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Viewing cable 08OTTAWA645, CANADIAN IMMIGRANTS ON THE RISE, BUT SO ARE "LOST"

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
08OTTAWA645 2008-05-09 18:51 2011-04-28 00:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Embassy Ottawa
VZCZCXRO0063
PP RUEHGA RUEHHA RUEHQU RUEHVC
DE RUEHOT #0645/01 1301851
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 091851Z MAY 08
FM AMEMBASSY OTTAWA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7834
INFO RUCNCAN/ALL CANADIAN POSTS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHMCSUU/FBI WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEAHLC/DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY WASHDC PRIORITY
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 OTTAWA 000645 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREF PTER PGOV CA
SUBJECT: CANADIAN IMMIGRANTS ON THE RISE, BUT SO ARE "LOST" 
DEPORTEES 
 
 
1. (U) Summary: In addition to accepting an increasing number 
of immigrants (especially high-skilled workers), Canada is 
also a growing destination for asylum seekers and refugees. 
Canada has successfully managed its immigration policies to 
maintain a reputation as a successful model of diversity and 
multi-culturalism, but is facing growing enforcement 
problems.  The Auditor General concluded in May that the 
Canadian Border Services Protection Agency (CBSA) had lost 
track of approximately 41,000 illegals it had ordered to 
leave the country; most are failed refugee applicants.  The 
government claimed in response that it had already improved 
its deportation processes over the past five years while 
acknowledging that it still needed to do a better job to 
maintain the integrity of its immigration system.  End 
summary. 
 
INCREASED IMMIGRATION FILLS JOBS AND ASSISTS REFUGEES... 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
 
2. (U) With an overall population of about 33 million people 
but declining birthrates, Canada is increasingly looking 
overseas to sustain both its population and its economic 
growth.  In 2007, Canada accepted the highest number of 
temporary and permanent residents as well as foreign students 
in its history -- 429,649 people --  of whom approximately 
250,000 were new immigrants.  It admitted 12 pct more foreign 
workers in 2007 than 2006.  The government has estimated that 
Canada's labor demands will continue to grow and that, by 
2012, immigration will account for all net growth of the 
labor force.  According to the 2006 census, Canada's 
population over the past five years grew by 1.6 million -- of 
whom 1.1 million were immigrants.  An estimated 6.2 Canadian 
residents are now foreign-born, with 58 pct born in Asia or 
the Middle East.  An estimated 63 pct of Canada's total 
foreign-born population have settled in the three largest 
cities of Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. 
 
3. (U) Canada also maintains a generous in-Canada refugee 
protection system (preferring "refugees" or "protected 
persons" to "asylum seekers" for the vast majority who apply 
in-country).  According to a senior Citizenship and 
Immigration Canada (CIC) official, Canada has a high rate of 
acceptance compared to other Western countries.  In 2006, 
22,944 individuals submitted claims for refugee protection 
within Canada, of whom Canada approved about 47 pct.  Mexico 
was the country of origin of the highest number of 
applications that Canada approved in 2006, followed by China, 
Colombia, Sri Lanka, India, and Haiti.  Of all refugees 
living in Canada at the end of 2006, more were from Columbia 
than from any other single country, however.  In December 
2004, Canada and the United States had signed a "Safe Third 
Country Agreement" stipulating that persons seeking refugee 
status must make a claim in the first country in which they 
arrive, unless they qualify for an exception.  The Federal 
Court of Canada in November 2007 struck down the Agreement, 
but the Federal Court of Appeal granted a stay on January 31, 
ruling that it is in the public interest that the Agreement 
remain in place pending an appeal by the government. 
 
4. (SBU) According to CIC, the refugee acceptance rate in 
2007 decreased to approximately 43 pct, largely the result of 
an influx of Mexicans seeking asylum in Canada.  The CIC 
official commented that Mexican asylum seekers seemed 
recently to have "discovered there is a country north of the 
United States."  United Nations High Commissioner for 
QUnited States."  United Nations High Commissioner for 
Refugees (UNHCR) statistics indicate that 74 pct of all 
asylum applications lodged by Mexican nationals worldwide in 
2007 were submitted in Canada, compared to 24 pct in the 
United States.  The CIC official commented that Mexican 
applicants in Canada tend to be better educated and wealthier 
than those in the United States, as they had managed to 
travel farther. 
 
5. (U) In addition to its in-country national refugee 
protection system, Canada also resettles refugees from abroad 
through close coordination with international partners, 
including UNHCR.  In 2006, Canada resettled approximately 
10,700 refugees from overseas.  Canada has played a major 
role in helping to resettle certain particularly vulnerable 
groups.  In March 2008, Canada announced that it would accept 
between 1,800 and 2,000 new Iraqi refugees, more than double 
the number in 2007.  In May 2007, Canada stated that it would 
resettle up to 5,000 Bhutanese refugees living in Nepalese 
camps over the next three to five years.  In 2006, Canada 
accepted 810 Karen refugees from Burma who had been living in 
camps in Thailand, and, in early 2007, it accepted an 
additional 1,850 refugees from Burma. 
 
...BUT ALSO LEADS TO PROBLEMS 
 
OTTAWA 00000645  002 OF 002 
 
 
----------------------------- 
 
6. (U) While Canada's immigration policies have helped 
augment its work force and have assisted tens of thousands of 
refugees, they have also created a number of complications. 
According to a May 2008 Report of the Auditor General of 
Canada, as of September 2007, CBSA had issued about 63,000 
removal orders or immigration warrants for failed refugee 
seekers or illegal immigrants, but could only verify the 
departure of approximately 22,000 individuals -- leaving the 
location of the remaining 41,000 people unknown.  The report 
criticized CBSA for its failure to investigate the vast 
majority of these cases under the pretext of not wanting to 
use scarce resources to locate people who may have already 
left Canada on their own accord without officially notifying 
the government.  The report also noted that the government 
had failed to fulfill a 2004 commitment to introduce the 
following year a new "Global Case Management System" better 
to track these deportees.  During a May 6 news conference, 
the Auditor General commented that the apparent ease with 
which so many people can elude the CBSA and illegally stay in 
Canada reduces the incentive for others to comply with 
immigration laws and damages the integrity of the immigration 
and refugee processes. 
 
7. (U)  According to Martin Collacott of the Fraser Institute 
(a conservative Canadian think tank), many overseas workers 
also simply stay in Canada after their work permits end.  The 
Auditor General's report acknowledged this possibility, and 
expressed concern that CBSA did not track whether individuals 
whose temporary resident permits had expired had left the 
country as required.  Canada issued 106,750 temporary foreign 
worker permits in 2006, and 103,000 in the first nine months 
of 2007. 
 
8. (U) Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day insisted to the 
media on May 6 that, while CBSA should improve its tracking 
system, Canada has been doing a better job of deporting 
illegal immigrants, citing deportations of 12,600 people (15 
pct of them criminals) in 2006-2007, up from 8,700 (17 pct of 
them criminals) in 2002-2003.  Day nonetheless pledged that 
the government would pursue implementation of an improved 
tracking system. 
 
9. (SBU) The CIC official commented to poloff that, while 
Canada's refugee and immigration must improve, even "losing" 
41,000 deportees was not unreasonable, claiming that the 
United States and other countries have far many more illegal 
residents whom they are unable to locate. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
10. (SBU) While the Canadian government admits the need to 
improve its system of tracking would-be migrants, its 
immigration policies have already had positive affects, 
including helping to fill labor shortages that experts 
predict will only worsen.  Immigration has also helped Canada 
create one of the most diverse societies in the world, with 
one in five Canadians now an immigrant.  Only Australia has a 
higher percentage of foreign born residents.  As Canada's job 
market continues to grow, especially in the resource-rich 
western provinces, and as it maintains its generous refugee 
assistance programs, Canada will need better to respond to 
the challenge of admitting increasing numbers while striving 
to ensure adequate security and enforce its own laws and 
regulations. 
 
Visit Canada,s Economy and Environment Forum at 
http://www.intelink.gov/communities/state/can ada 
 
WILKINS