It is not often that policymakers say they were wrong. And yet that is precisely what has been happening in Canada, where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been backtracking from his government’s well-publicized plan to admit nearly 1.5 million new immigrants over three years. “We didn’t get the balance quite right,” Trudeau said last week. The government now plans to trim the original targets by more than 100,000 in each of the next two years, with steady decreases year over year in permanent and temporary immigration levels. The shift is jarring, especially given its rapid turnaround. “Look, folks, it’s simple to me: Canada needs more people,” then-Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said almost exactly two years ago. In the intervening 24 months, the public has soured on the idea that targets for newcomers should be so high. While the country has traditionally welcomed immigration, a September poll showed that, for the first time in 25 years, most Canadians said there was now too much. Many respondents cited pressures on housing, the economy, over-population, and public spending. In part, these attitudes may be attributed to rising temporary immigration, especially as the country sought to bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic-related economic downturn. Along with slashing permanent immigration, the government is also introducing a first-of-its-kind cap for temporary residents, specifically international students and foreign workers. Rising asylum cases have also tested the government; seeking to stem the numbers, the government earlier this year reimposed some visa requirements on Mexican nationals. The issue has become a political problem for Trudeau, who will be entering his tenth year as prime minister with his Liberals solidly trailing the opposition Conservative Party and with political pressure coming from within his own party. It is unclear what the shift will mean for Canada’s future. The country is already host to one of the world’s largest concentration of immigrants, who make up nearly one-quarter of the population, as Michael Haan, Lindsay Finlay, and Yuchen Li explained in the Migration Information Source earlier this year. The new cuts are projected to lead to a small population decline over the next two years—a surprising turn given the focus some Canadian leaders have had on population growth through immigration. Yet Canada is not alone. Ottawa’s shift mirrors policy changes by other major immigration countries. The United Kingdom recently enacted policies to limit employment-based immigration, and Australia tightened rules for international students and low-skill workers. Generally speaking, the policies are an effort to stem the number of new arrivals, which climbed sharply after the pandemic. In that sense, Canada’s latest policy appears to be part of a global trend. Best regards, Julian Hattem
Editor, Migration Information Source
[email protected] | 
