Justin Trudeau raised the hopes of hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants in Canada a few years ago by promising a vast regularization program. But within a few months, the tide turned, putting the historic plan in jeopardy.
“I had a lot of hope but now I don’t know what to think. It’s very hard,” Nina told AFP on condition of anonymity.
This 50-year-old Colombian, who arrived in Quebec with her minor daughter in 2008, has been without status since 2015. “Yet here I found peace. I was fleeing the violence of my country and family violence,” she says.
“When I was asked to leave Canada in 2015, I wanted to kill myself. I don’t know how I’m going to cope with all of this if the plan isn’t for me. My daughter has become Canadian, my life is here,” she confides, her voice choked with emotion.
The program was to concern people who entered the country illegally but had been in the country for years, as well as people who entered the country legally but stayed after their visa expired.
But the government’s latest statements have caused confusion among undocumented immigrants and associations.
Like Nina, between 100,000 and 1 million people are undocumented in Canada, according to different estimates. Their real number is certainly somewhere between the two, explains Immigration Minister Marc Miller.
“Toxic rhetoric”
Questioned by AFP, the minister still promises an “ambitious” program in the coming months for people who have been there “sometimes for years with children who grew up here”. But he now acknowledges that the program “won’t be for everyone.”
Canada is no longer “exempt from the toxic rhetoric regarding immigration that affects all Western countries,” he regrets.
Numerous polls in recent months have shown a perceptible shift in public opinion towards immigration after years of a policy considered very open.
Thus, 67% of Canadians surveyed consider that immigration levels in Canada are “too high”, a percentage that is increasing. And only 24% of them believe that the current level of immigration contributes positively to the country.
Many believe that new arrivals put additional pressure on healthcare structures and housing, particularly in a crisis context.
“People are increasingly questioning the way immigration is managed,” said Andrew McDougall, political scientist at the University of Toronto.
But “it would be going too far to say that there has been an anti-immigrant turn in Canada,” he adds.
At the start of 2024, Canada crossed the 41 million population mark thanks to immigration, encouraged to combat the labor shortage.
And according to the latest 2021 census, 23% of the Canadian population was born abroad.
“No longer live hidden”
In this context, the government has also changed its position: Canada will reduce the number of temporary foreign workers and foreign students welcomed.
Announcements which make migrant aid associations fear that undocumented immigrants will become “the forgotten ones of History”.
“We are not giving ourselves the means to reform the system to help get these people out of the violence, harassment and exploitation that they endure every day,” denounces Carole Yerochewski of the Center for Immigrant Workers (CTI). ).
Exile is a long way of the cross, says Mariana, who also speaks on condition of anonymity.
This Mexican dreams of “a change to be useful to society and no longer live hidden.” She says she worked undeclared for a long time as a home helper for an elderly person, paid $1.50 an hour (1.01 euros).
“Canada lacks workers, so why don’t we take care of regularizing those who are already there? It’s incomprehensible to me,” adds Annette, who arrived from Cameroon five years ago and saw her asylum request rejected.
She rarely goes out, fearing being arrested, and lives solely thanks to the support of associations.
The last regularization plan in Canada dates from August 1973 at the time of Pierre-Elliott Trudeau, the father of the current Prime Minister. Adopted virtually without opposition, the program made it possible to regularize only some 39,000 people.
