Minister to propose more changes to federal immigration, asylum system

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OTTAWA — Immigration Minister Marc Miller says further reforms to Canada’s immigration and asylum systems will be proposed in the coming weeks.

This comes on the heels of a significant cut to the targeted number of permanent residents admitted to Canada in the next two years, and tighter rules around temporary worker permits.

Statistics provided by Canadian officials show the average wait time to process refugee and asylum claims is around 44 months.

Miller told the House of Commons immigration committee Monday that the asylum and refugee system is not working the way it should due to volume and inefficiency.

“I want to reform the system; it’s not working in the way it should,” Miller said.

“The growing claims that we see now, inland, are not unexpected. They’re ones that we saw with people having increasingly fewer hopes to stay in Canada, and being counselled to file, I think unjustly, asylum claims where they shouldn’t have the ability to do so.”

Inland asylum claims are those made outside of regular ports of entry. People must have been in Canada for at least two weeks before making such a claim. According to government data, 635 of these claims were processed between January and September this year.

Earlier in the the testimony, Miller said an increasing number of people on student visas have been filing asylum claims.

This can be an emotionally charged issue, as protesters at the committee held up signs saying: “Don’t deport us! Don’t be racist! Rights not cuts! Status for All!” at the end of Miller’s testimony.

One of the protesters from the group Migrant Workers Alliance for Change told the minister “we are the people you’re trying to kick out of this country,” as the minister exited the committee room. The group of around 20 people was escorted from the building by parliamentary protective services.

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NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan brought up calls to reverse recent immigration changes, which says migrants are being scapegoated for issues like the housing crisis, in her line of questioning.

Miller responded that becoming a Canadian citizen is not a right.

“It is not a right to become a permanent resident. It is not a right to become a Canadian citizen, otherwise you dilute the value of it. That’s something I firmly believe in,” Miller said.

“It doesn’t mean at the same time that you treat people unfairly, and those that have undertaken in their own visas that they will leave at the end of this obviously have to respect that.”

Miller added there are nuances to the issue, which is why there is a target to draw 40% of new permanent residents from people already in Canada.

There were nearly 250,000 refugee claims that need to be decided as of the end of September. In that same time frame, 48,000 asylum claims had been processed since the beginning of this year.