“Why is my husband treated differently from those who make the same request as him elsewhere in Canada? What mistake did he make by falling in love with a guy from Quebec? »
This is the question asked by the Dr Steven Palanchuck.
Like thousands of Quebecers, Steven Palanchuck is one of those left behind in the migratory disputes between Quebec and Ottawa over family reunification. He has been waiting for the green light for the sponsorship of his immigrant husband for more than a year. Elsewhere in the country, it would already be a closed case. The waiting time there is 10 to 12 months. Here, due to a ceiling that is too low set by Quebec, the delays are exploding. We are now talking about a 26 to 39 month wait.
However, the story began well one day in June 2022. It is the story of a Montreal doctor, originally from Rivière-du-Loup, who, on vacation in Texas, falls in love with Fahad Meer, an American immigrant, born in Pakistan, working in accounting and finance, met at an LGBTQ+ festival in Dallas.
“I immediately felt that he was the man of my life,” says Steven Palanchuck.
The sentiment is shared by Fahad Meer. When dropping off his new Quebec lover at the airport at the end of his vacation, he hopes it’s just a goodbye.
When, back home in Montreal, the doctor finds flowers and his favorite Chinese meals delivered to his doorstep, he immediately knows who the secret sender is.
A few weeks later, they found themselves in Montreal. Six months later, they get married without imagining the Kafkaesque maze that awaits them so that Fahad can obtain a work permit, his permanent residence and hope one day to feel that he is here at home.
“I have never been financially dependent on anyone in my entire life,” says the 32-year-old, who has worked at UMB Bank and Goldman Sachs in the United States. He is desperately looking for work in Montreal. But uncertainty about his status doesn’t help. The one-year gap in his CV that was created while waiting for his work permit scares away employers. Since November, he has applied for more than 400 jobs, without success.
Even if he meets the criteria of Immigration Canada, received his Quebec selection certificate and insisted on taking private French lessons before even being entitled to francization, Fahad Meer is not at end of his troubles to obtain permanent residence, because Quebec has set a maximum threshold of 10,600 candidates per year in the “family reunification” category while some 40,000 families are waiting.
“I feel like I’m in limbo. Will I ever end up being accepted? »
While we continue to debate immigration by throwing around figures, the Dr Steven Palanchuck is sad to see that we are forgetting the essential: the human beings behind these thresholds and these statistics.
“It’s like going to a dinner party where everyone is talking about you, but you’re just sitting there and you can’t participate in the conversation. I would like us to have a serious conversation. Not just on temporary thresholds, but by having a medium and long term vision on immigration and integration. »
While federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller asks his provincial counterpart Christine Fréchette to “do her part” to correct the injustice for Quebecers awaiting family reunification, the road between Quebec and Ottawa seems long and bumpy and bottled.
While saying she is very sensitive to the stress experienced by Quebecers waiting, Minister Fréchette has, for the moment, not shown much sensitivity towards them and is content to pass the ball back to Ottawa.
Instead of recognizing that, in a context of housing crisis and compromised reception capacity, we would have every interest in encouraging family reunification (since we are talking here about candidates who already have housing and who will be taken into account charged by their sponsors), Quebec chooses to limit it.
On the side of Minister Marc Miller, who would theoretically be entitled to impose higher thresholds in the family reunification category on Quebec, there also seems to be a gap between the principles defended and the practices of his ministry, strongly criticized by the Auditor General of Canada for the failure to respect the “first come, first served” principle at the busy window for applicants for permanent residence.
“What I find shocking is that we are a category that is unknown, misunderstood and we are caught in this ping-pong game between the two [ordres] of government. And during this time, the families are waiting,” Marie-Gervaise Pilon, vice-president of the Quebec reunified collective, bringing together more than 1,900 families in this situation, told me.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
The Minister of Immigration, Christine Fréchette
In a letter made public this week, reunited Quebec launched an appeal to Minister Fréchette for kindness1. The call, supported in particular by the solidarity deputy Guillaume Cliche-Rivard and the liberal deputy André A. Morin, remained unanswered. As if the distress experienced by the thousands of affected Quebec families only provoked a shrug of the shoulders.
However, the situation is serious, underlines Marie-Gervaise Pilon. “I am very worried about the members of Quebec Reunified. We have some who talk about suicide. Their mental health is compromised. The rate of depression and anxiety is catastrophic. »
Behind the too-low threshold set by the CAQ government in the family reunification category, there is an accounting logic.
Prime Minister François Legault has already said this clearly to the Employers’ Council. His obsession is to increase the average salary in Quebec by focusing on economic immigration. “If every time we return an economic immigrant, the federal government forces us to bring back a refugee or a family reunification, then we will have difficulty finding the right people2. »
Even if many candidates for family reunification like Fahad Meer could perfectly contribute to the Quebec economy if given the chance, Mr. Legault fears that they will “get worse [son] problem” by lowering its average salary.
As for the average humanity in free fall, rest assured, we have nothing to fear.
1. Read the letter from reunited Quebec
2. Consult the Radio-Canada article
Corrigendum:
The Liberal MP who supported the public outing of the Quebec reunited collective in favor of accelerating the processing of family reunification files is André-Albert Morin and not André A. Fortin, as was written in the column “L’amour au time of migratory ping-pong”, published on February 10. Our apologies.