Sean Fraser talked about the new immigration pathway for temporary residents and its policy trends and considerations prevalent today.
Fraser pointed out his current challenge of the number of people coming to Canada temporarily, exceeding the space available in their immigration levels plan.
He stated that Canada might comprise half a million people studying temporarily, but the available space for permanent residents is over 400,000.
The new program will be different from the Temporary Residence to Permanent Residence (TR2PR) pathway, which was launched in 2021.
The border closures had led to the introduction of the TR2PR pathway as a temporary initiative to help Canada fulfill the essential immigration targets. This pathway also allowed over 90,000 temporary residents already working in Canada to shift to permanent residency.
The TR2PR measure was introduced by Marco Mendicino, the former minister of immigration.
As soon as Fraser was appointed as the immigration minister, he was required to extend pathways to permanent residence for the sake of international students and temporary foreign workers. According to Randeep Sarai, Parliament member of Surrey Centre in British Columbia, as of May 11, 2022, the minister had almost 120 days to create effective strategies to accomplish the goals.
Fraser stated that the pathways were an excellent opportunity for Canada and the next few months would provide more clarity on their details. He even rejected the idea of temporary residents getting additional points through the Express Entry system.
Express Entry, an entirely online system, operates around the three main economic immigration programs- CEC, FSTP, and FSWP. Sean Fraser even reported that they would focus on addressing the problem of a few temporary residents being denied temporary permits because of the immigration officer who is not convinced with them leaving Canada post completion of their authorized stay. As a result, people who’d like to study or work in Canada and get a PR have to face a problematic situation.
Fraser continued by stating that such individuals are not allowed entry to Canada temporarily as they might intend to stay longer than their stay in Canada.
He has to introduce a proper plan by September 8 based on the following six points:
- More weightage should be given to Canadian work experience based on the economic immigration programs.
- Extending the categories under the eligible occupations.
- Thorough checking of evidence from other federal immigration pathways.
- Select immigrants based on the persistent labor gap by including data on the labor market and skill shortage.
- Working toward retaining immigrants in smaller communities.
- Encouraging Francophone immigration even outside the province of Quebec.
- Recognize tactics and techniques to master quick changes per the latest labor market requirements.
- Setting economic priorities based on the regions.
- Giving special attention to occupations and certain crucial services concerning the sectors- agricultural, manufacturing, health services, transportation, and trades, caregivers.
Mr. Fraser asserted that the new program is still under development. Therefore, he didn’t make any final decisions on the project, saying it was still under talks amidst the developmental phase.
