…amid population surge
Canada, a choice destination for youths from Nigeria and across the world seeking new opportunities, has barred holders of visitor’s visas from applying for work permits with immediate effect.
Informed sources say the country is responding to an upsurge of foreign nationals working or applying for work in Canada without due documentation or authorisation.
In August 2020, Canada established a policy to assist visitors in the country who were unable to return home because of border closures related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The policy allowed visitors to apply for and take on employment in the interim so as to enable them to support themselves financially.
The temporary policy was originally scheduled to expire on February 28, 2025.
Informed sources say that Canadian authorities believe that the upsurge of migrants seeking employment without authorisation is an organised effort by unscrupulous migration agencies from various countries to circumvent due migration processes for profit and is leading to growing numbers of purported visitors who actually intend to stay in the country on a permanent basis.
In a notice it put out on Wednesday, Canada’s immigration service, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), said it was aware “that some bad actors were using the policy to mislead foreign nationals into working in Canada without authorisation” but that it would “continue to process applications submitted before August 28, 2024 under the policy”.
“While the temporary policy was set to expire on February 28, 2025, IRCC is ending the policy as part of our overall efforts to recalibrate the number of temporary residents in Canada and preserve the integrity of the immigration system,” it said.
Under the policy, visitors could apply for a work permit without having to leave Canada. Also, anyone who had held a work permit within the preceding 12 months but had changed their immigrations status to “visitor” became eligible to “work legally in Canada while waiting for a decision on their new work permit application”.
Labour shortages in Canada as a result of its ageing population and lower birth rate has increased its demand for skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled jobs from other countries including Nigeria.
The number of Canadian job openings with “without experience” descriptors in their occupational eligibility requirements has risen in response to the rise in demand for unskilled labour, according to Universal Adviser Migration Services, an immigration consultancy firm in India.
“Workers without experience now have the chance to fulfill their Canadian work-life aspirations thanks to Canada’s increase of employment options that address the nation’s labour shortages,” it said.
The government of Canada has a policy to continue steadily increasing immigration levels, with the goal of accepting 500,000 new permanent residents into the country each year by 2025, after which it would aim to stabilise immigration targets.
Canada assesses human capital criteria such as age, education, work experience, arranged employment, language skills and adaptability and federal skilled workers are selected under the Express Entry immigration system.
Far out immigrants to Canada include populations from China, India, the Philipines, the Carribbean and Africa.
Over 70,000 people of Nigerian descent live, work and study in Canada.
Canada granted more than 437,000 foreigners permanent residency in 2022. Preliminary data for 2023 shows that this figure surpassed 471,000, the most new foreigners ever accepted in a single year.
