The Trudeau government may create a pathway to citizenship for thousands of migrants living in Canada illegally.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller will present a plan to cabinet before the Parliament’s summer break, which will include a pathway to permanent residency for international students whose visas have expired as well.
The government froze its target of new permanent residents at 500,000 for 2026 in response to declining public support for immigration. However, it maintained its targets of 485,000 for 2024 and 500,000 for next year.
Recent polls reveal that Canadians’ support for immigration has taken a steep dive, due to the housing crisis, inflation and the already existing massive influx of newcomers.
Miller’s plan would allow for anyone who entered the country legally, including temporary foreign workers who remained in Canada after their visa expired to qualify to stay, instead of facing deportation.
According to the Globe and Mail, Miller said he estimates that hundreds of thousands of people currently living in Canada do not have valid documents, but would be able to “regularize their status” under the potential plan.
Miller’s proposal is a follow-up to a 2021 mandate letter written by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to then-immigration minister Sean Fraser, asking that he “further explore ways of regularizing status for undocumented workers who are contributing to Canadian communities.”
However, Trudeau himself recently acknowledged that Canada has seen a “massive spike” in temporary immigration that has grown at a rate “far beyond” what the country has “been able to absorb.”
“Over the past few years we’ve seen a massive spike in temporary immigration, whether it’s temporary foreign workers or whether it’s international students in particular that have grown at a rate far beyond what Canada has been able to absorb,” Trudeau told reporters in Halifax last month.
Trudeau then cited how temporary immigrants only made up 2% of Canada’s population seven years ago, but now account for 7.5%.
Trudeau’s acknowledgement appears to reflect the sentiment felt by many Canadians in general as half of Canadians now agree that immigration levels are too high.
A recent Leger survey conducted for the Association for Canadian Studies and the Metropolis Institute found that the amount of Canadians who shared that sentiment in January 2023 was only about 21%, revealing a dramatic change in opinion in just over a year.
Canada welcomed around one million new temporary and permanent immigrants in 2022, which ultimately brought the country to a record high population of 40 million.
This prompted the Trudeau government to announce last November it would be capping Canada’s annual new permanent resident target at 500,000, beginning in 2026. This does not include temporary residents, such as temporary foreign workers and international students.
Of those 50% of Canadians who believe the current immigration levels are too high, 39% believe that it’s harming housing prospects. Within that same cohort, 21% said they felt that immigrants are “draining the system.”
People who have committed terrorist offences or serious crimes would not be eligible for legal status under the potential program.