Canada to add three new permanent residency streams to Express Entry immigration program

2026/02/20 Leave a comment

Further dilution of the human capital approach and the CRS. Better than the Francophone category but still…:

Canada is expanding its Express Entry immigration program, adding three new permanent residency streams that cover a range of professions the Liberal government says are needed to fill critical labour gaps, including researchers and military personnel, Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab announced Wednesday.

The new categories under the Express Entry stream will give priority to researchers and senior managers with Canadian work experience; applicants with work experience in transport occupations, including pilots, aircraft mechanics and inspectors; and highly skilled foreign military applicants.

The new streams are part of what Diab calls a federal strategy to attract “top talent” to the country.

“We’ve identified these sectors as areas in critical need,” Diab said in a speech in Toronto. “Strengthening those helps us move goods across the country and to new markets, supporting trade, supply chains and economic resilience.”

Diab said the decision to have a new category for skilled foreign military applicants, along with other categories, “supports Canada’s defence industrial strategy,” and aims to “strengthen our armed forces, defend our sovereignty and to keep Canadians safe.”

This announcement comes after a new category for foreign medical doctors with Canadian work experience was announced in December. Diab at the time said this was part of a broader plan to move away from a “one-size fits all” immigration approach and make it easier for people in certain professions to come to or remain in Canada.

The 2026 immigration levels plan prioritizes permanent economic immigrants while reducing temporary admissions, particularly for students, as Ottawa ramps up its efforts to attract highly skilled workers and scientists from around the world.

The federal government in December announced it would spend more than $1 billion over the next decade to attract and retain leading international researchers to Canada. The funding is slated to support salaries, new infrastructure, grants and the recruitment of more than 1,000 doctors, researchers and scientists.

“Our Express Entry system is at the core of our approach for attracting and retaining the skilled workers Canada needs,” Diab said Wednesday.

“We’re not waiting for the right people to find us,” she said. “We will go out into the world to recruit the people our country needs, to connect them with Canadian employers and to highlight why Canada is the place” to build their careers and lives.

Canada has long struggled to retain in-demand, highly skilled workers. A November report from the Institute for Canadian Citizenship and the Conference Board of Canada, titled “The Leaky Bucket 2025,” found that one in five immigrants are leaving Canada within 25 years of landing and highly educated immigrants are leaving faster than those with lower education levels.

Many newcomers remain stuck in precarious, low-wage work due to a labour market that continues to undervalue international experience. More than 30 per cent of newcomers ages 25-54 with a post-secondary education reported they were overqualified for their job compared to 19.7 per cent of Canadian-born workers, according to Statistics Canada.

Source: Canada to add three new permanent residency streams to Express Entry immigration program

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Fewer international master’s students given permits to study in last two years, figures show

2026/02/20 Leave a comment

Interesting, given that graduate students are exempt from the cap:

…A breakdown of the IRCC figures, disclosed to The Globe and Mail on Wednesday, shows that between January and September, 2024, there were 28,605 new study permits issued to master’s degree students. But in 2025 over the same period that number dropped by 46 per cent to 15,390. 

The number of permits issued by the Immigration Department to allow students to study for bachelor degrees dropped 40 per cent, from 33,250 between January and September, 2024, to 20,045 over the same period in 2025.

The starkest reduction in study permits was to foreign nationals applying to study at Canadian colleges. 

There was an 82-per-cent decrease in the number of study permits issued to international students to study at colleges, from 101,025 between January and September, 2024, to 18,105 in the same period last year. 

There was a slight drop in the number of study permits issued to doctoral students between 2024 and 2025, from 3,305 to 3,225, the figures show. 

At Ontario universities, the reduction in the number of international master’s and bachelor degree students was less dramatic than in Canada over all. There was a roughly 14-per-cent drop for both bachelor and master’s students, according to the Council of Ontario Universities. …

Source: Fewer international master’s students given permits to study in last two years, figures show

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Canada has issued 575,000 temporary resident permits to people affected by wars, natural disasters since 2022, but few have made refugee claim

2026/02/20 Leave a comment

Remarkably low numbers making refugee claims compared to international students and other groups:

Canada has issued 575,025 temporary resident permits to people affected by wars, violence and natural disasters through various special measures since 2022, but only a small fraction of them have made a refugee claim, data shows.

While Ottawa has managed to reduce intakes of new international students and foreign workers, and make it more difficult for those already here to extend their stay, it can’t just banish these migrants with temporary refuge in Canada when it’s not safe to send them home. Many of these migrants found themselves stuck in Canada, unable to plan and move on with their lives.

Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion formed the largest group getting temporary humanitarian resettlement to Canada. They were followed by Iranians seeking safety from a crackdown on protesters following the death of a girl arrested allegedly for not wearing hijab, and Hong Kongers looking for refuge from a new national security law.

Other beneficiaries of these humanitarian policies and measures include: victims of earthquakes in Morocco, Turkey and Syria; Palestinians and Israelis affected by war; people displaced from Gaza; Haitians escaping gang violence and lawlessness; Lebanese caught in regional conflicts; and Sudanese fleeing bloodshed.

Data obtained by the Star showed that 1.5 per cent or 8,465 of these humanitarian migrants had sought asylum in Canada up to the end of November, including 1,150 Ukrainians, 205 Gazans and 135 Sudanese. The remaining 6,975 came from the rest of the programs.

These migrant groups make up a chunk of the estimated 2.85 million temporary residents in Canada, a number that Ottawa is struggling to reduce as many of the crises see no end in sight. The government’s goal is to cut the number to under five per cent of the country’s overall population by 2027, from seven per cent in 2024. It was at 6.8 per cent in December based on Statistics Canada estimates.

Ottawa’s international crisis response in recent years, while seen as well-intended, has been under scrutiny as some of these temporary migrants have grown frustrated in prolonged limbo, unable to return home and without permanent residence here.

Meanwhile, Ottawa has reduced its annual humanitarian permanent resident intake from 10,000 in 2025 to 6,900 this year, and 5,000 for 2027 and 2028, leading to a 10-year wait for permanent status; many are ineligible for the increasingly competitive economic immigration streams with overall immigration level cut by 20 per cent.

Migrant groups and experts have criticized the government for the lack of planning and transparency in its crisis response…

Source: Canada has issued 575,000 temporary resident permits to people affected by wars, natural disasters since 2022, but few have made refugee claim

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Australia bans a citizen with alleged IS links from returning from Syria

2026/02/20 2 Comments

Clear message by PM Albanese:

…Former Islamic State fighters from multiple countries, their wives and children have been detained in camps since the militant group lost control of its territory in Syria in 2019. Though defeated, the group still has sleeper cells that carry out deadly attacks in both Syria and Iraq.

Australian governments have repatriated Australian women and children from Syrian detention camps on two occasions. Other Australians have also returned without government assistance.

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday reiterated his position announced a day earlier that his government would not help repatriate the latest group.

“These are people who chose to go overseas to align themselves with an ideology which is the caliphate, which is a brutal, reactionary ideology and that seeks to undermine and destroy our way of life,” Albanese told reporters.

He was referring to the militants’ capture of wide swaths of land more than a decade ago that stretched across Syria and Iraq, territory where IS established its so-called caliphate. Jihadis from foreign countries traveled to Syria at the time to join the IS. Over the years, they had families and raised children there.

“We are doing nothing to repatriate or to assist these people. I think it’s unfortunate that children are caught up in this, that’s not their decision, but it’s the decision of their parents or their mother,” Albanese added.

Source: Australia bans a citizen with alleged IS links from returning from Syria

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Immigrant who came to Canada using a false identity wins another shot at retaining citizenship

2026/02/20 Leave a comment

Sigh….:

…But in a Federal Court decision dated Feb. 12, Bapari successfully challenged the decision by a delegate of the immigration minister that refused him relief based on his personal circumstances.

“Mr. Bapari recognized that he had misled the authorities by relying on false identity when he first came to Canada, and then by not disclosing the misdeed when he claimed permanent residence and citizenship,” Roy said. “But he raised a number of issues that qualify as personal circumstances. The MD (ministerial delegate) had to address these in the reasons in writing he had to give.”

The MD found that Bapari “has obtained his Canadian citizenship by fraud or false representation or by knowingly concealing material circumstances,” said the Federal Court decision.

“The failure to disclose the alternate identity and removal order prevented an accurate eligibility and admissibility assessment, thus allowing (Bapari’s) return to Canada without the required written authorization. The application for Canadian citizenship suffered from the same defect. That application was not true, correct and complete in spite of the attestation to that effect given by” Bapari.

“The MD found that Bapari “has obtained his Canadian citizenship by fraud or false representation or by knowingly concealing material circumstances,” said the Federal Court decision.

“The failure to disclose the alternate identity and removal order prevented an accurate eligibility and admissibility assessment, thus allowing (Bapari’s) return to Canada without the required written authorization. The application for Canadian citizenship suffered from the same defect. That application was not true, correct and complete in spite of the attestation to that effect given by” Bapari.

The MD didn’t see the “circumstances surrounding the misrepresentations” as extenuating, or serving to lessen the seriousness of his actions, because Bapari didn’t have to use a false identity, said the decision. “Wanting a better life in Canada cannot be an excuse to undermine the integrity and fairness of Canada’s immigration system,” it said. “The misrepresentations constitute a very serious and intentional deception.”

“The MD emphasized that, as a previously deported person, Bapari “was banned from returning to Canada: a written authorization was required. Hence, the misrepresentations had the effect of circumventing the process. The admission of guilt and the remorse expressed by (Bapari) do not overcome the actions taken to circumvent immigration and citizenship laws.”

The MD examined Bapari’s social ties in Canada. “The decision maker notes in passing that (Bapari) has been living with his wife for 23 years without any trouble with the law. Good ties and roots have been established, including participating in community and religious activities. Stable employment is acknowledged; the loss of citizenship would result in an inability to work, which would put the couple in financial distress. The MD reckons that the revocation of citizenship could cause great emotional, psychological distress to (Bapari’s) wife, together with the financial stress resulting from his inability to work.”

Bapari also “now suffers from chronic diseases, which require medical treatment,” said the decision, which does not elaborate on his health condition.

“The MD considered Bapari’s “misrepresentations in and of themselves as being so grave that no personal circumstances appear to warrant special relief,” said the judge. “The integrity and fairness of the immigration system are put on a pedestal without engaging with the actual personal circumstances.”

Furthermore, the MD “puts the bar very high in requiring that (Bapari) demonstrate ‘extenuating circumstances that necessitated (his) misrepresentation to Canadian authorities.’ Without any explanation, the MD turns ‘special relief’ into a requirement that the misrepresentations be a necessity, perhaps even duress has become a must.”

No explanation was offered to Bapari “for such a restrictive view of what warrants ‘special relief,’” said the judge. “An explanation is needed for the reviewing court to assess its reasonableness.”

Roy concluded “that more and better is expected of a decision maker,” according to his decision. “The power over vulnerable persons brings with it the high responsibility to ensure that the reasons have duly considered the consequences of the decision when Parliament has instructed that personal circumstances be considered with a view to warrant special relief.”

“The MD’s reasons provided in this case “are not adequate to the task,” said the judge. “Whether or not the outcome might be reasonable is not relevant. It is the process leading to the outcome which is deficient, making the decision under review not reasonable.”

They’re “inadequate in view of the stakes,” Roy said. “As a result, the matter must be sent back to a different decision maker for redetermination.””

Source: “Immigrant who came to Canada using a false identity wins another shot at retaining citizenship”

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Here’s what Canada’s immigration data reveals about the drop in international students and temporary foreign workers

2026/02/19 Leave a comment

Good infographic that shows the impact:

Canada saw a 53 per cent drop in admissions of new international students and temporary foreign workers last year, with more than 2.1 million migrants with valid study and work permit holders in the country, according to new data.

That number did not include the estimated 505,000 refugee claimants, protected persons and other out-of-status migrants, who resided in Canada as of December, although there were 34 per cent fewer new asylum seekers reported than a year ago. 

In total, there were about 2,660,000 temporary residents in the country, accounting for 6.4 per cent of the overall population, which was still far above the five per cent target that Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government has vowed to reach by the end of 2027….

Source: Here’s what Canada’s immigration data reveals about the drop in international students and temporary foreign workers

IRCC Infographic: Understanding student and temporary worker numbers in Canada

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Ottawa seeks to attract grad students from abroad 

2026/02/19 Leave a comment

Makes sense, focus on graduate students at universities to counter the general impression:

The Immigration Department is conducting a social-media campaign to attract more graduate students from abroad, including broadcasting that their family could apply to come with them.

The initiative aims to bring in more top researchers as figures published Monday show a steep drop in the number of international students who have come to Canada over the past year.

Experts say that the federal government’s crackdown on the number of international students, which started under former prime minister Justin Trudeau and coincided with plunging public support for more immigration, has made Canada a less attractive higher-education destination for foreign nationals overall.

The clampdown was not focused on international students attending top universities or graduate programs. Former immigration minister Marc Miller said the goal was to target colleges and private universities that charged high fees for low-value degrees to students who hoped to stay in Canada. But the changes appear to have had a wider deterrent effect….

Source: Ottawa seeks to attract grad students from abroad

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Asylum seekers to face brunt of IRCC cuts through co-payments of dental and prescription coverage: analysis

2026/02/19 Leave a comment

Of course, the large increase in asylum claimants is reflected in these numbers. Prescription co-payments are relatively small ($4) and it was increasingly untenable to provide asylum claimants better health care coverage that Canadians without an employer health coverage plan. And coverage of medical care at hospitals and by physicians is still covered:

“Almost half of the spending reduction in Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will come from a single cut to the health coverage of asylum seekers, according to a new analysis from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.”

“In the 2025 budget, the federal government announced that about a quarter of a billion dollars, or $231.9 million, will be cut from the health-care coverage of refugees in the 2027-28 fiscal year with what the government calls a “modest co-payment model” of 30 per cent.

All other cuts from IRCC in 2027-28 are estimated at around $315 million, according to the analysis.

Currently, most refugees are covered under the government’s Interim Federal Health Program, which provides the cost of most medical care until individuals are eligible for provincial or territorial insurance.

However, the federal government will continue to provide full coverage for emergency room visits and visits to a physician.

Dental and prescription co-payments for asylum seekers will begin on May 1 this year.

David Macdonald, author of the analysis and economist at the left-leaning Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, pointed out that costs could rise for the federal government, especially as low-income asylum seekers eschew costly preventative care leading to more emergency room visits.

““Asylum seekers come to Canada with little to nothing, since they’re escaping dangerous conditions. Most won’t be able to pay the extra costs and will simply avoid dental care and filling prescriptions — until an emergency rises,” Macdonald wrote.

Those individuals could “end up in Canada’s emergency rooms, which will also be paid by IRCC, but at 100 per cent of the cost, even though prevention is preferable and less expensive than the emergency room.”” …

Source: “Asylum seekers to face brunt of IRCC cuts through co-payments of dental and prescription coverage: analysis”

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The people who want the temporary migrants to stay permanently

2026/02/19 Leave a comment

The National Post listing organizations opposed to government cuts and supporting regularization for all:

With a record two million temporary migrants set to lose their status in the coming months, a union-championed campaign is emerging to demand that all of them be allowed to stay permanently in Canada.

This week, a new group calling itself the United Immigrant Workers Front announced plans to hold its inaugural rally in Brampton, Ont.

In a Monday video posted to Instagram, group organizers cited the pending expiration of two million visas, and expressed their belief that all should have their permits extended and be given a “path to permanent residency.”

This follows on a wave of demonstrations in Quebec similarly calling for migrants on expiring visas to be kept in the country.

The Quebec government is phasing out its Programme de l’expérience Québécoise, a program which previously fast-tracked international students and foreign workers into permanent residency. It’s being replaced by a much more selective skills-based nominee program.

With many thousands of temporary workers set to lose their legal status as a result of the change, the Union of Quebec Municipalities, along with several businesses and labour unions, is leading a pressure campaign to allow those migrants to “continue their lives here.”

All the while, many of Canada’s largest unions and labour organizations have been publishing literature demanding that Canada’s millions of temporary migrants be allowed to stay.

In late 2024, only a few weeks after Ottawa first signalled its intention to slash temporary migration rates, the Canadian Labour Congress issued a communique entitled “migrant workers in Canada deserve access to permanent residency and citizenship.”

Canada currently has more temporary migrants in the country than at almost any other point in its history, and the government of Prime Minister Mark Carney has been explicit in its goal to bring that figure down.

At the beginning of 2022, Statistics Canada tracked 1.4 million foreign nationals living in Canada as “non-permanent residents.”

This would surge to an October 2024 high of 3.2 million, with temporary residents representing 7.5 per cent of the total Canadian population.

The spike had been enabled by the federal government dropping quotas and restrictions on everything from foreign student visas to Temporary Foreign Worker admissions.

And as of Statistics Canada’s last count, the number of temporary migrants in the country still stands at 2.8 million; higher than at any other point prior to 2024.

This means that roughly one in every 15 people in Canada is here as a non-permanent resident. Just 10 years ago, the figure was closer to one in every 50.

While the Liberals once officially denied that skyrocketing temporary immigration was having negative impacts on civic society, the federal government and Carney himself have now stated that the surge overwhelmed real estate prices, health-care delivery and other public services. In a November speech in Toronto, Carney said that the surge in temporary migration “far exceeded our ability to welcome people and make sure that they had good housing and services.”

The 2025 federal budget similarly said that “unsustainable” immigration had “put pressures on housing demand” and crowded younger Canadians out of the job market. “Managed immigration growth is now helping to stabilise labour-market conditions and is expected to support better outcomes for youth,” it read. The Carney government’s official plan is to curb temporary migration to the point that non-permanent residents represent only five per cent of the total Canadian population; about two million total.

Some of that will indeed be in the form of temporary migrants being fast-tracked into permanent residency, but Ottawa has acknowledged that other visa-holders will be expected to leave “voluntarily.”

One potential problem with this strategy is that Canada is extremely limited in its ability to remove temporary migrants who refuse to leave voluntarily.

Immigration, Citizenship and Refugees Canada has no official tally on when temporary migrants actually leave the country, and the Canada Border Services Agency only has the capacity to remove a limited number of people who overstay their visas.

Last year, CBSA had one of the most active years in its history. Their total removals came to about 22,000, with another 40,000 “inadmissible” people refused entry.

Source: The people who want the temporary migrants to stay permanently

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Robson: Canada has a youth extremism problem it can’t continue to ignore

2026/02/18 2 Comments

Not sure how practical or implementable it is, and existing prevention programs have a mixed record, but focus on behaviours, rather than beliefs is appropriate:

….A practical National Polarization Metrics model

Canada does not need a new bureaucracy. It needs a light-touch doctrine that makes prevention routine. A “National Polarization Metrics” model would use behavioural indicators that are measurable and non-partisan, focusing on coercive targeting and intimidation rather than beliefs: repeated harassment aimed at identifiable groups; doxxing and coordinated pile-ons; credible threats; and violence-normalizing signalling that changes what peers believe is acceptable.

That doctrine should assign accountable ownership. Every campus and school board needs an escalation lead with a clear mandate to consistently log incidents, coordinate support and safety planning, quickly preserve evidence, and trigger referrals when thresholds are met.

Far from weakening civil liberties, this reduces arbitrary decision-making and makes outcomes less dependent on institutional mood.

It also requires routable handoffs. Educational settings should have a consistent pathway for when matters stay at the level of documentation and support, when they require municipal policing involvement, and when patterns suggest coordination or mobilization indicators that justify a threat-assessment channel. Canada’s National Strategy on Countering Radicalization to Violence frames early intervention as a national priority, but it leaves Canada without a single escalation ladder that is understood—end-to-end—across education systems, municipal police, and federal threat assessment.

Finally, evidence preservation must become doctrine. A standardized 24-72-hour capture-and-preserve practice—time-stamped collection, secure storage, minimal access logging, and a consistent referral format—would strengthen downstream deterrence without criminalizing student life….

Prevention must become doctrine, not late reaction

A pluralist society can withstand disagreement. What it cannot withstand is normalized intimidation combined with institutional paralysis—especially when digital ecosystems accelerate conflict faster than administrators, police, or courts can react. If Canada wants to confront its fault lines before they deepen, it must stop treating youth extremism as cultural weather and start treating it as a measurable pathway.

That means building the missing bridge: shared indicators, accountable ownership, rapid evidence preservation, and standardized handoffs. Not to stigmatize communities, and not to criminalize student life—but to ensure coercion and violence-normalizing signalling do not become the price of campus politics, or the prelude to community harm.

Daniel Robson is a Canadian independent journalist specializing in digital extremism, national security, and counterterrorism. 

Source: Canada has a youth extremism problem it can’t continue to ignore

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