Canada Limits Temporary Residents
For the first time in history, Canada is planning to limit the number of temporary residents allowed to enter the country. According to the BBC, Canada’s immigration minister Marc Miller announced that the number will be reduced over the next three years, beginning in September of 2024. Though temporary residents primarily consist of people seeking refuge or employment, the implementation of this new limit will affect international students as well.
This is an incredibly surprising announcement, as Canada is widely considered one of the most welcoming countries for immigrants throughout the world. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has enforced several pro-immigration policies, and his time in office has seen a high influx of immigrants coming into the country, with the number of new residents rising from 300,000 to 400,000 per year. During a speech given by Trudeau in 2019, he was quoted saying “Canada is a country that was built by immigration.” This quote has largely summarized his stance on immigration, until recently that is. On April 2, Trudeau spoke at an event promoting an infrastructure project: “Over the past few years, we’ve seen a massive spike in temporary immigration,” he said. “Whether it’s temporary foreign workers, or whether it’s international students in particular that have grown at a rate that’s far beyond what Canada has been able to absorb.”
The event where Trudeau delivered his speech was a project promoting building better, more affordable housing in Canada. This is perhaps in response to the skyrocketing housing shortages in the country, according to Voices of America. The upcoming ban on temporary residents is of course, also in response to the housing shortages in Canada. In addition to this, people have experienced being placed on medical wait times recently, which has also been linked to the heightened population in Canada during the past few years. The article published by Voices of America draws attention to the Government of Canada’s website, which shows that 437,000 new permanent residents and 604,000 temporary workers entered Canada in the year 2022 alone.
Marc Miller cited this intense surge in immigration when delivering his speech regarding the implementation of the immigration ban. He justified the decision to limit immigration stating that it is being made to ensure “sustainable” growth in the number of temporary residents, as the current number of people coming into Canada simply cannot continue to be supported at the rate in which they are entering the country.
However, this decision has still faced a considerable amount of backlash since the announcement came in March. It was largely criticized by advocates and employers of foreign workers. Syed Hussan, an executive director of the organization Migrant Workers Alliance for Change (MWAC), told Global News that “Migrants have been scapegoated for the affordability and housing crisis to distract from corporate and government failure at ensuring a decent quality of life for all of us.” He continued, adding that “Migrants are not responsible for low wages or high prices; they are some of the worst affected.”
Though Hussan’s opinion represents those of many, the ban will still be put into effect in the fall of this year. Whether or not it significantly reduces the issues caused by the housing and affordability crises in Canada is yet to be determined.