‘Symbolic’ immigration rules likely to fall short
The Liberals swept into power with a surge of support in ridings with visible minorities, in part because of promises to let more elderly relatives of immigrants settle in Canada. Their family reunification changes will, however, likely fall far short of demand.
“It’s a positive step, but I think it’s a lot more symbolic,” said John Shields, an expert on immigration at Ryerson University.
The party plans to increase spending to speed up family class immigration, which can take years, and double the number of parents and grandparents admitted to Canada to 10,000 from 5,000.
This pledge hits a key sticking point for immigrant families, who weren’t pleased by the previous government’s efforts to limit permanent residency offers to elderly family members.
But the Liberal plan is unlikely to meet the huge demand for family reunification. The Conservative government cleared a backlog of 165,000 applications for parents and grandparents in 2011 by admitting 70,000 applicants between 2012-14, putting a temporary freeze on new applications, tightening who could apply, introducing a 10-year super visa for parents and grandparents, and putting an annual cap of 5,000 on future applications.
The Liberals are poised to ease family unification for the young by making it easier for siblings of Canadians to come to Canada, granting spouses of Canadians permanent residency instead of making them wait for two years and changing the maximum age for dependents who can come into Canada to 22 from 19.
“Recognizing that people with family here are good for the economy is a pretty important thing,” said Naomi Alboim, a professor at Queen’s University.
Janet Dench, executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees, said the proposed changes to family reunification don’t go far enough. They don’t mention refugees, some of whom wait as long as three years to be reunited with young children abroad, she said.