From Bad to Worse -- Federal and Provincial Immigration Plans
Immigration Minister Briefs Parliamentary Standing Committee
International
students and community members mark 100 days of protest encampment in
Brampton demanding justice for international students and rejecting
government plans to have work permits of hundreds of thousands of
students now in Canada expire by the end of 2025, when they will face
deportation. December 7, 2024.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller appeared before the House of Commons' Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration (CIMM) on November 25 to discuss the work his government is doing with regard to Canada's immigration system. His briefing confirmed how self-serving the government is in how it uses and discards those it brings to Canada, its utter disregard for human rights and the lives of human beings and their families.
Miller admits from the get-go the government's aim is to bring "the world's best and brightest to study and work in Canada." He opened his presentation of the "2025-2027 Immigration Levels Plan and the supplementary estimates (B)," by explaining: "In response to the recent global pandemic and labour shortages, we implemented temporary measures to attract some of the world's best and brightest to study and work in Canada, among other things. These measures have helped us navigate a really challenging period, avoid a recession and accelerate our recovery."
He next set up the government's argument, that was then and this is now and they are no longer needed. He put it this way:
"Today Canada's economy has evolved. While newcomers remain essential to our economy and are filling critical roles in health care, trades and other sectors, we do recognize the need to pause population growth and return it to pre-pandemic levels. That is why we've taken a comprehensive approach to protecting the integrity of our immigration system and ensuring sustainable growth."
Not a word about the human beings involved and their needs. It is all about convenience. According to Miller, for the first time, the 2025-2027 Immigration Levels Plan "includes targets for temporary residents, including foreign students and temporary foreign workers, as well as permanent resident targets." He said that this approach "takes economic needs into consideration and alleviates the current pressures on housing, infrastructure and, obviously, social services."
Activists who work in the field of supporting the rights of migrants and international students who the government is mistreating point out the reason the Trudeau government is doing this now. They say it is only because the Trudeau government stands thoroughly exposed in its abuse of international students, temporary foreign workers and asylum seekers who are deprived of their rights and then blamed for the government's own anti-social offensive. Having broken every promise made to international students, temporary foreign workers and undocumented workers, and failed in its responsibilities to uphold the right to housing, education, health care and other social services, the Trudeau government is trying to lay the blame for the consequences of its anti-social offensive on migrants, refugees and international students.
The Minister noted that in terms of Supplementary Estimates, the main measures concern the Quebec government which he said is "facing disproportionate pressure to welcome asylum claimants." He said that this is why the Trudeau government has allocated $750 million to reimburse it, informing that the "supplementary estimates (B) provide for 91 per cent of that amount."
Miller went on to say that through his government's Interim Housing Assistance Plan, "we're reimbursing provinces, territories and municipalities for providing housing to asylum seekers, especially during the winter months." No mention of how asylum seekers house themselves during the rest of the year.
He also informed that through the Interim Federal Health Benefit Program, "we're providing necessary health care to refugees and asylum seekers until they are eligible for provincial or territorial coverage."
As for the increasing number of international students making asylum claims, he said there's "very little hope, given their conditions." Nonetheless, "they are entitled to a form of due process in this country." As for the streamlining of that process, he encouraged everyone to tune in over "the next few weeks as we propose more amendments to the immigration system and the asylum system."[1]
Day 100
marked at Brampton encampment, December 7, 2024
Miller then recalled that every other party in the House of Commons had "voted down" the Trudeau government's asylum reforms in the 2024 federal budget. He commented that the reforms were similar to those the Conservative Party proposed years earlier, but now as an election ploy, the Conservatives had chosen to "play politics about it."
The Trudeau government is in complete denial about the genocide taking place in Gaza and the bankruptcy of the so-called temporary special measures it brought in to supposedly assist the extended families of Palestinian Canadians there. Salma Zahid, the Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for Scarborough Centre, asked the Minister if there would be a similar program for the extended families of Lebanese Canadians to Canada.
Miller's response was that Lebanon is unique, in that there is a "very large and significant number of Canadian citizens and permanent residents" so the government's "focus needs to remain on them and the resources necessary to evacuate them, should the situation get worse."
As for Lebanese citizens presently in Canada, the Minister informed he had announced "a number of measures" such as "to extend their visas" and that "There's been an administrative deferral of removals to Lebanon."
MP Zahid then switched subjects and highlighted the fact that the supplementary estimates B included "funding for the interim federal health program" and asked about the importance of estimate requests and the potential consequences if they were not approved.
Miller responded that there would be "some pretty devastating consequences" in a number of circumstances "with regard to the interim health benefits" for those seeking asylum and that "we have to make sure that they are not denied medical coverage while we migrate them into the provincial systems." He informed that approval had to be given by mid-December. [Parliament finally approved the $21.6 billion in government spending in a late vote in the House of Commons on December 10, on the final day the funds could be voted on -- TML Ed.]
Another issue of capital importance, the Minister continued, "because we made the commitment to the Government of Quebec -- is to reimburse Quebec for some of the expenses it has had in taking on a disproportionate burden of the asylum seekers who have come into the country."
"In the supplementary estimates (B), there is also funding for the Interim Housing Assistance Program," Zahid noted, requesting that the Minister elaborate on the assistance his government has provided to cities such as Toronto.
"There is a natural flow of people towards the big city
centres,"
Miller commented. "With big airports, such as Pearson and Trudeau,
migrants either move into Montreal or flow into Toronto and move
increasingly towards Ontario." He said, "We have to make sure not only
that the Government of
Ontario is at the table but also that we are supporting municipalities
that are shouldering a lot of this burden without the fiscal levers
that provinces and the federal government would have."
For a government which has thoroughly integrated Canada into the U.S.
war machine, provides billions in pay-the-rich schemes to the biggest
monopolies and does the bidding of the global financial oligarchy to
call the migrants who contribute so much to the Canadian economy and
social fabric a burden is rich indeed.
Note
1. Asylum claims from international students total 33,985 from 2018-2024 out of 1,747,940 study permits, or 1.94 per cent of all international students. The number of asylum applications has increased in recent years, along with the number of international students. In 2024 around 14,000 students applied for asylum. It is hardly a surprise that the number of asylum claims has increased given the wars, conflicts and humanitarian crises in the world. Nor is it surprising given the desperate situation which the institutions and the governments with their false promises have imposed on international students. Their families indebted, facing exorbitant tuition, rent and other costs of living, international students cannot take a break from study to earn money or they will be deported. "We want you to stay," the international students were told, and now the government is saying, "We no longer want you once you have graduated, paid exorbitant tuition fees, worked as low paid workers and been exploited to the bone." It is the governments and institutions which must be held accountable for fraud, not the international students.
(With files from Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, CBC News.)
This article was published in
Volume 54 Number 12 - December 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/M540128.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca