Canada’s immigration issues are worsening

“Our country is divided and we’re not able to integrate people at this pace. Immigration must be controlled. It must be in numbers we can absorb,” stated Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when speaking about the Liberal government’s “failed experiment with open borders.” In the last two years, nearly two and a half million people arrived in Canada, and in 2025 the country continues to usher in immigrants at a record pace. A new study by the Fraser Institute provides data that reveals the Liberals’ open border immigration policies have resulted in more than doubling of the annual immigration growth rates as compared to when they took office in 2015 (617,800 people from 2000 to 2015 vs 1.4 million from 2016 to 2024).

 

This increase in immigration is at the heart of many challenges Canadians face: a shortage of housing, exacerbating a health care crisis, a strain on social services, exorbitant costs to support daily expenses of refugees and asylum seekers, and a rising tension on urban streets due to deteriorating civility and public safety. As Poilievre suggests there are many Canadians who believe the Liberals have brought more people into the country than it can absorb. A Léger poll released last week found that nearly two in three Canadians (62 per cent) think the country is currently admitting too many immigrants. Today, 60 per cent of non-immigrants and 57 per cent of immigrants believe there are “too many” immigrants in Canada. 

 

The sheer number of migrants coming to Canada have clearly become unsustainable. Even though last fall former prime minister Justin Trudeau admitted the Liberals needed to curb the numbers coming into the country, Canadians witnessed a record number of migrants admitted in 2024. According to the Fraser Institute report, last year Canada had the extraordinary number of 1,916,700 immigrants enter the country: 485,600 permanent immigrants, 518,200 international students, and 912,900 temporary foreign workers. In addition, the United Nations (U.N.) migration report for the 2024 global trends ranked Canada as fourth in the world for receiving asylum seekers (174,000), second in the world for resettling refugees (49,300), and the number one country to grant permanent residence to refugees (27,400). 

 

The most recent immigration data for 2025 signal that there has been no curbing of immigration, but rather a continued aggressive intake of newcomers. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) reports that between January and April of this year, there were more than 817,000 people who arrived in Canada: 132,100 granted permanent residency, 194,000 study permits and 491,400 work permits. At this rate, Canada can expect more than 2.4 million people to arrive in the country – not including those migrants accepted as refugees or asylum seekers, such as the people who were recently jetted over from Gaza.

 

It is as if this continuous flood of migration into Canada is by design – and it may well be. In June, the Century Initiative published a report entitled “The Social and Economic Implications of Reducing Canada’s Immigration Levels in Unstable Times” that argues Canada’s immigration must be maintained at increased levels if the country is to achieve economic growth and prosperity. The Century Initiative is a Canadian lobby organization that is advocating for Canada to grow its population to 100 million people through immigration. 

 

Latest news headlines on immigration policy and what is unfolding in the country point to the fact that the Liberal government is committed to high levels of migrant intake even while Canada’s immigration issues are worsening. For example, last week the federal government announced it had 896,100 applications for permanent residency in process or backlogged as of June 30, according to IRCC. It was also reported in CBC News that the country’s new asylum processing system was “quietly shut down” last year signally the government has abandoned its objective of digitizing ID data for “real time” processing of asylum seekers upon entry to Canada crossing at borders or landing at airports. 

 

Meanwhile, this past Monday, the new IRCC family reunification process for 2025 was initiated and it has as many as 24,500 parents and grandparents being processed this year for permanent residency. 

 

Then on Tuesday the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) reported that almost 600 foreigners with criminal records who are due to be deported “have gone missing.” Of this number, 431 migrants are guilty of serious crimes such as sexual assault, and a total of 315 migrants have been on the run evading deportation for more than three years. The CBSA reported that it has 1,635 foreign nationals guilty of committing crimes in Canada who are currently facing deportation – 401 of them are now serving a prison sentence and will be deported once released from custody. 

 

On a similar note, the government has recently reported that in the last 11 years it has forgiven the crimes of approximately 17,600 foreigners who were convicted of criminal offences in their foreign home country so that they may migrate to Canada. The IRCC records show that in 2024, 1,390 of 1,495 foreign criminal convictions were cleared by IRCC, and in 2023 1,505 of 1,575 foreign criminal convictions were cleared to allow the migrants to apply to enter the country. Based on these stats, it appears foreign criminals who apply to IRCC are easily dealt a proceed-directly-to-Canada card. 

 

In the past few weeks there have been reports released on how Canada has been directly impacted by increased immigration. A new IRCC report last week found immigrants were responsible for 21 per cent of the increase in median home value and 13 per cent of median rent hikes in urban centres with a population of over 100,000 residents. IRCC suggests this is “a limited impact” of housing and rental increases, with the only statistically meaningful findings being in cities in B.C. and Ontario. (Another interesting statistic in this report tells us that more than 80 per cent of new immigrants settled in just 53 municipalities with the population of 100,000 or more).

 

Government data also reveal that unemployment is rising and is now approaching 1.6 million. Statistics Canada records that for every job created there are four new people entering the workforce – in other words the country’s unemployment is being fueled by Canada’s increased population. In May there were 8,800 jobs added, but far short of the near 30,000 per month required to keep up with Canada’s worker population growth. To add to this serious imbalance, IRCC has provided data that indicates people on temporary work permits in Canada make up almost one in five (18.5 per cent) of the country’s private sector jobs. And last week Blacklock’s Reporter made public a ministerial document that counted 3,049,277 temporary migrants working in Canada – with more than 129,000 holding expired work permits.  

 

In other news last week, Canadians learned that the federal government has spent over $2.6 billion on housing asylum seekers, which includes $1.1 billion since 2020 on hotel accommodations. Poilievre responded to this news that the billion-plus dollar expense is “a slap in the face to every single Canadian that can’t afford a home after a decade of rising rents and housing costs under the Liberals” and the Conservatives demanded: “Secure the borders. Fix our immigration system. Stop wasting money.” Shortly after that attack the government forwarded an email to CBC News to announce it would be halting funding of hotel rooms for asylum seekers at the end of September. There was no mention of where the asylum seekers would be moved to. 

 

In a 2024 access to information release, the government reported that IRCC allots a total of $140 per night for accommodation and another $84 per day for meals. Therefore, on an annual basis, refugees who are supported in Canada receive $81,760 per person for food and accommodation – and then health care, social services and necessities such as cell phones and internet are paid to them in addition. (Putting this into perspective, Statistics Canada reports the average Canadian income in 2023 was $63,181).

 

Today, Canada may be feted as the U.N.’s poster child for global migration, and the Liberals may be stealthily pursuing the Century Initiative’s 100 million population objective, but as the constant stream of reports and data inform us, the country’s current immigration activities are occurring at a great cost to Canadians. It is important to understand that Canada is not the only country currently buckling under the weight of migration. A recent edition of The Economist highlighted the issues surrounding global migration and the editorial succinctly stated, “It is not working.” The lead editorial recommended that rich counties should “scrap the asylum system” and they should strive to “separate asylum from labour migration.” The magazine feature articles on migration are a must-read for Canadians wanting to understand what is happening internationally. 

 

Last word for now goes to Michael Trebilcock and Ninette Kelle, co-authors with Jeffrey Reitz of the book “Reshaping the Mosaic: Canadian Immigration Policy in the Twenty-First Century.” Trebilcock and Kelle wrote in a Globe and Mail editorial column this week that the government must undertake a comprehensive review of Canadian immigration policy – something they claim has not been done in more than 30 years. They argued, “Getting immigration policy right is more than a social or political imperative – it is essential to Canada’s long-term economic resilience…”