The federal cabinet might meet as early as this week to examine plans to create a path to citizenship for thousands of migrants living in Canada without legal status. This initiative aims to include rejected asylum seekers, allowing them to stay lawfully, The Globe and Mail reports.
Prime Minister’s Mandate and Migrants’ Protests
This new initiative would satisfy the Prime Minister’s mandate letter to former immigration minister Sean Fraser in 2021. The mandate letter outlined that the minister should “Build on existing pilot programs to further explore ways of regularizing status for undocumented workers who are contributing to Canadian communities.”
In September 2023, migrants, including undocumented persons, students, and refugees, marched in Canadian cities to seek permanent residency status for all. Protesters urged the Canadian government to establish an uncapped permanent residency program for all migrants and illegal immigrants, without any exceptions.
Challenges and Government Strategy
Many migrants without legitimate documents have been working and raising families in the country for decades, but they face deportation because they overstayed or were refused the right to remain. Those who legally entered the country, including temporary workers, but stayed after their visas expired might be able to avoid deportation.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller is formulating a strategy for cabinet debate before Parliament’s summer session in a few weeks. The strategy suggests offering the chance to apply for regularization and permanent residency to those living in Canada without legal status, including former international students whose study visas have expired. Depending on the number of applicants, the government may consider staggered grants of permanent residency to undocumented migrants over several years to avoid a sudden spike, initially with work permits.
Public Support and Economic Impact
In response to declining public support from Canadians for immigration, Canada has frozen the number of annual permanent residents target by 2026 at 500,000. The federal government has also maintained its targets of 485,000 permanent residents in 2024 and 500,000 in 2025, setting record annual immigration targets in Canadian history.
Polls reveal that popular support for immigration has plummeted as Canadians increasingly equate a lack of affordable housing with an inflow of newcomers. However, Syed Hussan, executive director of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, stated that those who already live and work here will not put further strain on housing. Regularizing the status of migrants living here might result in billions of dollars being injected into the economy.
Hussan stated that a program to provide status to people living in Canada would be a “litmus test” of the government’s commitment to assisting migrants. In an interview with The Globe and Mail last year, Mr. Miller estimated that hundreds of thousands of people could be residing in the nation without proper documentation. He said he expects to bring a proposal to the cabinet in the spring that will allow unauthorized immigrants to “regularize their status.”
Two well-placed people, who were not named by the Globe and Mail because they are not authorized to comment on this matter, said the cabinet is scheduled to investigate his idea. A number of countries have announced their intentions to allow migrants without proper documentation to regularize their status. Canada is also anticipated to stress that migrants have been living in communities for some time and have not recently arrived. The program would prohibit individuals who have committed significant felonies or terrorist offenses and still face deportation.
