Justin Trudeau Retreats From Canada’s Liberal Immigration Regime

Justin Trudeau this week moved to quell a public backlash to one of the world’s most progressive migration policies by rolling back Canada’s foreign worker scheme.

Trailing in polls ahead of an election next year, the prime minister announced measures to slash the number of new arrivals. But executives worry the measures will curb their supply of cheap labour.

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The move marked an abrupt change for Trudeau, who has championed Canada’s openness to migrants and welcomed refugees from war-ravaged countries including Syria and Ukraine. In 2015, he greeted Syrian refugees at Toronto airport by handing them winter jackets and declaring: “You are home.”

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Canada follows the UK and Germany in cracking down on immigration in the face of public disquiet about an influx of foreigners. Immigration has also become central to this year’s US election, with Democratic candidate Kamala Harris under fire for an increase in the number of migrants crossing the southern border from Mexico during the Biden administration.

Canada has welcomed 1.63mn new citizens since January 2018 with nearly one-third coming from India, the Philippines or China, according to official data.

In 2021, more than 8.3mn people, or almost one-quarter of Canada’s population, were migrants, according to official data. By comparison, in 2022 about 14 per cent of the UK’s almost 70mn people were born overseas, according to Oxford university’s migration observation centre.

David Coletto, chief executive of Ottawa-based polling firm Abacus Data, said that migration was one reason for the opposition Conservatives’ 17 point polling lead over Trudeau’s Liberals.

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Canada’s population hit 40mn last year after growing by more than 1mn in a year. Temporary and permanent migration accounted for 96 per cent of this population growth.

In November, two-thirds of Canadians surveyed said immigration was “too high” and 31 per cent said “way too high”, Coletto said. A Metropolis Institute and the Association for Canadian Studies poll in March 2024 found “one in two Canadians” said there were too many immigrants.

Trudeau’s new measures would slash from 20 per cent to 10 per cent the share of low-wage temporary foreign workers that Canadian employers can hire — reversing a 2022 policy that has increased the country’s stock of temporary foreign workers to nearly 3mn people. Trudeau has hinted at broader immigration reform in the autumn.

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