Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n
But for Gallego, co-executive director of FCJ Refugee Centre, an organisation that supports refugees and asylum seekers in Canada\u2019s largest city, the prime minister\u2019s statements rang hollow amid his government\u2019s hardening approach to immigration.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw the [prime] minister going to Davos [with] this beautiful discourse, saying we should not copy our neighbours \u2026 But internally, the policies are telling us another story,\u201d Gallego told Al Jazeera. \u201cCanada is closing the doors now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gallego is among more than a dozen experts \u2013 from lawyers to professors, rights advocates and former government officials \u2013 who told Al Jazeera that Canada is at a \u201ctroubling\u201d crossroads in its policies towards migrants and refugees.<\/p>\n
As Canadians have grappled with rising economic and social pressures in recent years, a decades-old consensus on the benefits of immigration has frayed.<\/p>\n
Hostile rhetoric blaming newcomers for Canada\u2019s ills has intensified, and Carney\u2019s government has slashed temporary visas and restricted access to asylum<\/a>. Experts say a \u201cgenerational shift\u201d is under way.<\/p>\n \u201cThe general rhetoric is, \u2018We don\u2019t want you here\u2019,\u201d said Gallego.<\/p>\n A settler-colonial state, Canada has encouraged successive waves of immigration throughout its history, from largely European settlement in the early to mid-1900s to specialised programmes that brought refugees and high- and low-skilled workers<\/a> to Canadian shores.<\/p>\n For decades, that influx of newcomers was widely viewed as a positive thing: immigration was fuelling the country\u2019s economy, staffing key job sectors and counteracting a rapidly ageing population.<\/p>\n But over the past few years, Canada has seen one of the most dramatic shifts in how the public views immigration \u2013 and the government has tapped into increasingly negative sentiment to cut programmes and pass new, restrictive laws.<\/p>\n The policy changes began under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau<\/a>, whose Liberal Party government had dramatically increased temporary immigration during the COVID-19 pandemic to fill labour market gaps.<\/p>\n The figures shot up rapidly and, by October 2024, there were nearly 3.15 million non-permanent residents in Canada, accounting for roughly 8 percent of the population, according to official figures.<\/p>\n At the same time, systemic issues \u2013 from a shortage of affordable housing to high grocery costs and long hospital wait times \u2013 were putting the squeeze on many Canadian households.<\/p>\n Public attitudes quickly hardened, and a 2024 poll (PDF<\/a>) found a majority of Canadians saying for the first time in decades that there was \u201ctoo much immigration\u201d.<\/p>\n Since then, several incidents of xenophobic violence have been reported, including in some of Canada\u2019s largest cities, where the influx of migrants has been among the most visible.<\/p>\n Under pressure as angry discourse soared, the Trudeau government promised in 2024 to get immigration back to \u201csustainable\u201d levels<\/a>, and the cuts began, including most notably to international student visas.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reality is that not everyone who wants to come to Canada will be able to \u2013 just like not everyone who wants to stay in Canada will be able to,\u201d Marc Miller, Canada\u2019s former immigration minister, said in September that year.<\/p>\n The numbers of arrivals dropped quickly as student and work visas were cancelled, forcing thousands of people to leave Canada or remain without legal status. By the start of this year, non-permanent residents totalled about 2.67 million, according to government figures, a 15 percent drop from the peak in October 2024.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think you can blame the housing crisis<\/a> in Canada on immigration, but there\u2019s no doubt that the radically increased numbers under Justin Trudeau\u2019s regime had a political effect,\u201d Allan Rock, a former Canadian justice minister and Liberal lawmaker, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n The government, Rock explained, has been \u201creading the room and sensing that Canadians were connecting local economic and financial difficulties with migration\u201d.<\/p>\n At the same time, right-wing politicians have seized on those public attitudes, with the opposition Conservative Party earlier this year pushing the governing Liberals to cut healthcare for people it described as \u201cfake refugees\u201d.<\/p>\n The Conservatives, also, have echoed US President Donald Trump<\/a> in advocating for changes to \u201cbirthright citizenship\u201d, claiming that the \u201coutdated rule\u201d that grants citizenship to anyone born in Canada \u201cpresents yet another strain on our immigration system that Canada can\u2019t handle\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWith over 7 per cent of Canada\u2019s population here on temporary status \u2013 and arrivals massively outpacing the capacity of our housing, healthcare and jobs markets \u2013 something needs to change,\u201d the party said<\/a>.<\/p>\n Rights advocates have denounced that rhetoric while accusing policymakers of falsely linking migrants and refugees to social problems to absolve themselves of responsibility for a years-long failure to properly fund healthcare, education and other services.<\/p>\n On the housing issue, for instance, experts have found (PDF<\/a>) that, while immigration increases demand for housing stock, its effect on prices is far less important than public discourse would have people believe.<\/p>\n \u201cLeadership means not simply caving into public opinion when it\u2019s based on erroneous beliefs,\u201d Rock told Al Jazeera. \u201cWe\u2019re buying into, and we\u2019re supporting, a growing international trend to tighten borders and build walls and validate erroneous beliefs about refugees and migrants.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a betrayal of values that this country has always stood for, and I find it troubling.\u201d<\/p>\n Carney doubles down<\/p>\n Yet, since taking office in April 2025, Carney \u2013 the prime minister \u2013 has continued where his predecessor Trudeau left off on immigration.<\/p>\n In late March, Carney\u2019s Liberal government<\/a> passed a sweeping new law that grants Ottawa the power to cancel visas en masse, including for permanent residents, if it deems it in the \u201cpublic interest\u201d to do so.<\/p>\n The law, known as Bill C-12, also restricts access to Canada\u2019s refugee status determination system in ways that lawyers told Al Jazeera are \u201carbitrary\u201d and likely run counter to the country\u2019s constitution, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.<\/p>\n The government has justified the measure \u2013 which is expected to face a constitutional challenge in court \u2013 as part of an effort to streamline a backlogged asylum system and prevent \u201cfraud\u201d.<\/p>\n At the end of last year, nearly 300,000 cases were pending at the independent tribunal that adjudicates refugee claims in the country, known as the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB).<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), the federal immigration department, told Al Jazeera that it had introduced Bill C-12 \u201cas global migration pressures intensify\u201d.<\/p>\n The law introduces \u201cmeasures to address challenges such as sudden increases in asylum claims and situations where existing processes may be used to circumvent regular immigration pathways\u201d, the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n \u201cThis means we can provide faster protection for those in need,\u201d they said, adding that Bill C-12 also respects Canada\u2019s obligations under the United Nations Refugee Convention as well as the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.<\/p>\n But experts say the law will do little to address the backlog at the IRB. They have also accused lawmakers of failing to dispel \u2013 and even of playing into \u2013 xenophobic rhetoric rather than addressing the real concerns of Canadians<\/a> or structural problems in the asylum system.<\/p>\n The government is \u201ccreating this sense in the public that people are scamming us, they\u2019re taking advantage of the system [and] there\u2019s something broken that needs to be fixed\u201d, said Julia Sande, a lawyer at Amnesty International Canada.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople\u2019s struggles are real. People are facing a housing crisis, inflation and unemployment, wage stagnation and widening inequality,\u201d she told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n \u201cThen, instead of taking responsibility or making the changes needed to address these things, governments look for a group to blame \u2013 and who\u2019s better to blame than people who don\u2019t have the right to vote and can\u2019t vote you out?\u201d<\/p>\n Despite such concerns raised by rights advocates, Canada\u2019s changing immigration policies do not appear to have drawn much attention \u2013 or pushback \u2013 from the wider public.<\/p>\n A wide-reaching effort by civil society groups earlier this year to get the government to make amendments to Bill C-12 failed to secure any meaningful changes.<\/p>\n In addition to that law, the Carney government also has rolled back a healthcare programme<\/a> for refugees, extended a freeze on refugee resettlement applications, and announced significant funding cuts to several ministries, including the immigration department.<\/p>\n Planned cuts at the IRB \u2013 the board that adjudicates refugee claims \u2013 have also been reported<\/a>, fuelling concerns that delays may get worse.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that there is no real plan in place to deal with this backlog [at the IRB] then contributes to negative opinion by the public about refugees,\u201d said Maureen Silcoff, a refugee lawyer who previously served as a member of the tribunal.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the government has a responsibility to proactively undo some of the myths that are circulating,\u201d Silcoff told Al Jazeera. \u201cThis is especially important in times where we see in other countries that there\u2019s a surge of anti-immigrant and anti-refugee rhetoric.\u201d<\/p>\n Nevertheless, Carney continues to enjoy high approval ratings as he has justified government policies during his first year in office as part of an \u201celbows up\u201d response to pressure from the Trump administration<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Carney government still seems to be [enjoying] a honeymoon of sorts,\u201d said John Carlaw, an assistant professor at Toronto Metropolitan University who specialises in Canadian politics and immigration.<\/p>\n![\"Canadian](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/13828549-1777915214.jpg\")
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s Liberal Party won the 2025 elections [File: Christoffer Andersen\/EPA]Influx in temporary migration<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/DSC_0543-1779714164.jpg\")
A major intersection in Toronto, Canada\u2019s largest city [Jillian Kestler-D\u2019Amours\/Al Jazeera]\u2018Erroneous beliefs\u2019<\/p>\n![\"Activists](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/DSC_0341-1779714138.jpg\")
Healthcare workers protest against cuts to a refugee health programme in Toronto, Canada, in April 2026 [Jillian Kestler-D\u2019Amours\/Al Jazeera]Carney\u2019s \u2018honeymoon\u2019 phase<\/p>\n
![\"Luisa](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_7545-1779715849.jpg\")
Luisa Ortiz-Garza, a migrant rights organiser at Parkdale Community Legal Services, speaks during an event in support of migrants and refugees in Toronto in late April [Jillian Kestler-D\u2019Amours\/Al Jazeera]\u2018Not immune\u2019 to backsliding on human rights<\/p>\n