From the Editorial Staff

The newspaper La Jornada
Saturday, August 31, 2024, p. 19

The Canadian government has suspended the issuance of work permits for foreigners in response to harsh criticism of the country’s immigration policy, the magazine reported yesterday. Forbes.

A special system for granting work permits was implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic to help foreign tourists who were unable to return home due to border closures resulting from the health emergency. Since then, 6,549 people have applied for work permits, of which 4,761 have been approved.

The government initially announced that work permits for visitors would no longer be authorized in February 2025, but surprisingly, this week, the authorities decided to cancel them, to recalibrate the number of temporary residents in Canada and preserve the integrity of the immigration systemthe Immigration Ministry said in a statement, according to the CBC channel.

In recent months, rising costs of living, limited access to affordable housing and high unemployment rates among new immigrants have sparked protests across various sectors of Canadian society.

Temporary residents doubled in 2 years

In response to requests from the local workforce, the government decided to change the regulations for the authorization of asylum applications, imposed limits on the number of active foreign students in the country, and announced substantial reductions in the foreign temporary worker program with the aim of reducing the proportion of foreign temporary residents in relation to the total population from 6.1 to 5 percent.

The number of temporary foreign residents in Canada is 2.8 million people, a figure that doubled compared to 2022, when it was 1.4 million.

Canada has announced changes in the coming months to reduce permanent immigration.