While the Legault government insists in every forum that it welcomes too many asylum seekers, those who made their request in Quebec do not all stay here. From one year to the next, a quarter, or even a third, leave for other provinces, noted The duty.
What’s more, the share of asylum seekers living in Quebec decreased significantly last year compared to 2022 and it is not as high as claimed by the Minister of Immigration, Francisation and Integration (MIFI) according to federal statistics.
The duty was able to consult open data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), which cross-references information from the place where the asylum request was made and the last address declared on file. Taking into account these interprovincial movements, Quebec had on its territory last year 35% of asylum seekers from all of Canada. This is more than its demographic weight of 22%, but it is a smaller share than in 2022, when it was 48%.
In the office of the Minister of Immigration, Christine Fréchette, it is maintained that Quebec had received approximately 45% of all asylum seekers from Canada in 2023 and 64% in 2022.
In an interview on Radio-Canada’s morning show on Thursday, Minister Fréchette also argued that Ontario welcomes a number of asylum seekers “equivalent” to its demographic weight. “Quebec bears twice as much as Ontario, it’s completely disproportionate,” she said.
However, last year, Ontario received 45% of all asylum seekers, according to federal data on last addresses, which also exceeds its demographic weight, which is 38%.
In the minister’s office, they indicate that they are “not able to follow the movements of asylum seekers”. “We do not have this data [sur les allées et venues]. It’s a migratory flow. Once they are authorized to enter the territory, asylum seekers are free to move,” replied the Duty the press officer, Maude Méthot-Faniel.
More than a quarter leave
IRCC data also reveals that, each year since 2015, between a quarter and a third of asylum seekers from Quebec go elsewhere in Canada.
For example, in 2022, more than 15,000 people, or 27% of the 58,805 who filed an asylum application in Quebec, had moved to another province based on the last address in their file. The trend is practically identical in 2023 according to the information: for the first 11 months of the year – the data for December is not yet available – at least 28% of asylum seekers had left Quebec after have made their request.
The co-president of the Association of Immigration Lawyers, Stéphanie Valois, even says she is convinced that these data fall short of reality.
“From what I see from my clients, there are many more who are leaving Quebec,” she maintains. The data would underestimate the number of asylum seekers who left Quebec, because not all immigrants take the trouble to change their address. “It’s not easy to change your address with IRCC. You have to enter the file number on the site and, often, it doesn’t work,” said Me Valois, who specializes in asylum cases.
She is not surprised that many of her clients want to leave: they already speak English and prefer to settle in an English-speaking province for reasons of employment and the integration of children.
“I also have the impression that before, asylum seekers submitted their application in Quebec and stayed here until their hearing [à la Commission de l’immigration et du statut de réfugié] before moving elsewhere. But since the pandemic, the hearings have been held online, so people file in Quebec and do not hesitate to go straight away to another Canadian province,” notes M.e Valois, which today has customers across Canada.
Real numbers requested
Immigration Minister Marc Miller acknowledged that Quebec and Ontario “are doing more than their share in proportion to their respective populations.” An envelope of 362 million intended for temporary accommodation of new arrivals will also be distributed between the provinces, of which 100 million will go to Quebec and 140 million to Ontario.
But for Minister Fréchette, the logic of distribution must not only be financial. “When the time comes to distribute asylum seekers to all the provinces, [Ottawa] not'[est] not there,” she said, while urging him to tighten up the granting of visas.
According to the director of the Consultation Table of Organizations Serving Refugees and Immigrants (TCRI), Stephan Reichhold, the minister “overestimates” the number of asylum seekers in Quebec. “We are asking the minister to be more nuanced about the figures,” he said.
According to the Quebec Solidaire MP and immigration spokesperson, Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, “this information reveals the importance of having a scientific debate on confirmed figures. Unfortunately, the MIFI does not know exactly how many asylum seekers Quebec welcomes. Before drawing conclusions, it would be important to be able to work with verified data,” he maintained. “Given the sensitivity of the issue, acting otherwise seems irresponsible to me. »