The record level of temporary immigrants this year is mainly caused, in Quebec, by the Legault government’s permission granted to businesses to use foreign workers, replies federal minister Pablo Rodriguez.
“The people who are there are because there are Quebec companies that [les] asked,” said Duty Justin Trudeau’s Quebec lieutenant, Thursday.
He wanted to respond to Quebec Immigration Minister Christine Fréchette, who asked the federal government the day before to review its immigration targets, shortly after the publication of data by Statistics Canada showing the explosion of non-residents. permanent in Canada and Quebec.
Validated by Quebec
Pablo Rodriguez, who became federal Minister of Transport this summer, recalls that the arrival of temporary foreign workers is validated by the provincial government. Statistics show that these workers form 43% of the 470,976 non-permanent residents who were in Quebec on 1er July 2023.
“There is not a single file that is opened by Ottawa until the applicant has received a certificate of acceptance from Quebec,” he said. These people who are there, we really have to be careful not to point fingers, to understand that if they are there, it is because it is local businesses that want them. »
Quebec does not have a target for this type of temporary immigration. These new arrivals are, however, explicitly part of the Legault government’s strategy, published last year, which plans to “support employers” to increase this type of temporary immigration.
Nearly 7,000 businesses in Quebec asked to hire temporary foreign workers last year.
Temporaries become permanent
Other categories of temporary immigrants include foreign students, accompanying family members, and asylum seekers. The latter make up 31% of all non-permanent residents of Quebec, and the province cannot control their numbers.
According to Statistics Canada’s count, 146,723 asylum seekers were present on Quebec territory last July.
The federal government aims to welcome 500,000 immigrants per year to Canada. However, a large number of them have already physically arrived in the country, such as through a temporary immigration program.
The immigration targets set by Quebec are less than its demographic weight in Canada, which creates a bottleneck in applications. The duty reported that temporary immigrants falling into certain categories could have to wait more than 25 years before obtaining permanent residency.
With Sarah Champagne