While I was away: Immigration articles of interest

2026/10/13 Leave a comment

NYT: Our Interview With Mark Carney [Immigration]

Commentary by the Conservatives and right leaning media has overdramatized the possible shift. Proof will of course be in the forthcoming levels plan:

…What we’ve basically been doing is first getting the system under control. So if we want to let in 500,000 people through formal immigration and some temporary workers and students, we cap things and we let in 500,000 people. There were years where the expectation would have been for example, 700,000 and it ended up 2 million. The overshoots were, and you know it’s a country of 40 million people.

These are big, big overshoots, and it’s not that easy to get to Canada, right? It is from the U.S. but otherwise you’re flying in or taking boats. So we’ve taken measures to get that under control and we have it under control. So students down by 60 percent, temporary foreign workers down by 50 percent. It happens to be the case. Part of this is tightening, but asylum seekers are down by one-third on a flow basis, and now the question starts to become: When do we resume some controlled increase in the population, which is the nature of Canada. So that will happen, and we just want to make sure that we’ve got it under control….

Rob Breakenridge: The Carney honeymoon would end if he opens up immigration again

Depends on what the forthcoming levels plan contains for both permanent and particularly temporary resident numbers:

…Carney’s musings on immigration have also been noticed on the campaign trail in Quebec, where the Parti Québécois (PQ) pushed for limits on immigration in what became a successful campaign.

And even though the PQ has promised to shelve an independence referendum until after Donald Trump leaves office, new premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon has threatened to hold a referendum on immigration, not dissimilar to what’s on the ballot in Alberta.

It’s hard to imagine that voters in either province won’t or wouldn’t side heavily with their respective premiers on this issue. As such, it’s easy to envision a backlash against Carney’s planned increases.

It may well be that the government is tempted by the GDP boost that high immigration helps to generate, even if it papers over other weaknesses in the economy. Again, Carney himself has noted this phenomenon, calling it a “basic fact,” and that “you can do the math” in terms of how declining population can affect economic growth.

Carney’s political honeymoon is not a political blank cheque and nor should he be so overconfident as to feel as though he’s immune from a similar backlash to his predecessor. This issue has become divisive enough already and it’s playing with fire to thrust this issue back on a fatigued and frustrated Canadian public.

We’ll eventually need a return to responsible immigration growth, but the government has more work to do before that’s feasible and saleable.

Keller: The Canadian population decline that never happened, and what it means for immigration policy

Keller’s latest two part series on immigration following the Carney NYT intv:

… On the same day as Statscan dropped that news, Prime Minister Mark Carney was in New York, sitting for an interview with The New York Times. Among other things, he was asked about Canada’s “population decline,” and when he would begin “reversing” it through higher immigration.

The PM didn’t challenge the mistaken premise that Canada’s population is declining; he was presumably unaware of the new figures. But he gave a long and detailed answer about the immigration system’s recent history, which shows that he has a grasp on how things went off the rails under his predecessor.

I wrote a book last year on what Canada used to get right about immigration, and how after 2015 it got things so badly wrong. Most of what Mr. Carney had to say was on point.

He concluded with this: “Now the question starts to become: When do we resume some controlled increase in the population?”…

Keller: Mark Carney has started fixing immigration. He needs to keep at it 

His concrete recommendations:

…Continue reducing temporary immigration: The temporary-immigration streams used to be small, but they exploded under the Trudeau government. They came to be seen as backdoors to permanent immigration, for those who would not otherwise have scored high enough to secure permission to permanently immigrate.

These pathways need to be wound back, and some need to be wound down. The Carney government has promised to bring temporary-resident numbers down to 5 per cent of the national population by next year, but it’s well behind schedule. In any case, the target is too high.

The C.D. Howe Institute’s expert group on immigration suggests aiming for 3 per cent. I agree. What’s more, the vast majority of future temporary residents should be high-quality visa students or former students on postgraduate work permits.

End the low-wage temporary foreign worker program: It makes sense to give Canadian businesses the flexibility to temporarily hire an aeronautical engineer from overseas. It makes no sense to hand out temporary visas for low-wage work. Canada has a shortage of educated and skilled people in some high-paying fields, but there is no generalized shortage of workers, nor is there a lack of unskilled workers.

Temporary work visas should no longer be available for jobs paying less than $100,000 a year, with the singular exception of the long-standing seasonal agricultural worker program. A reduction in the pool of people available for entry-level jobs should cause wages at the bottom of the income scale to feel some upward pressure. That would be a good thing.

Focus student visas on the best: The limited number of student visas should go to the highest-quality institutions and programs, admitting the most-qualified students, and charging the highest international tuition.

What happened during the Trudeau era was the opposite, as provinces – led by Ontario – took advantage of the unlimited number of student visas to encourage the weakest and lowest-tuition institutions, mostly public and private colleges, to go on a cash grab. What was being sold was entry into Canada, not education.

Our leading public universities, which charge international undergraduate tuition of $50,000 and up, and even more for some master’s programs, should get nearly all of the visas. Private colleges should get none. Public colleges should get few.

Stable permanent immigration: From the early 1990s until the Trudeau government, Canada’s immigration rate was relatively stable, through Liberal and Conservative administrations. It helped to make immigration as boring and unnoticed as functioning plumbing.

Let’s set our immigration rate at 0.7 per cent of the population – that’s about 300,000 new immigrants. Keep the rate there year after year, indefinitely.

An immigration rate of 0.7 per cent would be on par with where things were for the quarter century before the Trudeau government. It would be well below the level Canada hit from 2022 to 2024, and somewhat lower than the figure the Carney government has targeted. But by international standards, it would still be above average.

As I detail in my book on immigration, the U.S. legal-immigration level in the decades before the first election of President Donald Trump was around 0.3 per cent.

As on other key files, the Carney government has started to turn the ship on immigration. As with those other issues, more turning is still needed.

Olive: How Justin Trudeau’s immigration ambitions unravelled

Meanwhile in the Star, Olive seems oblivious to the failings of the philosophy and approach, not just miscalculation:

…Trudeau brought a record number of newcomers to Canada, and that proved to be a test of his governing philosophy. The labour shortages of the post-pandemic gave him the chance to better align economic need with more newcomers. It was a test he failed through miscalculation, but the philosophy was sound.

The weakest links in Carney’s cabinet are still there

The latest in the case for a change in immigration minister with speculation why still in place:

Most Canadians don’t know much about the Singh decision. But if you’re the country’s Immigration Minister, you must.

So it was alarming that Lena Metlege Diab seemed confused when she was asked about the seminal 1985 Supreme Court decision in an interview for a Radio-Canada podcast.

It was the ruling that set the foundations of Canada’s asylum system, and is central to immigration policy. It established that asylum-seekers have Charter rights and a right to an oral hearing, led to the creation of the Immigration and Refugee Board, and is still an issue in reform efforts today.

But it didn’t ring bells for the minister.

Kevin Paquette: The Parti Québécois forced a necessary immigration debate

The more positive approach to integration. Will see what the incoming government changes its electoral approach to a more inclusive governing approach: 

But integration is a concept that goes beyond language. It is also about sharing some basic values, understanding the institutions of the society you are joining and, over time, developing a sense that you belong to something larger than yourself. A society needs that sense of common civic and civilizational belonging if it is to remain cohesive over time.

All of these elements show why the debate over integration capacity deserves better than the familiar accusations and assumptions we have now become accustomed.

Raising questions about our capacity to welcome newcomers does not mean shifting the burden of our collective choices onto immigrants who choose Quebec. On the contrary, it means taking seriously the responsibility we have toward them.

When someone chooses Quebec, we should want them to be able to find their place here, learn French, build a life, and develop a genuine sense of belonging. When our capacity to integrate newcomers is overwhelmed, they pay a price as well.

That is ultimately what the immigration debate should be about: not searching for someone to blame, but making sure that those who choose Quebec have a real chance to succeed here and, over time, to feel fully at home.

Kevin Paquette is a consultant at Crestview Strategy. He was a political advisor to Quebec’s Minister of Public Security and president of the Coalition Avenir Québec’s youth wing. 

Express Entry and Labour Market Outcomes of Economic Immigrants

Unclear whether this will still apply and the CRS gets undermined by increased specialty streams as preliminary evidence suggests it is not:

Four recent studies examine the labour market outcomes of immigrants selected through Express Entry (EE) and assess how well the system’s Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) identifies applicants with strong economic potential. Using data from the Longitudinal Immigration Database and the linked IMDB–2021 Census, the research examines employment, earnings, wages and occupational mobility among EE immigrants, comparing their outcomes with those of other economic immigrants.

Overall, EE immigrants demonstrate stronger labour market outcomes than non-EE economic immigrants. They are more likely to be employed, earn higher employment income and weekly wages, and remain in their intended occupations. These differences are observed across a range of admission cohorts and demographic and labour market characteristics.

The research also finds that several core CRS selection factors are consistently associated with stronger outcomes. In particular, higher official language proficiency, educational attainment, Canadian work experience and higher pre-admission employment earnings are associated with better post-admission employment and earnings outcomes. Pre-admission employment earnings are among the strongest predictors, suggesting that the quality of applicants’ previous labour market experience may be more informative than simply having Canadian work experience.

Occupation characteristics also matter. Applicants in higher-skilled occupations generally have stronger employment, earnings and occupational retention outcomes, while remaining in an intended occupation is associated with substantially higher earnings. Job offers are associated with somewhat higher post-admission earnings, although their predictive value varies across outcomes and occupational categories.

By contrast, several CRS bonus factors – including Canadian education, French-language bonuses, siblings in Canada and spouse-related characteristics – show limited associations with short- and medium-term labour market outcomes after accounting for other applicant characteristics.

Together, the findings provide evidence on the factors associated with labour market success among EE immigrants and can inform ongoing consideration of the design and selection criteria of economic immigration programs. Because Express Entry was introduced in 2015, additional follow-up will be needed to assess whether these relationships persist over time.

Read the research: Express Entry and Labour Market Outcomes of Economic Immigrants

Canada’s refugee shelters are getting ready for the next surge. Here’s how cities are building a system that works

The key factor is, of course, the reduced number of refugees…:

… The tide, however, has begun to turn. Federal policy shifts aimed at curbing irregular migrants and restricting access to asylum have led to a significant decline in new asylum claimants in the past year — and governments have used the opportunity to build a more sustainable refugee shelter system that would be ready for the next surge. 

Municipalities reporting fewer refugees in shelters 

New refugee claimants dropped from 105,940 in the first seven months of 2024 to 69,410 in the same period in 2025 — and to just 33,415 this year.

Officials attributed the decline to the new visa requirement for Mexican travellers, tightened border enforcement and heightened scrutiny of visa applications. Ontario currently receives about 45 per cent of all claims, followed by Quebec at 38 per cent.

The federal Immigration Department said it closed all the refugee hotels that it directly funded and ran as of October 2025.

In Toronto, the number of claimants in regular shelters fell from 6,490 people in August 2024 to 1,691 this September. As demand declines, the city is closing two of its refugee shelter hotels this fall and the remaining one in 2027.

Calls specific to refugee claimants have dropped from more than 100 a day at times in 2023 to 10 to 20 a week now. During the first six months of 2026, fewer than 500 claimants were admitted into Toronto’s shelter system, while on average 165 have left each month since January. 

“We are generally able to meet demand from refugee claimants,” said Vera Dodic, the city’s director of refugee response. “We are no longer regularly seeing refugee claimants call Central Intake to report no available space.”…

Immigration Department looking into termination of refugee sponsor policy: Diab

Hopefully, with public reporting:

The Immigration Department will monitor for any negative effects from a recent decision not to extend a policy that gave permanent residency sponsorship exemptions to some refugees, Immigration Minister Lena Diab said Wednesday.

The policy was introduced in 2019 to allow some refugees to sponsor some undeclared family members for permanent residency but it expired earlier this month and was not renewed.

Kazemzadeh: Canada’s settlement services are going digital. AI should support workers, not replace them

Overall, balanced but one should expect some staff efficiencies and reductions but hopefully with better outcome reporting (even outputs are updated on opendata and have to be requested):

… Canada should not reject AI in settlement services. The technology has real potential. But governments and settlement agencies should avoid building a digital-only system.

The better model is hybrid: AI for routine information, translation support, navigation and basic triage; humans for complex cases, legal referrals, trauma-informed care, accessibility needs and emotional support.

The future of settlement services will likely be more digital. But success should not be measured by how many workers are replaced. It should be measured by whether newcomers receive faster, safer and more inclusive support.

AI can open the door. Human expertise must remain inside.

Filed under Immigration, Integration, Refugees Tagged with , , , , , , ,

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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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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Immigration Minister faces criticism from lawyers after interview with influencer

2026/04/27 Leave a comment

Yet another misstep:

Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab is under fire from immigration lawyers for conducting an interview where she discussed forthcoming policy with a social-media influencer who also runs platforms for foreign nationals hoping to settle or study in Canada. 

Ms. Metlege Diab earlier this month conducted a 30-minute interview with Max Medyk about immigration policy, including about a soon-to be announced program allowing thousands of temporary residents to apply for permanent residency, or PR. 

She suggested the program, which has yet to be announced, would be available to people living outside big metropolitan areas. 

During the interview, Mr. Medyk drew the minister’s attention to a site he founded allowing foreign nationals to search for jobs that can lead to PR, and a property rental site used by newcomers and others he acts as an ambassador for. 

The Canadian Immigration Lawyers Association, a non-profit organization with about 500 members, wrote to Ms. Metlege Diab Wednesday expressing concern that she had given indications about a forthcoming policy allowing temporary residents to apply for PR during the interview. CILA’s director Grace Allen said details about the temporary residence to PR program, first referenced in last year’s budget, was being communicated in a piecemeal way including through “commercial and monetized social media platforms,” before being verified by the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada department, leading to confusion and anxiety among prospective newcomers….

Source: Immigration Minister faces criticism from lawyers after interview with influencer

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Refugee tribunal ruled on more than 45,000 cases since 2019 without in-person hearings

2026/04/01 Leave a comment

Yet another policy and program failure that undermines public confidence in immigration and refugees:

The independent tribunal that decides refugee claims has since 2019 ruled on more than 45,000 asylum cases based on paperwork alone without an in-person hearing, raising concerns from the Conservatives and experts that this could dilute scrutiny and compromise national security. 

Figures provided to MPs on the Commons immigration committee by the Immigration and Refugee Board show that in that period, Iranian asylum claimants have had the most claims decided without an in-person hearing, with 10,730 claims decided based on paper reviews of their files. 

Last year, 2,218 cases of alleged persecution in Iran – where the theocratic regime has imprisoned and killed scores of its critics – were decided after reviewing the files of asylum applicants, with 2,105 decided without a hearing in 2024 and 3,124 in 2023. 

Between 2019 and 2025, the IRB decided 45,595 cases through “paper processes.” These included 4,220 paper-only asylum decisions on cases from Afghanistan. There were 484 such “file-review” adjudications from Palestinians, 6,827 from Turkey, 1,273 from Yemen, 2,542 from Pakistan and 256 from Iraq, the IRB figures show. 

Asylum claimants from Haiti had 3,379 cases decided without a hearing between 2019 and 2025, including 2,471 last year. …

James Yousif, a former member of the IRB who adjudicated on cases, has been raising concerns that paper-only decisions could heighten the risk of fraud and weaken security screening.

“It is not possible to tell a true claim from a made-up claim just by reading the documents in each file,” he said in an e-mail. “Asking questions at a hearing is absolutely essential to detecting fraud and risks to Canada’s national security. There is no substitute for this.” 

Ms. Metlege Diab previously told MPs on the committee that each person claiming asylum is subject to security screening. She said decisions are made on a case-by-case basis by the IRB tribunal, which operates independently of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

But in an e-mail to The Globe and Mail, Mr. Redekopp expressed concern that the file-review process is being used “to expedite asylum claims without interviewing claimants, even from high-risk countries like Iran.” 

“Even worse, the Immigration Minister won’t take responsibility for this security gap, saying the IRB is independent – even though she is the minister responsible for the IRB,” he said. “Canadians expect a rigorous and thorough immigration vetting process and we are calling on the Immigration Minister to take action.”…

Source: Refugee tribunal ruled on more than 45,000 cases since 2019 without in-person hearings

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Where is Canada’s immigration minister? Community groups are asking

2026/02/26 Leave a comment

Don’t expect her to survive the next shuffle:

When Lena Diab was appointed head of Canada’s Immigration Department, community expectations were high.

The new minister is the daughter of immigrants, is trilingual and spent part of her childhood in Lebanon. Diab had also previously served in cabinet in her home province of Nova Scotia.

“It seemed like the perfect plan,” said Stephan Reichhold, executive director of the Quebec-based Table de concertation des organismes au service des personnes réfugiées et immigrantes.

But Reichhold quickly became disillusioned with a minister who, in his opinion, was conspicuous in her absence.

Members of Parliament are also expressing disappointment in Diab’s performance — including some of her fellow Liberal caucus members.

‘She is completely absent’

Reichhold said he has never managed to speak directly with Diab, despite repeatedly asking to meet following her swearing-in last May.

“I have seen 14 immigration ministers come and go, and it is truly surprising. We are really astonished that she is completely absent,” Reichhold said.

That’s in contrast with her predecessor Marc Miller, who Reichhold said had frequent contact with stakeholders in the field even when his government lowered its immigration targets.

Radio-Canada spoke with five other organizations that criticized Diab’s availability. Among them is the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, which spoke with the minister only once, via videoconference, last spring.

The organization is seeking to open a path to permanent residency for Ukrainians who have fled the war, but has still not managed to secure an in-person meeting with Diab. Her predecessors were more readily available, said the CEO of the congress, Ihor Michalchyshyn.

“It’s frustrating,” he said. “We haven’t been able to schedule a meeting despite several attempts.”

Organizations also note that the minister is not very visible in the media, even as the immigration issue was widely covered in Quebec.

When asked to comment, Diab declined Radio-Canada’s request for an interview and did not provide a written response.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Mark Carney said that “as minister of immigration, [Diab] plays a key role in the government’s mandate to bring immigration back to sustainable levels, while attracting the best talent in the world to help build our economy.”

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) did not comment on the criticism from community groups.

Committee presence criticized

On the few occasions when Diab has been visible — in parliamentary committee, for example — her performance has raised eyebrows.

At the end of October, the minister had difficulty answering a question from the Bloc Québécois about processing times for refugee status applications and sought information from the civil servants sitting next to her.

Exasperated, MP Claude DeBellefeuille snapped, “Madam minister, why won’t you answer me? It’s your power. Why are you delegating it to your civil servant?”

“There are many laws governing these issues,” Diab replied, adding that “it depends on the circumstances.”

A few weeks later, Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel Garner, known for her sharp tongue in committee, questioned Diab about the possibility of extending the visas of millions of temporary residents and called her a “very bad minister.” The exchange was widely shared on social media.

“I understand as a woman in politics, sometimes you can get framed unfairly,” said Rempel Garner in an interview with Radio-Canada. “But she is the minister of immigration. She has to step it up, right? And I just, I haven’t seen that.… I feel like I know the file far better than she does.”

The minister testified this month before two Senate committees studying the border security legislation Bill C-12. On several occasions, Diab had to give the floor to the officials accompanying her, visibly unable to answer the questions.

“She doesn’t have a strong command of her file,” said Bloc Québécois MP Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, who was present during some of these committee exchanges and who, until recently, was the Bloc’s immigration critic.

Discouraged Liberals 

Criticism is coming not only from opposition parties, but also from Diab’s own Liberal colleagues.

Away from the cameras, 10 Liberal MPs spoke to Radio-Canada about her performance. They were granted confidentiality in order to express themselves freely.

Of those, only one defended Diab’s job performance. Although several of them emphasized that she is a “good person” in charge of a “difficult” portfolio, nine MPs said they believe that the minister is overwhelmed and are openly questioning her place at the cabinet table.

“It doesn’t make sense. In the House of Commons, many MPs hold their breath when she answers questions from the opposition,” said one Liberal elected official.

“We’re afraid she’ll put her foot in her mouth.”

Source: Where is Canada’s immigration minister? Community groups are asking

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Canada to add three new permanent residency streams to Express Entry immigration program

2026/02/20 Leave a comment

Further dilution of the human capital approach and the CRS. Better than the Francophone category but still…:

Canada is expanding its Express Entry immigration program, adding three new permanent residency streams that cover a range of professions the Liberal government says are needed to fill critical labour gaps, including researchers and military personnel, Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab announced Wednesday.

The new categories under the Express Entry stream will give priority to researchers and senior managers with Canadian work experience; applicants with work experience in transport occupations, including pilots, aircraft mechanics and inspectors; and highly skilled foreign military applicants.

The new streams are part of what Diab calls a federal strategy to attract “top talent” to the country.

“We’ve identified these sectors as areas in critical need,” Diab said in a speech in Toronto. “Strengthening those helps us move goods across the country and to new markets, supporting trade, supply chains and economic resilience.”

Diab said the decision to have a new category for skilled foreign military applicants, along with other categories, “supports Canada’s defence industrial strategy,” and aims to “strengthen our armed forces, defend our sovereignty and to keep Canadians safe.”

This announcement comes after a new category for foreign medical doctors with Canadian work experience was announced in December. Diab at the time said this was part of a broader plan to move away from a “one-size fits all” immigration approach and make it easier for people in certain professions to come to or remain in Canada.

The 2026 immigration levels plan prioritizes permanent economic immigrants while reducing temporary admissions, particularly for students, as Ottawa ramps up its efforts to attract highly skilled workers and scientists from around the world.

The federal government in December announced it would spend more than $1 billion over the next decade to attract and retain leading international researchers to Canada. The funding is slated to support salaries, new infrastructure, grants and the recruitment of more than 1,000 doctors, researchers and scientists.

“Our Express Entry system is at the core of our approach for attracting and retaining the skilled workers Canada needs,” Diab said Wednesday.

“We’re not waiting for the right people to find us,” she said. “We will go out into the world to recruit the people our country needs, to connect them with Canadian employers and to highlight why Canada is the place” to build their careers and lives.

Canada has long struggled to retain in-demand, highly skilled workers. A November report from the Institute for Canadian Citizenship and the Conference Board of Canada, titled “The Leaky Bucket 2025,” found that one in five immigrants are leaving Canada within 25 years of landing and highly educated immigrants are leaving faster than those with lower education levels.

Many newcomers remain stuck in precarious, low-wage work due to a labour market that continues to undervalue international experience. More than 30 per cent of newcomers ages 25-54 with a post-secondary education reported they were overqualified for their job compared to 19.7 per cent of Canadian-born workers, according to Statistics Canada.

Source: Canada to add three new permanent residency streams to Express Entry immigration program

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Immigration Minister defends proposed changes to asylum rules through border bill

2026/02/18 Leave a comment

Of note. Hard for refugee advocates to admit need for limits or the extent of misrepresentation:

…Canada has seen an increase in asylum claims from international students, who have been the target of immigration restrictions, in the last few years. Over the past year, 17 per cent of asylum claims came from students, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. 

Ms. Metlege Diab answered questions about the asylum implications of Bill C-12 along with Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree on Feb. 9 at the Senate’s national-security committee.

On Thursday, she was questioned by senators on the social affairs committee, which is also studying the bill. 

Senators also heard unease expressed from a range of witnesses, including the UN Refugee Agency.

One of the concerns is that the proposed one-year cutoff for asylum hearings would be measured from the first time someone entered Canada. The bill specifies that the one-year period “begins on the day after the day of their first entry.”

Refugee advocacy groups warned senators this could mean that someone who came here on holiday as a child with their parents would be barred from a refugee hearing decades later.

They also hit back at suggestions that foreign nationals claiming asylum, including international students who had been here for more than a year, were more likely to lodge fraudulent claims. 

Gauri Sreenivasan, co-executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees, a non-profit advocacy organization for refugee and immigrant rights, was among those who addressed the Senate committee. 

“Suggestions before committees that certain claimants are likely to be fraudulent because they are students or because they have been here more than a year are as unfounded as they are offensive,” Ms. Sreenivasan told senators.

“These blunt measures disproportionately harm the most vulnerable: women fleeing violence, LGBTQIA+ individuals, minors, those with mental health challenges or people from unstable regions.”…

Source: Immigration Minister defends proposed changes to asylum rules through border bill

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Immigration minister wants department to track exits of temporary residents

2026/02/02 Leave a comment

Long overdue:

Immigration Minister Lena Diab says she wants her department to acquire the ability to track the number of people with temporary visas who are exiting the country.

The immigration department confirms almost 1.9 million temporary visas, including work and study permits, are expiring this year. More than 2.1 million expired last year.

Diab said the Canada Border Services Agency and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada are able to track some information about specific people and groups, but there’s no simple way to track how many temporary residents are leaving Canada.

Diab said she’d like to change that with the help of digital tools.

“There’s a number countries around the world that do track those. And I believe we need to also be doing that,” Diab said in a phone interview with The Canadian Press.

“Did we have the capabilities to do that before? No. Should we? I think yes, and that is something that you will see us working toward.”

Aaron McCrorie, CBSA vice president of intelligence and enforcement, told a House of Commons committee hearing on Oct. 21 that the agency can track who is leaving Canada, their method of transportation, their date of birth and the travel documents they use.

He said CBSA doesn’t currently have the ability to determine if someone is leaving because of an expired visa. McCrorie told the committee it can manually check that on a case-by-case basis, a process he described as “very labour-intensive.”

People with temporary visas contributed to a major increase in asylum claims in 2024.

A response to a written question from Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel Garner on asylum claims shows more than 112,000 people on temporary resident visas and nearly 22,000 people with study permits applied for asylum in 2024….

Source: Immigration minister wants department to track exits of temporary residents

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Officials processing foreign nationals’ visas, permanent-residence applications will not face job cuts: minister

2026/01/20 Leave a comment

Of note and to watch whether processing times improve or not:

Federal employees processing applications from foreign nationals for temporary or permanent residence in Canada will be insulated from forthcoming public-service cuts, Immigration Minister Lena Diab says.

Government departments have begun rolling out plans to reduce staffing levels, honouring a pledge made in last year’s budget to cut the number of public servants by about 30,000 over five years. The federal public service numbered almost 358,000 employees last year.

Statistics Canada this month said it plans to cut more than 850 jobs. 

Natural Resources Canada told The Globe and Mail last week that approximately 700 employees received letters last month informing them that their position may be affected. The department said it plans to eliminate approximately 400 positions by 2028-29.

Other government departments are expected to announce job cuts shortly. 

In an interview, Ms. Diab, who oversees Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, said public servants working on applications for settlement, employment and study here will not be among those facing job cuts.

She said the agency’s staffing is tied to Ottawa’s annual immigration levels plan, which sets targets for the numbers of people admitted for entry to Canada.

“The way IRCC has been funded over the years, it’s funded based on the levels plan, and so therefore that will not change. The people that are processing those numbers, they’ll still be there. They will not be affected,” Ms. Diab said. 

IRCC has huge backlogs in processing of applications for permanent residence, with some wait times stretching to more than 10 years. 

Toronto immigration lawyer Stephen Green said many applicants were facing long delays in decisions about their immigration status because of the backlogs. But he said IRCC officers were creating more work by failing to call applicants who may have, for instance, made slight mistakes or forgotten to include a document with their application. He said rejections of applications for small errors were leading to a slew of Federal Court challenges. 

“They need better processing, and just picking up the phone to check things could increase efficiencies. If picking up the phone can resolve an issue quickly, officials should be encouraged to do that,” Mr. Green said. 

Source: Officials processing foreign nationals’ visas, permanent-residence applications will not face job cuts: minister

Filed under Immigration Tagged with ,

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