The “policy” part of a bad immigration policy can be fixed.
The government can, for example, announce a cap on international study permits when it becomes clear that Canada can’t accommodate the 1,028,850 international students it accepted in 2023. It can scale back the number of hours international students are allowed to work off-campus when students who are working close to 40 hours a week are in effect temporary foreign workers with the wrong papers. It can announce a six-month moratorium on applications for some low-wage temporary foreign workers in Montreal when there is a by-election coming up in the city. Wait – no, I meant to say: when unemployment is up in Quebec. Yes, that’s it.
And it can decide to tighten the reins on the low-wage stream of the temporary foreign worker program when it becomes evident, both domestically and internationally, that the whole thing has become an out-of-control racket.
Yes, bad policy can be reversed (though the problem of how to accommodate the enormous number of people Canada has already accepted in a short period of time will persist). What can’t be reversed, however, is the population’s changing attitudes toward immigration, which is a direct consequence of the policies implemented under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Canada once enjoyed a rather remarkable consensus on the value of immigration: we took pride in our scrupulous vetting and points-based selection process, which really was the envy of sister nations. (Speaking from his cabinet retreat Monday, Mr. Trudeau insisted, straight-faced, that our system “continues to be an extraordinary, important advantage that Canada has in the world.”) But people can plainly see that that is no longer true; as of April 1, Canada had a record high of 2,793,594 non-permanent residents living in the country. There is no way that each newcomer was scrupulously vetted, nor is it possible that each position he or she was brought in to fill was assessed for its legitimate need.
In fact, the Toronto Star reported on Tuesday that staff working for Employment and Social Development Canada were instructed to skip routine checks of employers in order to expedite approvals. One document viewed by the Star also instructed staff to “discontinue the practice of checking on the website of the law society or the CPA (Chartered Professional Accountant) association to validate that the lawyer or the CPA who provided the attestation [on behalf of employers] is a member in good standing.”
The reality is that Canada needs immigration – our population is aging, and our fertility rate in 2022 was the lowest on record in the past century – but we also have a worsening housing crisis, a health system that was buckling under demand even before we decided to grow our population by the highest rate in more than 60 years, and surging unemployment rates among young people and recent immigrants. So yes, Canada needs immigration, but what it really needs is smart, careful immigration that also considers the strain that an influx of newcomers will have on existing services and institutions. And just as importantly, Canadians need to trust that their government is bringing people into the country responsibly.
Instead, Canadians are seeing low-wage temporary workers filling their cups at Tim Hortons while their kids sit at home unemployed. They’re hearing about how a man who allegedly worked for the Islamic State was somehow granted Canadian citizenship. They’re reading stories about international students relying on food banks to feed themselves. And they’re seeing the data – on housing costs and shortages, health care waits, and unemployment – and concluding that Canada’s once-proud immigration system has been destroyed. They’re not wrong.
Recent polling has shown a steep decline in Canadians’ support for immigration. A Nanos poll released in 2023 showed a 20-point increase from March to September in respondents who thought Canada should accept fewer immigrants. Research by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada showed similar results. A recent Leger poll indicated that 60 per cent of Canadians believe we are accepting too many immigrants. These attitudes about policy can often turn into animosity toward people – attitudes that are quick to shift, and nearly impossible to shift back. It breeds the type of xenophobia that recently led to violent clashes in Britain, and unapologetic racism in France, and inhumane border detention facilities in the United States. And it’s starting to creep out of the fringes in Canada.
Anti-immigrant attitudes have always been present in this country, but never before have they been so prevalent, and so mainstream. The Canadian consensus that existed on immigration before Mr. Trudeau’s government has all but been vanquished, and a new cap on temporary foreign workers or a few piddling restrictions on international students won’t bring it back. That will be Mr. Trudeau’s legacy, and it’s not one that he, or the country, can be proud of.