In exchange for “closing Roxham”, Justin Trudeau committed to the United States to welcome 15,000 people. The recently announced details of the promised routes, however, leave observers “perplexed”, since 4,000 temporary workers are included among them.
Last March, when announcing the expansion of the Safe Third Country Agreement, Ottawa promised to accept 15,000 additional migrants “for humanitarian reasons”, as indicated in the declaration official statement from the Prime Minister. Few details had filtered out at the time, while all eyes were on Roxham Road, in Montérégie, and the arrival of American President Joe Biden.
It was only more than six months later, last week, that Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced that a new pathway would indeed be created for 11,000 nationals from Colombia, Venezuela and Haiti .
The other 4,000 promised places will be counted among temporary foreign workers “from the region, many of whom have already arrived in Canada.”
Humanitarian?
“I think we are twisting the word humanitarian,” says Adèle Garnier, professor in the Department of Geography at Laval University. For her, it is clear that temporary foreign workers “are not humanitarian migration” according to the historical definition, since this type of program “is knowingly to meet economic needs”.
The calculation itself is “quite curious” according to her: Ottawa speaks in its press release of workers “already arrived”. They are indeed “additional”, assures Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). But for what purpose, since this program does not have a target?
They are “in addition to the new humanitarian route”, responds IRCC to this question from Duty. As for whether this ministry has changed its definition of humanitarian, the answer is less direct: “Safe and regular migration routes are an alternative to irregular migration,” explains the public relations officer in her email.
“It’s clear that we are moving away from the traditional definition of humanitarian. We no longer talk about refugee protection,” adds Stephan Reichhold, director of the Table de concertation des organizations serving refugees and immigrants.
He also points out that Canada already selects qualified refugees (with the equivalent of a college or university diploma) abroad, saying they “combine” their resettlement with economic immigration. This pathway is called the Pilot Project on the Pathway to Economic Mobility (PVAME).
In this case, however, the 4,000 temporary workers have no guarantee of being able to settle in the country long term. IRCC recognizes that they will be “temporary residents” and refuses to say whether another path to permanent residence will be created for them.
“This no longer corresponds at all to the initial logic”, for Mme Garnier.
“This announcement is very disappointing — a shameful regression of our modest commitment to providing humanitarian protection,” said Gauri Sreenivasan, co-executive director of the Canadian Refugee Council. “Why is the government backtracking on its commitment to refugees? » she added on X (formerly Twitter).
A path not yet in force
The 11,000 Colombians, Venezuelans or Haitians will qualify by having an extended family member already in Canada. Although there is already a family reunification program, the list of eligible members is a little larger: child, grandchild, husband or wife, common-law partner, parent, grandparent, brother, or sister of a permanent resident or a citizen will be able to make a request.
This public policy is not yet in effect, and requests cannot yet be submitted.
The sponsor will be required to sign a declaration agreeing to provide the “support necessary for the applicant” to settle in Canada.
Professor Adèle Garnier and Stephan Reichhold both emphasize that the “mechanics” remain to be understood: are they migrants stuck south of the American border? Or in their country of origin?
People who are already in the United States, such as families already on their way to Canada who The duty spoke, will however not be eligible, confirms IRCC.
Minister Miller also spoke about Ecuador, Cuba, El Salvador and Nicaragua, in an interview with The Press in September, but nationals of these countries were not included in the recent announcement.
Quebec does not intend to participate in this new access route. Last March, Prime Minister François Legault said “I think we have done our part”, referring to the 40,000 people arriving via Roxham Road in 2022.