Immigration

OPEN LETTER: Special Immigration Measure for Refugee Crisis in Lebanon

Israel’s war on Lebanon has displaced almost one million people. Increasingly, families have no home to return to. Nearly 600,000 people have crossed from Lebanon into Syria. The past few weeks have been the deadliest and the most devastating for Lebanon and people in decades,” said UNHCR Representative in Lebanon, Ivo Freijsen.

The federal government set a standard in the design of the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET) program. Regardless of the magnitude of the crisis this program has never been repeated for any other Canadian family members in other conflict zone. Former Minister of IRCC Sean Fraser was informed by his immigration officials that CUAET “would set a significant precedent” and “an expectation

that it could be done for other population.” Officials are correct to assume that Canadians expect the government to be fair and equitable in applying Canada's immigration policies.

CBC NEWS: MPs to probe how human smuggler obtained new passport while barred from having one

MP Jenny Kwan, the NDP's immigration critic, said she wanted to examine what blame the court system shouldered in this situation. 

"The court decision related to travel documents did not come from Passport Canada or IRCC (Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada), that actually came from the courts. So there is a real question about the failure of that system," said Kwan. 

CIMM#115: Pension Transferability and Access to Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF), and Delays in Permanent Residence and Visas for Hong Kongers Recent Reforms to the International Student Program

James McNamee, Director General, Family and Social Immigration Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I would say that's generally the case. If the work permit they obtained was originally connected to the public policy, that's correct. I don't know if that's the situation in all cases. In some cases, applicants may have had an LMIA-based work permit to begin with.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC, NDP
That's right. However, under the special immigration measure, the LMIA is not required.  I have a list of applicants in those circumstances. Their work permit renewal application was rejected. They were asked to submit an LMIA, which makes no sense. I want to flag that as a deep concern now emerging for people whose open work permits are being rejected as they wait for their permanent resident status. At this rate, given the immigration levels plan numbers and the processing delays happening, and with the number of applicants in place, you can imagine that it's going to take something like eight years to get through the backlog of people getting their PR status. This means that if they are trying to get their pension, they will not be able to do so for eight years, because they are required to provide proof of permanent residence.
I want to flag this as a major concern. I hope the department will take action to fix the error being applied to applicants whose open work permits are being rejected under this stream.  Can I get a confirmation from officials that this will be undertaken?

James McNamee, Director General, Family and Social Immigration Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Yes, that issue has been raised with the department already, and we're looking into it to see what exactly happened in those situations.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC, NDP
Okay. Officials are aware of it, and yet it's still happening.  I have cases coming to me that are happening. I'm about to prepare a giant pile of this stuff for the minister, so I hope the officials will fix that.  The other thing related to the pension, of course, is lengthy delays for people to get their permanent status.  Based on the immigration levels plan and the number of applicants in place, is it the officials' anticipation that it will take about eight years to get those applications processed?

James McNamee, Director General, Family and Social Immigration Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
We have looked at that possibility. Certainly, it will take longer than we had previously indicated to the committee. I would note that the first year of the levels plan is the fixed year. The years that follow, in this case, 2026 and 2027, are flexible. There are opportunities to adjust those numbers in the future, and that could affect that timeline. It's hard to say whether eight years will be the timeline, but it will be longer than had been originally predicted because the numbers have gone down.

Click to read the full discussion from the Committee meeting

Globe NEWS: More than 10,000 foreign student acceptance letters may be fake, says top immigration official

Enhanced checks by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada have found scores of would-be foreign students who said they had a genuine place to study may have been attaching a fraudulent acceptance letter to their application to get into Canada.

The tighter checks were introduced after a group of international students applying for permanent residence last year faced deportation because an unlicensed immigration consultant in India had submitted fake acceptance letters with their applications for study permits.

Bronwyn May, director-general of the International Students Branch at the Immigration Department, told MPs last week that since IRCC started verifying acceptance letters from colleges and universities in the past year, officials have “intercepted more than 10,000 potentially fraudulent letters of acceptance.”

She said 93 per cent of the 500,000 acceptance letters attached to study permit applications the department checked in the past 10 months had been verified as genuine by a college or university.

But 2 per cent were not authentic, 1 per cent of applicants had had their place cancelled by a college or university, while in other cases, colleges and universities failed to respond to say whether the letters offering applicants a place to study were genuine.

She told the Commons immigration committee that the IRCC was making further inquiries into the source of the fraudulent letters.

NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan said “the revelation that the government recently uncovered 10,000 fake admissions letter is extremely alarming.”

“It’s unconscionable that the Liberals allowed unscrupulous actors to exploit and abuse international students for so long,” she said in an e-mailed statement. “Not only does the government need to identify who those actors are, they need to also identify the institutions that may be collaborating in any fraud schemes.

“It is important to not just protect the integrity of the program, Canada also has a responsibility to ensure that international students in Canada that have been defrauded are protected.”

Ottawa launched a probe into 2,000 suspicious cases involving students from India, China and Vietnam last year. It found that around 1,485 had been issued bogus documents to come to Canada by immigration consultants abroad.

Many were refused entry to Canada after their letters of acceptance from colleges were found to be fake, but others had already arrived.

Since December last year, colleges and universities have been required by IRCC to verify letters of acceptance through an online portal. On Jan. 30 this year, the measure was extended to study permit applications and extensions submitted from within Canada.

Immigration.ca NEWS: Canada Braces for Border Surge Amid Threat of Mass US Deportations Under Trump

Despite Joly’s assurances, immigration advocates and opposition politicians urge Ottawa to develop a proactive humanitarian plan. NDP MP Jenny Kwan called for transparency, saying, “What needs to happen is for them to be open and transparent with Canadians.” Ensuring preparedness at the border and readiness to provide essential services could be critical in mitigating the pressures of a sudden increase in asylum seekers.

CIMM#114: Recent Reforms to the International Student Program

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
Aside from looking at patterns of potential violators—the groups and organizations taking advantage of students with these fraudulent letters of acceptance—will you be including in the analysis what types of institutions are being utilized for these fraudulent letters? In other words, is it private institutions versus public institutions, colleges versus universities and so on? Will that be part of the analysis?

Bronwyn May, Director General, International Students Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
It's not always the case that a letter originates from an institution. We would need to look at various possible sources.

 

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
Maybe I can reframe that.
Obviously, as these are fraudulent letters of acceptance, they wouldn't be issued by the institutions. However, regarding the list of institutions being used for the purpose of these fraudulent letters, I would be interested in obtaining information to determine what percentage are private institutions and public institutions, how many of them are colleges, how many of them are universities and so on. That will tell us very specific information that I think is important when trying to tackle fraudulent activities.

 

Bronwyn May, Director General, International Students Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I completely agree. That's a very important line of analysis.

 

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
I will make the further request to make sure you share this information with the committee. I'll argue that this information should not be kept secret. It should be public and transparent—shared with all Canadians—so that we're aware of what the landscape is and of how international students are being taken advantage of. With respect to that analysis, will there be information and data on what countries are being targeted?

Click to read the full discussion from the Committee meeting

CBC NEWS: MPs Green and Kwan lead NDP calls on feds to allow open work permits for temporary workers

 

The committee's report found that the system creates conditions that can lead to exploitation and abuse.

NDP MPs Jenny Kwan and Matthew Green say the government needs to take this a step further by allowing all temporary workers access to open work permits in an effort to prevent abuse.

"The reality is, if you're tied to one specific employer, you are really at their behest to do what they demand of you," Kwan said.

"No matter what the abuse is, no matter if you're faced with wage theft, with harassment, with violence, for women, with sexual harassment — you just have to live with it."

She said the least the federal government can do to curb abuse in the temporary worker system is to end the closed work permit system.

The committee also recommended increasing the number of unexpected, on-site workplace inspections and developing a plan to provide more permanent residency pathways to low-wage and agricultural workers.

More than half of workplace inspections take place virtually, according to the report.

Globe NEWS: Ministers urged to explain how they will prevent a surge in asylum seekers from U.S. after Trump election

NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan said Ottawa needed to prepare for the arrivals of migrants. She said most asylum seekers arriving at border points from the U.S. would be turned back because of the Safe Third Country Agreement. However, she questioned whether the U.S. should continue to be considered by Canada as a safe third country for migrants after Mr. Trump is sworn in as president.

She said during Mr. Trump’s previous administration, migrants facing deportation were separated from their children and, in some cases, “put in cages.” She added that during the campaign, Mr. Trump also used discriminatory language about undocumented residents.

CP24 NEWS: Joly says Canada's immigration plan stands in face of Trump deportation threats

 

Anti-immigration policies and rhetoric during his first administration prompted a surge of migrants into Canada, in particular at a rural border road in Quebec.

Canada recently announced plans to cut back on the number of newcomers and Joly said that won’t change when asked Thursday by a reporter what Canada’s plan is for a possible surge of migrants.

“We want a migration system that Canadians trust,” Joly said. “We will defend it, and that’s why also we decided to lower the immigration targets 20 per cent to have the trust of the Canadian people in it.”

NDP MP Jenny Kwan said Ottawa needs a plan that will prepare for an influx of migrants in a humanitarian way.

“What needs to happen is for them to be open and transparent with Canadians,” she said.

CPAC NEWS: NDP, labour call on Liberals to abolish closed work permits 

OTTAWA — NDP critic for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East) and NDP critic for Labour Matthew Green (Hamilton Centre) announces a plan to end the exploitation of migrant workers in Canada. They are joined by Elizabeth Kwan from the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) and Derek Johnstone from the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW).