> “…estimates that by mid-2026, at least two million people could be living in Canada without legal status…”
Why would that be the case? Why wouldn’t those two million leave Canada and return home? Do immigration officials not follow up on expired visas? And if not, why not?
Good-Medicine1066 on
>Meanwhile, advocacy groups are stepping up pressure on authorities to address the situation. Organisations such as the Naujawan Support Network, which campaigns for migrant workers’ rights, are planning protests in January to draw attention to the growing *crisis caused by expiring permits.*
I think this is what Canadians have gotten tired of – framing this as a *crisis caused by expiring (temporary) permits*.
No, any humanitarian issue (financial, housing and food insecurity etc.) introduced by the expiration of temporary permits isn’t caused by the expiration of the permit itself, but instead the decision to overstay without status. People need to take responsibility for their decisions.
hyozanryu-hoo on
The article title is pretty telling when the conversation is centered around one specific group instead of Immigration as a whole.
To be fair the article does mention India is around 1/2 in the first paragraph but I really feel like the Canadian population sees Immigration as importing low wage Indians.
And now the focus is on how to get rid of Indians (the article uses the term undocumented). Which is only going to keep the focus on Indians instead of Immigration as a whole.
I wonder how the conversation would be different if India only accounted for 1/4 or if there was not such a large gender gap in the working age population being imported. Maybe we could focus on building a productive and reasonable Immigration system instead of the conversation being focused on one outside country.
imaginary48 on
Temporary visas expiring isn’t a “risk” — you leave when your permit expires, which are the terms you chose to agree to when coming to Canada. If you don’t leave in time then you’re at risk of prosecution, deportation, and exclusion from the country. The only risk for Canada is that we’ll now have hundreds of thousands to millions more undocumented people due to Trudeau’s legacy of butchering our immigration system to facilitate wage suppression to make corporations and landlords even richer.
Acrobatic-Tower6127 on
Is the data quoted in the article verifiable? The article sounds like something designed to intentionally stir up controversy.
Fifty-Mission-Cap_ on
They’re not losing legal status. Their visas are expiring which is really just following the terms of entry into Canada. As worded, it almost sounds like we’re stripping people unjustifiably of a status they don’t actually have?
This isn’t a bug. This is the main feature of the visa system. The bigger question is whether or not people will actually leave as they should, or if we’ll start to see an uptick in things like asylum claims to give them more time in the country.
[deleted] on
[removed]
geeves_007 on
Do people typically go to other countries on temporary visas and not intend to return home when the terms of their visa expire?
Were someone to do such a thing, who exactly would be in the wrong in that situation? The person overstaying their visa? Or the country holding them accountable to the terms they previously mutually agreed upon?
Canadian987 on
Losing legal status? If they are not in school, they have no legal status. Their visa is expired, they go back to their home country, because that’s what they promised to do when applying for the visa. Or were they lying and had no intention to going back?
9 Comments
> “…estimates that by mid-2026, at least two million people could be living in Canada without legal status…”
Why would that be the case? Why wouldn’t those two million leave Canada and return home? Do immigration officials not follow up on expired visas? And if not, why not?
>Meanwhile, advocacy groups are stepping up pressure on authorities to address the situation. Organisations such as the Naujawan Support Network, which campaigns for migrant workers’ rights, are planning protests in January to draw attention to the growing *crisis caused by expiring permits.*
I think this is what Canadians have gotten tired of – framing this as a *crisis caused by expiring (temporary) permits*.
No, any humanitarian issue (financial, housing and food insecurity etc.) introduced by the expiration of temporary permits isn’t caused by the expiration of the permit itself, but instead the decision to overstay without status. People need to take responsibility for their decisions.
The article title is pretty telling when the conversation is centered around one specific group instead of Immigration as a whole.
To be fair the article does mention India is around 1/2 in the first paragraph but I really feel like the Canadian population sees Immigration as importing low wage Indians.
And now the focus is on how to get rid of Indians (the article uses the term undocumented). Which is only going to keep the focus on Indians instead of Immigration as a whole.
I wonder how the conversation would be different if India only accounted for 1/4 or if there was not such a large gender gap in the working age population being imported. Maybe we could focus on building a productive and reasonable Immigration system instead of the conversation being focused on one outside country.
Temporary visas expiring isn’t a “risk” — you leave when your permit expires, which are the terms you chose to agree to when coming to Canada. If you don’t leave in time then you’re at risk of prosecution, deportation, and exclusion from the country. The only risk for Canada is that we’ll now have hundreds of thousands to millions more undocumented people due to Trudeau’s legacy of butchering our immigration system to facilitate wage suppression to make corporations and landlords even richer.
Is the data quoted in the article verifiable? The article sounds like something designed to intentionally stir up controversy.
They’re not losing legal status. Their visas are expiring which is really just following the terms of entry into Canada. As worded, it almost sounds like we’re stripping people unjustifiably of a status they don’t actually have?
This isn’t a bug. This is the main feature of the visa system. The bigger question is whether or not people will actually leave as they should, or if we’ll start to see an uptick in things like asylum claims to give them more time in the country.
[removed]
Do people typically go to other countries on temporary visas and not intend to return home when the terms of their visa expire?
Were someone to do such a thing, who exactly would be in the wrong in that situation? The person overstaying their visa? Or the country holding them accountable to the terms they previously mutually agreed upon?
Losing legal status? If they are not in school, they have no legal status. Their visa is expired, they go back to their home country, because that’s what they promised to do when applying for the visa. Or were they lying and had no intention to going back?