By P.K.Balachandran
Colombo, October 25: The Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on October 23, that Canada will “significantly” reduce the number of new immigrants. He made this statement after he was criticized for his plan to allow 500,000 new permanent residents into the country in each of the next two years landing the country in a housing and civil amenities crisis.
Trudeau now says that the target for 2025 will be 395,000 new permanent residents and that for 2006 will be 380,000. For 2027, it will be 365,000.
“Immigration is essential for Canada’s future, but it must be controlled and it must be sustainable,” the Prime Minister said.
Trudeau’s latest immigration policy has secured support from Donald Trump, the Republican candidate in the November 2024 US Presidential election. “Even Justin Trudeau wants to close Canada’s borders,” he wrote on social media, while arguing for tougher border controls in the US.
Trudeau is under pressure from the opposition Conservatives as well as colleagues within his Liberal Party. The latter do not want him to seek a fourth term in office in the October 2025 federal parliamentary elections.
He has been facing mounting criticism over his immigration policies and the negative impact that population growth has had on housing affordability.
Trudeau has said that control of immigration would allow existing citizens to get jobs. What is happening now is that employers recruit immigrants with low wages, denying locals jobs. “Far too many corporations have chosen to abuse our temporary measures, exploiting foreign workers while refusing to hire Canadians for a fair wage,” Trudeau charged.
“Some colleges and universities are bringing in more international students than communities can accommodate,” he pointed out.
The former Indian High Commissioner in Canada, Sanjay Kumar Verma, told Press Trust of India (PTI) that Canadian universities take foreign students because they can charge them four times more that they would charge citizens. Many of the universities, he said, have classes only once a week. And while foreign students do petty jobs earning a pittance for most of the week, the university mints money. Many Canadian universities survive on the fees paid by foreign students, mainly Indian and Chinese.
Freezing Population Growth
The beleaguered Trudeau has said that his government will freeze population growth over the next two years. Canada’s population reached 41 million in April. It was 37.5 million in 2019.
Since 2019, Canada’s population growth has risen by around 1.1 million, or 35% more than existing housing could accommodate. The increase has eclipsed labour force needs by between 200,000-700,000, or between five and 20%.
The vast majority of Canada’s growth last year was due to immigration, with temporary residents — which includes foreign workers and international students — making up the largest proportion of newcomers.
Immigrants Have Been Useful
However, immigrants have been very valuable to Canada. Pointing out the positive aspects of immigration, Matti Siemiatycki, a professor of planning at the University of Toronto is quoted as saying: “We need people coming to Canada to help with our economy. There are many jobs and professions where there are vacancies. Immigrants bring ingenuity, resources and culture to Canada.”
Newcomers are relied upon to help keep pace with Canada’s aging population and declining fertility rates. As domestic workforce ages, labour participation rates have understandably fallen. For persons born in Canada, the participation rate has declined by almost 3% since 2015. Immigrants fill the gaps created by an ageing work force.
Challenges
But the influx from abroad also presents challenges for a country struggling to build the homes and infrastructure needed for all Canadians including immigrants.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller said the lower immigration numbers will help limit the country’s housing shortage.
Robert Kavcic a senior economist and director with BMO Capital Markets, is quoted as saying: “It’s an incredibly large shock for the economic system to absorb because of just the sheer number of people coming into the country in a short period of time.”
“The reality is that population can grow extremely fast, but the supply side of the economy like housing and service infrastructure, health care and schools, can only catch up at a really gradual pace. There is a mismatch right now.”
The impact of that mismatch can most acutely be seen in the cost of rent, services and housing.
In December 2023, Kavcic wrote in a note that Canada needs to build 170,000 new housing units every three months to keep up with population growth. But housing industry is struggling to complete 220,000 units in a full year, he pointed out.
Other Issues
Nelson Wiseman, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Toronto, said the flaw in the system is not immigration so much as the failure of the government to provide for the population, be they locals or immigrants.
“Ottawa has little control over meeting the housing, health, education, and other welfare needs of residents, whether they are citizens or immigrants,” Wiseman pointed out.
A certain percentage of Canadians have become xenophobic or anti-immigrant, because of the growing housing, health, education, and other welfare challenges.
In some provinces, the problem of public services is not due to the immigrants from other countries but due to inter-provincial migration. Alberta is facing population pressure because of internal migration from other provinces. Therefore, the country’s immigration policy will have to be more nuanced and settlements better planned.
The province of Alberta has asked Trudeau to reduce the number of temporary foreign workers, international students and asylum seekers. But it wants economic immigrants who can be employed.
There may be other provinces needing skilled foreign workers to keep the economy humming.
Problems for Families and Students
Jatin Shory, an Indian-origin immigration lawyer told the media Trudeau’s caps on immigration will hamper family unions, as some of members of a family may be permitted to enter Canada but not others. South Asian immigrants, who move as families, will have to face family disruption.
Saaka Sulemana Saaka, president of the University of Calgary’s Graduate Students’ Association said that over 37% of the university’s graduate student population is made up of international students, who look for jobs to pay for their classes and would be looking for jobs to stay on in Canada hoping to get citizenship. This group will be badly affected by the new restrictions he said.
Canada Losing Charm
Once a top destination for Indian students, Canada is seeing a decline in enrolment from India due to multiple factors, India Today said.
Indians made up the largest national cohort with 37% of study visas issued in 2023. In 2023, nearly 320,000 Indians moved to Canada on study visas. However, starting in 2024, Canada has reduced study permits by 35%. Indian students now make up more than 41% of Canada’s international student population.
Multiple factors have impacted the number of Indian students choosing Canada as their educational destination. The on-going diplomatic tension between India and Canada is the latest inhibiting factor. From October to December 2023, there was an 86% drop in study permits issued to Indian students, from 108,940 to 14,910, according to India Today.
Canadian education is extremely expensive for Indians. Again according to India Today, students from Punjab alone spend over INR 68000 crore (US$ 8 billion) annually on education in Canada. In 2022, out of 225,450 Indian students granted study permits, 1.36 lakh were from Punjab.
Students from India will now need to show that they have access to US$ 20,635. The requirement was US$ 10,000 in the past twenty years.
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