But You Asked Them All to Come Here

No matter how unvetted, how lacking in capital or will to actually be Canadian, or what skill sets they bring that apparently Canadians don't have and cannot acquire.

I'm sure that there are rea$ons that will be apparent come election time:

Allan Reesor-McDowell, executive director of Matthew House, said all 13 of its reception and transitional homes are at full capacity, which combined typically provide beds for over 90 people.

Before the pandemic, Reesor-McDowell said, refugees would stay in these homes for three to four months before moving to more permanent housing, but now it's around six months.

He said this is because, simply put, "it's harder to find housing."

The refugee crisis has escalated for a decade, long neglected by the Canadian government, he said.

 

(Sidebar: are they refugees?)

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And why do we rely on foreign students and labour?:

Canadian postsecondary institutions have increasingly turned to international students, who pay tuition fees as much as 10 times higher than domestic ones, to balance their budgets in recent years. Capping foreign student visas could drive some institutions over the financial cliff, while forcing others to dramatically slash capital projects and investments in research.

The number of foreign students with active study permits soared to 807,750 last year, a 31-per-cent increase from 2021. Publicly funded universities and colleges accounted for less than half of the total. But they nevertheless remain addicted to juicy tuition revenues to stay afloat. They now fear becoming victims of a knee-jerk policy reaction in Ottawa, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government scrambles to address the housing crisis.

However, capping foreign student visas is not as simple as it sounds.

The truth is that a big proportion of international student visa holders who arrive here to attend career colleges spend more time working than studying. Indeed, as immigration minister earlier this year, Mr. Fraser lifted the 20-hour-per-week work limit for international students – providing proof if any were needed that the foreign student visa program is also a temporary foreign worker program aimed at helping desperate employers fill low-paying service-sector jobs. Capping visas for these students would leave hundreds of employers in the lurch.

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Imagine being so bad a country that even people from war-torn nations want to leave:

In the midst of the Russian invasion, Oleksandra Balytska landed a remote job in Kyiv with a Canadian artificial intelligence start-up, hoping to support her family.

But last fall, when the capital city was plunged into darkness amid attacks on Ukraine's power systems, Balytska's employer invited her to move to Toronto.

When Balytska landed in Toronto last December, she was immediately shocked by the cost of groceries. 

"I was so terrified that I bought only like two ramens because of the prices," she said.

Balytska was one of 60,000 Ukrainians who emigrated to Ontario under the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET) program due to the war. Under the federal program, each adult is eligible for a one-time payment of $3,000, while families with children can get an additional $1,500 for each child. 

But in a city like Toronto, that sum quickly disappeared. Balytska says she was asked for three months of rent upfront, while some of her friends were asked for more.

Then, half a year later, Balytska was laid off from the same company that invited her to Canada. After seeing the "brutal" job market where she says she had to compete with hundreds of applicants for a position, she decided it was time to return home.

"I've traded safety for my comfort," she said. 

Balytska isn't alone. 

Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) told CBC News it "does not track outbound travellers holding valid travel documents to enter Canada."

(Sidebar: and why don't you?)

However, Andrei Zavialov, a settlement worker with the Ukrainian Canadian Social Services Toronto, told CBC News he personally knows of about 15 Ukrainians who have returned home from the Greater Toronto Area already.

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What?:

A U.K. citizen set to be deported because of 'serious criminality' will get to stay in Canada for at least a bit longer.