How refugee applications work in Canada
People seeking protection from outside Canada’s borders versus refugee protection claims from within Canada.
There is a common misconception both within Canada as well as abroad that the Canadian government has a controlled limit for the number of refugee applications it accepts per year. The reality is quite a bit more complex.
Between July 2015 and July 2016 Canada’s population increased by 437,815 people according to Statistics Canada. Part of that 1.2 % population increase was made up of 320,932 immigrants. Refugees who arrive in Canada via UN resettlement have permanent resident status on arrival. That means they can work and study in Canada. The Syrian refugees sponsored by the Canadian government or by private citizens in that time period are thereby included in the figure of permanent immigrants. ¹
Aside from refugees who arrive in Canada with permanent resident status as part of UN resettlement under government or private sponsorship, Canada also processes many refugee applications by people who arrive in Canada without government assistance by various means.
The number of people who made refugee claims at Immigration Visa Offices in Canada ranged from 25,356 in 2011 to 10,427 in 2013. More recently in 2016 a total of 16,369 refugee applications were received at Immigration Visa Offices in Canada.² While the Canadian Government limits the number of applications processed under the resettlement sponsorship mechanism, there is no limit to the number of applications by refugee claimants within Canada by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.
Between November 4, 2015 and September 30, 2016 a total of 31,875 Syrian refugees arrived in Canada. 11,765 of these refugees were privately sponsored by Canadian citizens. All 31,875 Syrian refugees entered Canada with the full rights of permanent residents and a clear path to citizenship. ³ Note that there were also other nationalities aside from Syrians sponsored as part of the resettlement program during that time period.
Resettled refugees arrive in Canada as permanent residents. Their applications are processed before arriving in Canada. Refugee claims made in Canada, if granted, eventually result in permanent resident status. ⁴ The Canada Admissions of Permanent Residents by Immigration Category between 2014 and 2016 includes both sponsored (resettled) refugees and in-country applicants (protected persons). ⁵
Since December 29, 2004 Canada entered into a safe third country agreement with the United States similar to Europe’s Dublin regulation. Under the agreement, refugee claimants are required to request refugee protection in the first safe country they arrive in, unless they qualify for an exception to the agreement. The agreement does, in fact, not cover illegal border crossings and contains several other notable exceptions. ⁶
In the past and present refugees have reached Canada by land, sea and air. Over the years multiple ships with desperate migrants on board have arrived on both Canada’s Western and Eastern coasts. In the Summer of 1999 four different ships arrived off the British Columbia coast carrying 600 mostly Chinese migrants. ⁷ In recent weeks refugees have been entering Canada via unofficial border crossings from the US braving very cold temperatures in Manitoba. They thereby manage to circumvent the safe third country agreement between the US and Canada. ⁸
Further unlike many European countries Canada as well as the US practice jus soli. ⁹ The children born to refugee claimants in Canada or to resettled refugees automatically attain the right to Canadian citizenship.
In the past 2 years the number of resettled refugees has far outnumbered that of protected persons who made refugee claims on Canadian territory. However in 2014 a total of 11,197 protected persons gained permanent resident status versus 12,873 resettled refugees in Canada.¹⁰ In 2005 the number of refugees landed in Canada were nearly twice as many as the number of sponsored, resettled refugees.¹¹
Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board grants asylum applications made by by people arriving in Canada. The countries of origin for the In-Canada Asylum Program vary greatly from year to year. Here is a recent example from first half of 2015 of refugee claims granted from within Canada. Note that these accepted claims are obviously less in number than the initial claims processed.
People currently arriving over the Manitoba border often come from various parts of Africa. Their journeys are harrowing and many choose to leave their families behind in hopes of bringing them to Canada in a safer manner once they have succeeded with their refugee claims.
Canada requires resettled refugees to repay the cost of publicly funded flights, travel documents and initial medical exam with interest. In the face of significant protest Justin Trudeau’s new liberal government waived those fees for resettled Syrian refugees arriving in Canada after Nov 4, 2015.¹²
The Immigration Loans Program is probably one of the most controversial aspects of Canada’s Refugee and Humanitarian Resettlement Program. Privately sponsored refugees may find these fees covered by their sponsors in some cases, but it is not guaranteed.¹⁵ In Canada asylum applicants obviously do not face these fees.
One of the positive aspects of the resettlement mechanism is that all vetting and processing is completed before arrival.¹⁴ Obviously resettlement can never be the only mechanism to help refugees. European countries have resettled very few refugees, but they nevertheless helped a great many refugees who made refugee claims upon arrival. After welcoming approximately a million refugees in 2015 in the face of thousands of refugee drowning deaths in the Mediterranean, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel stated in January 2016:
“We need … to say to people that this is a temporary residential status and we expect that, once there is peace in Syria again, once IS has been defeated in Iraq, that you go back to your home country with the knowledge that you have gained.”
At the same time Chancellor Merkel also stated that 70 percent of Yugoslavian refugees who fled to Germany in the 1990s were returned home.¹⁵
The statements above signify the most persistent difference between Germany’s and Canada’s refugee protection program. Every refugee claim granted in Canada is intended to lead to permanent residence and finally to full citizenship in a very achievable time frame.
The German refugee protection program focuses on saving lives and invests a great many resources into refugees, but refugee children raised in Germany may, in fact, see themselves returned to their parents’ country of origin if the German government deems the country safe again. This is a profound difference between Germany and Canada and it has a human face in the well known case of a Palestinian high school student who told Angela Merkel of her fears of deportation in a televised discussion in Summer 2015.¹⁶
Unlike in Germany, nearly every single refugee whose refugee claim is granted in Canada attains permanent resident status. This gives refugees to Canada a strong welcome into their new home.¹⁷ At the same time the geographic situation of Canada and most European countries is very different. The recent Manitoba border crossings have made Canadians thoughtful as signified in a National Post article by Andrew Coyne.¹⁸
But now it appears America, for the next while at least, will be not so stable, or so prosperous, and certainly not so welcoming as it has been in the past. The Trump administration having vowed, not only to admit no more refugees for the next several months, but to deport much of the country’s existing undocumented population, we may soon find quite unmanageable numbers arriving on our own doorstep. If this many people are desperate enough to walk this far to cross in February, at the risk of frostbite and worse, how many will come by June?
There are no easy answers for Canada or for Europe. We can only strive to do much better in face of the fact that the majority of the world’s refugees are protected by countries outside of Europe and North America whose resources are far more strained.
In 1945 Germany alone became home to 12 million refugees. My mother was was one of them. For refugees there are no easy choices. There is only the desire to live.¹⁹
If the world’s Nations could only work together to help save the lives of refugees …
Sources:
- Canada’s population tops 36 million as immigrants, refugees swell numbers. CBC News. Sep 29, 2016.
- Refugee Claims. Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Retrieved Feb 24, 2017
- Syrian Refugee Resettlement. Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Retrieved Feb 24, 2017
- The Refugee System in Canada. Government of Canada. Retrieved Feb 24, 2017
- Applying for a protected person status document (IMM 5520). Government of Canada. Retrieved Feb 24, 2017.
- Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement. Government of Canada. Retrieved Feb 24, 2017.
- Migrant ships and Canada: A brief history. The Canadian Press. August 13, 2010.
- Canada PM: will not halt illegal border crossing despite opposition. Reuters. Feb 21, 2017. ⁸
- Jus Soli. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved Feb 24, 2017.
- Permanent Resident Admissions. Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Retrieved Feb 25, 2017
- Canada’s refugees by the numbers: the data. CBC News. Oct 04, 2015
- Liberals’ waiving of travel costs for Syrian refugees created 2-tier system. CBC News. Jan 19, 2016.
- Financial assistance — Refugees. Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Retrieved Feb 25, 2017
- Refugee vetting in U.S. and Canada already ‘extreme,’ experts say. Toronto Star. Feb 24, 2017.
- Germany’s Merkel says refugees must return home once war is over. Reuters. Jan 30, 2016.
- Angela Merkel comforts sobbing refugee but says Germany can’t help everyone. The Guardian. Jul 16. 2015
- Applying for permanent residence from within Canada: Protected persons and convention refugees (IMM 5205). Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Retrieved Feb 25, 2017.
- A crisis is coming: If this many cross the U.S. border in February, how many will come by June?. National Post. Feb 21, 2017.
- What Germany’s post-war refugees taught us about integration. Deutsche Welle. Jul 16, 2015.
Note: Citizenship and Immigration Canada data cited here frequently links to a choice of .csv or .xls files. LibreOffice is a free open-source office suite and will open any of those files for you easily.
Disclaimer: I am not a journalist. I am a simple Gremlin citizen of Planet Earth.
