outside the country, and that a Canadian passport will allow them to travel to more countries. It can make the country less appealing.

Citizenship fees increased
On a bureaucratic note, some suggest it’s significant that the government has for a decade steadily hiked the fees that permanent residents must pay to obtain citizenship. [Note: Fees were increased by the Harper government in 2014-15 and have been frozen ever since. Liberal electoral platforms promised to eliminate fees in 2019 and 2021 but this was never implemented.]

Lack of encouragement
Canada used to put more effort into encouraging would-be immigrants to learn Canadian history, laws and values, Griffith said, culminating in an often-emotional in person ceremony. He recommends the immigration department begin to devote two per cent of its [Note: settlement services] budget to “citizenship preparation courses.”

Source: 10 reasons fewer newcomers are becoming Canadian citizens

Filed under Citizenship, Dual Citizenship Tagged with

Immigration matters in health care

2025/03/21 Leave a comment

Good communications initiative by IRCC, applied across different sectors. Of course, only emphasizes the positive and not the extra demand that a larger population creates but still useful reference for those covering immigration and other sectors:

More than 1.9 million people work in Canada’s health care sector and many more will be needed in the coming years to ensure continued access to high-quality care.

Over 420,000 workers in the health care sector are over the age of 55, and most of these will be retiring in the next decade or so. In addition, there are existing recruitment challenges from everywhere in Canada for nurses, residential care staff and home health care staff. There’s a clear opportunity for immigrants to play an important role in ensuring there are enough people working in the health care sector.

The sustainability and effectiveness of the Canadian health care system depends on an integrated and diverse workforce. We value the important contribution of immigrants to our health care system and welcome them to Canada!

Claire Betker, RN, MN, PhD, CCHN(C), Former President of the Canadian Nurses Association

Impact of immigration

  • Immigrants account for 1 in 4 health care sector workers.
  • In Canada, immigrants make up
    • 25% of registered nurses
    • 42% of nurse aides and related occupations
    • 43% of pharmacists
    • 37% of physicians
    • 45% of dentists
    • 61% of dental technologists and related occupations
  • More than 40% of newcomers to Canada between 2016 and 2021 who were working in the health care sector were employed in the important areas of nursing and residential care facilities, as well as home health care services.

Unless otherwise noted, all statistics are from the Statistics Canada 2021 Census.

Source: Immigration matters in health care

Filed under Immigration Tagged with , ,

Mooney: I’m the Canadian who was detained by Ice for two weeks. It felt like I had been kidnapped

2025/03/20 Leave a comment

Horrific example of bureaucracy at work, implementing the cruel and flawed policies of the Trump administration:

There was no explanation, no warning. One minute, I was in an immigration office talking to an officer about my work visa, which had been approved months before and allowed me, a Canadian, to work in the US. The next, I was told to put my hands against the wall, and patted down like a criminal before being sent to an Ice detention center without the chance to talk to a lawyer….

And that’s when I made a decision: I would never allow myself to feel sorry for my situation again. No matter how hard this was, I had to be grateful. Because every woman I met was in an even more difficult position than mine.

There were around 140 of us in our unit. Many women had lived and worked in the US legally for years but had overstayed their visas – often after reapplying and being denied. They had all been detained without warning.

If someone is a criminal, I agree they should be taken off the streets. But not one of these women had a criminal record. These women acknowledged that they shouldn’t have overstayed and took responsibility for their actions. But their frustration wasn’t about being held accountable; it was about the endless, bureaucratic limbo they had been trapped in.

The real issue was how long it took to get out of the system, with no clear answers, no timeline and no way to move forward. Once deported, many have no choice but to abandon everything they own because the cost of shipping their belongings back is too high.

I met a woman who had been on a road trip with her husband. She said they had 10-year work visas. While driving near the San Diego border, they mistakenly got into a lane leading to Mexico. They stopped and told the agent they didn’t have their passports on them, expecting to be redirected. Instead, they were detained. They are both pastors.

I met a family of three who had been living in the US for 11 years with work authorizations. They paid taxes and were waiting for their green cards. Every year, the mother had to undergo a background check, but this time, she was told to bring her whole family. When they arrived, they were taken into custody and told their status would now be processed from within the detention center.

Another woman from Canada had been living in the US with her husband who was detained after a traffic stop. She admitted she had overstayed her visa and accepted that she would be deported. But she had been stuck in the system for almost six weeks because she hadn’t had her passport. Who runs casual errands with their passport?

One woman had a 10-year visa. When it expired, she moved back to her home country, Venezuela. She admitted she had overstayed by one month before leaving. Later, she returned for a vacation and entered the US without issue. But when she took a domestic flight from Miami to Los Angeles, she was picked up by Ice and detained. She couldn’t be deported because Venezuela wasn’t accepting deportees. She didn’t know when she was getting out.

There was a girl from India who had overstayed her student visa for three days before heading back home. She then came back to the US on a new, valid visa to finish her master’s degree and was handed over to Ice due to the three days she had overstayed on her previous visa.

There were women who had been picked up off the street, from outside their workplaces, from their homes. All of these women told me that they had been detained for time spans ranging from a few weeks to 10 months. One woman’s daughter was outside the detention center protesting for her release….

The reality became clear: Ice detention isn’t just a bureaucratic nightmare. It’s a business. These facilities are privately owned and run for profit.

Companies like CoreCivic and GEO Group receive government funding based on the number of people they detain, which is why they lobby for stricter immigration policies. It’s a lucrative business: CoreCivic made over $560m from Ice contracts in a single year. In 2024, GEO Group made more than $763m from Ice contracts.

The more detainees, the more money they make. It stands to reason that these companies have no incentive to release people quickly. What I had experienced was finally starting to make sense.

This is not just my story. It is the story of thousands and thousands of people still trapped in a system that profits from their suffering. I am writing in the hope that someone out there – someone with the power to change any of this – can help do something.

The strength I witnessed in those women, the love they gave despite their suffering, is what gives me faith. Faith that no matter how flawed the system, how cruel the circumstances, humanity will always shine through.

Even in the darkest places, within the most broken systems, humanity persists. Sometimes, it reveals itself in the smallest, most unexpected acts of kindness: a shared meal, a whispered prayer, a hand reaching out in the dark. We are defined by the love we extend, the courage we summon and the truths we are willing to tell.

Source: I’m the Canadian who was detained by Ice for two weeks. It felt like I had been kidnapped

Filed under Immigration Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

TRUMP WANTS TO SELL CITIZENSHIP TO RICH PEOPLE. TAKE IT FROM OTHER COUNTRIES — IT’S A BAD IDEA

2025/03/20 Leave a comment

Indeed:

In his agonizingly long recent address to Congress, President Trump floated a plan to create a new “gold card” visa. For the low price of $5 million, immigrants would be able to buy a pathway to citizenship.

Of course, Trump cannot create a new visa without the help of Congress. But just as importantly, this is a bad idea. It’s not only been tried before — it’s also failed to a degree that has made dozens of countries roll back similar policies in recent years.

A Global Phenomenon

The rich have long enjoyed access to so-called “golden visas” or “golden passports,” schemes where foreigners are given access to residency or even citizenship in exchange for purchasing property or making investments in a new country.

Upwards of 100 countries have offered similar investment migration deals in the past, but in recent years that number has begun to dwindle.

One of the main reasons countries are phasing out these programs? To tackle rising housing prices. Critics argue that the wealthy migrants who take advantage of these visas distort housing markets by paying far over market value for living spaces.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced last year that the program that allowed non-European Union citizens to obtain residency by investing $540,000 in cash in real estate would be eliminated explicitly to tackle skyrocketing housing prices.

The phenomena of residency by investment programs first appeared in the late 1980s as a way to attract foreign investment. The United States, for example, adopted the EB-5 visa in 1990, offering permanent residence to foreigners who invest between $1 and $2 million in job-creating businesses.

Some of the most popular programs are the ones in Europe — primarily because of the benefits that residency or citizenship in the region can grant, like ease of travel within the Schengen Zone and access to top-notch medical treatment and education. Over 130,000 people have received residency or citizenship in the European Union through similar programs.

These investment schemes — offered at one point or another by Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxemburg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain — sprung up at the beginning of the 2010s as a way to bring in foreign investment to overcome the financial crisis.

The world’s ultra wealthy obliged.

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt quietly applied for Cypriot citizenship in 2020, allowing him free movement around a Europe that was largely shut down for outsiders during the pandemic. Cyprus shuttered its program mere months afterwards and ended up stripping citizenship from 222 investors, including many Russian oligarchs linked to the conflict in Ukraine.

Spain issued an estimated 6,200 visas in exchange for property investments between 2013 and 2023. Portugal has issued12,718 since 2012. In both countries, the most visas were granted to Chinese citizens.

Even European countries without explicit golden visas brokered similar deals with the wealthy — Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel became a French citizen in 2018 for contributing to the country’s “influence.”

And the rich haven’t limited themselves to European deals.

The most infamous is the case of former PayPal CEO and reactionary political activist Peter Thiel, who in 2011 was grantedcitizenship in New Zealand after only 12 days in the country.

More recently, Open AI CEO Sam Altman was given Indonesia’s first ever “Golden Visa.” In a press release, the government said they expect Altman to “contribute to developing artificial intelligence in Indonesia.”

Rolling Back the Tide

But have countries benefited from this influx of wealthy investors?

New research has suggested that the economic gains are minor. A 2022 report from the Melbourne-based Grattan Institute found that investors granted residency in Australia brought limited benefits to the country because they tended to be older and didn’t contribute much in taxes. Many of them ended up costing the state more in public services than they pay in taxes. Australia axed its investment program, launched in 2012, earlier this year.

There may also be negative knock-on effects, like inviting and even encouraging the wealthy to snap up properties,crowding out working residents from the housing market — think gentrification on a country-level. Lawmakers in Spain and Portugal both cited the role of investment for visa programs in spiking housing prices when scrapping and revising their programs this year, respectively. Research on the Portuguese case backs up the link to housing stocks.

To be clear, migrants writ-large have minimal impacts on rising housing prices. The issue is with exorbitantly wealthy newcomers, who distort markets and force working-class people out of their homes. The problem isn’t restricted to foreign billionaires — investors in the U.S. have also driven up prices by treating the housing stock like a commodity.

Rethinking Migration Restrictions

Governments worldwide appear to be wising up on the reality of golden visas. Spain, Portugal, Australia, and Cyprus have all recently modified or scrapped their investment for residency or citizenship schemes.

Ireland shut down its program after 11 years in 2023, citing concerns that it could be facilitating Russian money laundering. The United Kingdom did the same the year prior.

Greece raised the investment needed to qualify for residency from €500,000 to €800,000 in popular areas in response to spiking housing prices. Cyprus and Bulgaria scrapped their programs at around the same time over concerns about Russian oligarchs abusing the rules for money laundering and tax evasion.

Instead of creating a new “gold card” scheme in the United States, we should rethink restrictions on movement in general.

That ease with which the world’s wealthy can traverse borders should be expanded to the rest of us. Freedom of movement is a right we should all have, a right that people had for tens of thousands of years before the rise of the modern nation state. Reducing barriers to migration will only become more important as climate change and resource depletion make regions inhospitable.

A just immigration system should neither reward you for being rich nor punish you for being poor.

Source: TRUMP WANTS TO SELL CITIZENSHIP TO RICH PEOPLE. TAKE IT FROM OTHER COUNTRIES — IT’S A BAD IDEA

Filed under Citizenship, citizenship-by-investment Tagged with ,

← Older posts

Newer posts →