It was extremely easy to enter Canada for multiple years. IRCC was doing bulk approvals of TRVs without even vetting them. Was easy to secure WPs, easy to get extensions of temporary status, etc. Nobody who works in immigration, especially during the Sean Fraser days, will disagree with me.
Being for limits of immigration doesn’t mean you are anti-immigration. Sure there is fringe elements, who have sadly grown larger, who call for no immigration but the majority want reasonable levels of immigration, better vetting of applicants and less temporary residents (not millions). The majority of the criticism about the volume of applicants is that they are putting huge pressure on infrastructure, that the volume is too high to promote integration, that due to poor vetting criminal activity has increased, that there is rampant fraud, that unemployment is too high to justify the previous immigration targets, etc. I could go on. Also that the humanitarian programs are costing taxpayers a fortune and that IRCC can’t process this volume of application and Canada doesn’t have the infrastructure to absorb this high volume of people. Most Canadians don’t find it acceptable to house 20 people in a basement and if that is the only housing option for people that is a problem. The Trudeau government (as a Liberal myself) became essentially the NDP and wanted to be known as the most humanitarian country of the world. Many Liberal MPs, other conservative parties and primarily bureaucrats at IRCC were against the regularization policy along with many of the policies the Trudeau government implemented. Provinces and municipalities were also complicit in some of this immigration mess so there is a lot of blame to go around. Immigration was also used to prop up a weak economy versus actually addressing the issues facing the economy. It is not very economically advantageous to the country to have a black market. It is beneficial for employers and people receiving services at potentially a reduced costs for example. People without status eventually access services but often can’t pay for them or if free use valuable resources, only pay sales taxes, get old but have no safety net, etc. If people are expecting their will be a regularization pathway, especially in the near future, they are dreaming. People need to be considering other pathways to remain in Canada. Many are returning home but with a plan to study, work, learn French, etc. in order to have a chance to secure PR. That is a plan many should be considering. If you monitor JRs it is clear that Canada has increased deportations this year. There will likely be some tough choices when it comes to various humanitarian pathways because what Canada is doing is not sustainable. Whether people want to accept this or not is up to them but people should no longer be counting on fairly easy pathways to remain in Canada that were possible even a few years ago. They should be considering other options.
