The Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau announced on his YouTube channel that Canada has decided to amend their immigration rules due to several factors.
In the video, he highlighted the reasons why it has become necessary for Canada to cut down immigration, naming one as “bad actors” which include fake colleges and big chain corporations that have been exploiting Canada’s immigration policies for their own interest.
He mentioned that, decades ago, Canada was in shortage of labour force, and the demands for labour force increased after the pandemic. Companies and businesses had to close down for lack of workforce, which motivated the government of Canada to open its borders to immigrants, dished out work visas with permanent residency.
It was demand that necessitated this immigration policy, but now that the demand has been met, with Canada’s population hitting 41 million, the need arises for amendments.
The Prime Minister noted that in the last two years, Canada’s population has grown really fast, “baby boom” fast. Now they have to reduce the number of visitors that will come to Canada for the next three years.
“There are two kinds of immigration in Canada”, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, “the one you probably think of most, is permanent immigration, like when different families come to Canada to settle and call it home. Every year the government determines the right number of residents that we want to admit. That’s how it’s been done for decades”.
The other type of immigration is “temporary immigration”. He says temporary residents are people who come to Canada for a limited time. These are international students, temporary workers and so on, who come to work a job or go to school, and return when they get their degree or are done with the job. Some however, do not return, as they do apply for permanent residency and are granted.
The Primes Minister spoke saying that over the years Canada had only looked at the angle of permanent immigration, “but after the pandemic, our economy came roaring back quickly. We needed a lot of workers, fast. Temporary foreign workers became a significant part of our workforce, and it’d be a mistake not to include them when we plan our immigration levels. So this year, we did exactly that, for the first time”.
So the government of Canada made a plan for both permanent and temporary immigrants, getting data of how many people were coming in, so houses and infrastructure could be put in place to support the immigrants.
He notes that this choice was right, as it worked and saw Canada’s economy grow. “Restaurants and stores reopened, businesses kept running, but most importantly, in spite of the economists’ predictions, we avoided the worst scenario; recession”.
“But some saw that as an opportunity to profit, to game the system. We’ve seen way too many large corporations doing this. Far too many colleges and universities used international students to raise their bottom line”, he said.
A lot of colleges equivalent to puppy mills were churning out diplomas to students and charging way more higher than the usual cost. Then there are the bad actors who just want to exploit people. They target vulnerable people, promising them jobs, diplomas and citizenship. Promises that would never come true.
Canada’s needs have been met, businesses no longer needs the additional help, it now behooves on the federal government who are responsible for immigration policies to make changes and stabilize the system.
Hence, the need for cutting down immigration to at least 20% for the next three years. “That means a decrease in international students, temporary foreign workers. Canada’s new immigration plan is straightforward: Lower the number of new immigrants coming into Canada, both temporary and permanent”, the Prime Minister said.
They will now prioritize permanent residents with the needed skills such as, health-care workers for their hospitals and construction workers who would build more homes. With Canada’s plan to build million more homes, the pause on immigration will give them a breathing space and allow corporations to focus more on Canadians rather cheap foreign labour.
The Prime Minister promised that they are trying to make system work for both Canadians and new comers rather than the big box stores, chain restaurants, immigration consultants and sham colleges that exploit it.
Immigration is a good thing according to the Prime Minister and they are lucky that people want to come to their country, however, doing so, there have to be good jobs for them and a decent place to live, and health-care that can be accessed when needed.
Here is the YouTube Video
