Canadian Immigration News

Canada Increases Its Efforts to Welcome More Refugees in 2021

2 minute read
"Building on its image as the most welcoming country in the world, Canada is planning to roll out 3 new initiatives for refugees. According to Canadian Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino, Canada will always keep its door open when others close them. Even during the height of the ongoing pandemic, Canada was still resettling refugees."
Written by My Visa Source Team
Published on:  Jul 22, 2021
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Building on its image as the most welcoming country in the world, Canada is planning to roll out 3 new initiatives for refugees. According to Canadian Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino, Canada will always keep its door open when others close them. Even during the height of the ongoing pandemic, Canada was still resettling refugees.

In roughly six months of this year, until May 29, Canada managed to invite 4,345 refugees who worked in Canada’s health sector as frontline workers to help in Canada’s response to the pandemic. In 2020, Canada welcomed 9,200 refugees despite the ongoing pandemic.

In 2018, Canada committed to welcoming an estimated 10,000 refugees from Africa and the Middle East over the next two years. Canada managed to deliver on that promise despite the several challenges of a pandemic.

What New Initiatives Have Been Introduced to Increase Refugee Resettlement to Canada?

On June 18, Canada announced that it was making changes to the Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot (EMPP), the Private Sponsorship of the Refugee program, and that they would be increasing the number of protected persons accepted to Canada. Canada has increased the number of protected persons being accepted in 2021 from 23,500 to 45,000.

The government is planning to expedite the processing of applications to ensure that protected persons can transition to permanent residence without any delays.

Initiative 1: 

Around 500 refugee families through the EMPP in 2021. In addition, the following changes have been made to the program to make it more efficient:

  • Expedited processing of permanent residence applications to allow applicants to start working early
  • Helping refugees have easier access to the settlement funds
  • Waiving application fee for permanent residence applications
  • Making the application process easier and more flexible
  • Providing pre-departure medical services to meet the requirements for immigration medical examinations

Initiative 2: 

Providing Support Services for Private Sponsors of Refugees

The Canadian government is also working on measures to improve the existing pre and post-arrival support services for private sponsors of refugees.

This is being done to ensure that refugees have access to these support services to take full advantage of them. The government will be investing up to $3 million over the next 2 years in 9 organizations providing these services.

Initiative 3: 

Canada is going to become the second Chair of the Central America and Mexico Comprehensive Regional Protection and Solutions Framework (MIRPS) support platform. 

The government plans to use the platform to support the protection and empowerment of displaced women and girls. Canada intends to provide leadership opportunities for women, young girls, and those vulnerable to gender-based violence including the LBGTQIA+ community.

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