Family reunification processing times are stretching out in Quebec, and for families caught in this maze, the pain is getting worse.
Invited to testify at the National Assembly on Tuesday, three women awaiting sponsorship uttered a common cry from the heart for the reduction of delays in family reunification. Inability to see loved ones, inability to access health insurance or raise a child: the consequences of waiting lists are real, they said.
Taline Nehme has been waiting to be reunited with her daughter and her husband since last December. His family sponsorship file has still not been processed. “My daughter, she’s 6 years old. Already she accuses me [de l’avoir] abandoned because I left for Canada,” she said during a press conference organized by Quebec Solidaire (QS) MP Guillaume Cliche-Rivard.
“My 17-year-old son keeps seeing his mother cry day and night. He tells me it’s going to be okay. But when will it be okay? In two years ? In three years ? When my daughter goes [avoir] 8 years, 9 years? » she added.
Leave Quebec
Last July, the backlog in terms of family reunification in Quebec amounted to 36,800 people, according to the Quebec Ministry of Immigration, Francisation and Integration (MIFI). The estimated processing time by the federal government had increased to 24 months.
Delays that Ottawa links to the immigration targets of François Legault’s government. “Like IRCC [Immigration, Réfugiés et Citoyenneté Canada] receives more applications from the family reunification category intended for Quebec than what the MIFI allows it to process, a backlog is forming,” explained a spokesperson for the Canadian ministry. Duty this summer.
Quebec has set its target for welcoming immigrants resulting from family reunification at 10,600 people for 2023. In June, this total was already reached at 66%.
“I am a Canadian, Quebec citizen. I was born and raised in Quebec. My husband is a citizen of Guatemala, said Laurianne Lachapelle, another witness invited by QS on Tuesday. In January 2022, we got married with a promise that my husband would be able to come to Quebec in 13 months. Then, overnight, 14 months later, there is no news. »
Misty-eyed, she explained how this situation led her to seek an abortion. “I didn’t want to go through a pregnancy, a birth, maybe even the first years of a child’s life without my husband, all alone,” she said.
“At the end of it,” she is now considering leaving Quebec. “If it gets worse, I’ll look [pour] go to Ontario, maybe, or maybe just change countries,” she said.
Raise the thresholds
Immigration spokesperson for Québec solidaire, Guillaume Cliche-Rivard urges François Legault’s government to review its targets to allow these families to be reunited on Quebec soil. He directly calls on the Minister of Immigration, Christine Fréchette, who is currently studying revisions of its targets as part of consultations on multi-year immigration planning.
“Yes, we need to raise the immigration thresholds for family reunification specifically,” he said, without specifying by how much. “I did not want to set a figure, but I think we should give ourselves a maximum objective of 12 months,” he indicated when asked about this.
Questioned in the room, Minister Fréchette for her part refused to commit to anything on Tuesday. “We are very sensitive to the stress experienced by families in connection with processing delays in family reunification programs,” she said, before specifying that “Quebec’s approach is to set the thresholds of immigration in order to maintain a balance.
If François Legault’s government evaluates the possibility of raising its immigration thresholds to 60,000 people in 2027, it does not intend to review its targets in the family reunification category. According to the scenarios proposed by Minister Fréchette, the annual total would remain frozen at 10,000 and a few new arrivals.