IRCC Minister Transition Binder 2021: Federal-Provincial-Territorial and International Relations

Context

• Increasing global migration creates both opportunities and challenges for Canada:
  • An opportunity to access human capital to meet our economic needs – especially in the context of pandemic recovery – as well as to fulfill our humanitarian obligations
  • A challenge for our asylum system, as a result of the high numbers of irregular arrivals (prior to COVID-related border closures).
    • These opportunities and challenges are driving the need for enhanced engagement and dialogue, both domestically and internationally.
• Engagement with provincial/territorial and international partners is crucial to the effective delivery of the Department’s mandate, including to attract and retain human capital in support of economic growth, to maintain public support for immigration, and to address global migration challenges.
  • Domestically, IRCC engages with provincial and territorial governments on immigration issues, as a shared responsibility, to ensure that policies and programs benefit both national and jurisdictional interests.
  • Internationally, IRCC engages with other countries, as well as with international organizations and forums to foster cooperation on key migration and refugee protection issues, to exchange best practices, to enhance the integrity of migration and protection systems, and to promote regular migration and complementary protection pathways internationally in order to protect the safety and security of Canadians, as well as migrants and refugees.

Federal-Provincial-Territorial (FPT) Relations

• IRCC engages provinces and territories (PTs) multilaterally through the Forum of Ministers Responsible for Immigration.
• Bilateral engagement with PTs is guided by legally-binding bilateral agreements.
• Federal and provincial/territorial governments work collaboratively to leverage immigration as a means to grow the economy and address regional labour market needs.
  • The federal government is responsible for federal economic immigration, family class immigration, refugees, protected persons, and assessing the admissibility of all cases.
  • Provincial and territorial governments are responsible for nominations under Provincial Nominee Programs. FPT governments collaborate on other initiatives including the Atlantic Immigration Program, the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot, and Francophone immigration.
• Immigration-related matters with Quebec are unique and governed by the Canada-Quebec Accord.
• COVID-19 created significant challenges (limited operations, border closures and travel restrictions) and had a major impact on immigration processing, requiring close and meaningful collaboration between all levels of government.
• There is FPT consensus on the importance of economic immigration in supporting Canada’s economic recovery.

Provinces and territories have been focused on a broad range of immigration issues including:

Economic Immigration

• Provincial and territorial governments have indicated an interest in having 65% of annual admissions focused on the economic class, supported by faster processing times. Currently, planned immigration levels for 2021 is around 59% economic.

Regionalization

• A key priority has been to grow immigration outside of major urban centres to meet labour market needs; this would also help alleviate pressure on settlement and other services in Vancouver, Toronto, and Montréal. Some provinces and territories are concerned with the complementarity of federal and PT programs.

Asylum

• There is close collaboration with key asylum-seeker receiving provinces, which are responsible for providing services (social assistance, housing, education, health) to asylum seekers.

Settlement Services

• Provinces and territories are seeking increased federal investment in settlement services to better support and integrate newcomers. IRCC invested nearly $742M in 2020-2021 on settlement services outside of Quebec.

Multilateral International Engagement

IRCC conducts multilateral international engagement through various fora to support our mandate, including the resettlement of refugees, to identify collective solutions to global challenges, to support regular migration pathways, and to promote a positive narrative on migration.

Five Eyes:

• Migration Five: Composed of senior officials from the immigration agencies of Canada’s closest partners – the “Five Eyes” countries (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States) and serves as a platform to collaborate in addressing common migration challenges. The Migration Five receives direction from the Five Country Ministerial, an annual meeting of “Five Eyes” public safety and immigration ministers. Canada is currently chairing the Migration Five for 2021.

United Nations organizations:

• United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR): Relied on by IRCC to identify the most vulnerable refugees around the world in need of resettlement, UNHCR also monitors Canada’s compliance with its international legal obligations to protect refugees. The 1951 Refugee Convention, Article 35, states that contracting States, such as Canada, need to cooperate with UNHCR and facilitate its duty of supervising the domestic application of the provisions of the Convention, which include asylum and refugee protection. IRCC engages with both UNHCR Canada with respect to Canada’s compliance with international refugee protection norms, as well as with UNHCR Headquarters in Geneva on international protection issues.
• International Organization for Migration (IOM): The UN Migration Agency with a key role in developing responses to the shifting dynamics of global migration and it is an essential partner in Canada’s refugee resettlement efforts, providing transportation, pre-departure medical services, and orientation to refugees. The IOM also supports the delivery of Canada’s international migration capacity-building efforts

IRCC is an active player in global discussions dedicated to regular migration and refugee protection.

UN Network on Migration

• Coordinated by the International Organization for Migration and established to support states in their implementation, follow-up and review of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.

Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD)

• A state-led consultative process that provides a venue for governments to informally discuss policies, challenges and opportunities related to migration and development, and to engage with stakeholders, including local governments, businesses, civil society and youth.
• Canada is currently co-chair of the GFMD Working Group on Public Narratives on Migration, and is co-leading the global “It Takes a Community” campaign to promote balanced narratives on migration.

Intergovernmental Consultations on Migration, Asylum and Refugees

• A state-led forum of 13 European states plus the Migration Five countries. It fosters information exchange, policy debate, and cooperation on recent trends in international migration, asylum and refugee movements, and emerging policy and operational challenges across the migration continuum.

Canada is a world leader in refugee resettlement and development of complementary pathways of admissions for refugees, and has accepted international leadership roles intended to promote expanded access. This includes: chairing the Global Task Force on Labour Mobility, leading policy development in complementary pathways of admission under the Economic Mobility Pathways Program (EMPP), and leading other international capacity building initiatives on protection.

Bilateral International Engagement

Bilateral international engagement allows IRCC to address migration and refugee protection issues that are specific to its relationship with another country, learn from other countries’ experiences, and share information about Canada’s model of migration and refugee protection.

IRCC is often called on to take a leadership role in whole-of-government responses to emerging situations (e.g. Hong Kong, Afghanistan).

• As a result of the pandemic, IRCC has increased its engagement with bilateral partners, including embassies, international counterparts and international fora, on topics such as border restrictions and vaccine credentials.

Examples of IRCC’s bilateral engagement include:

• The Canada-European Union Joint Consultations on Migration and Asylum provides a platform for engagement on asylum issues, visa policy, regular migration pathways, and international migration governance.
• The Canada-Mexico High Level Dialogue on Mobility is a forum held twice a year to discuss migration challenges and opportunities, including issues related to the 2016 visa lift and the increasing levels of asylum claims from Mexico.
• The Canada-Ukraine Mobility Working Group brings representatives of both countries together to look at means of facilitating mobility between our countries and addressing key migration issues of mutual interest.
• Engagement with source countries of asylum seekers to advance cooperation on migration issues and facilitate the return of those who do not qualify to remain in Canada.
• Incoming visits and virtual meetings from countries seeking to learn about aspects of Canada’s approach to managed migration.

Bilateral Relations with the United States

IRCC has a strong and longstanding migration relationship with United States counterparts, regularly collaborating on issues relating to border security, information-sharing and asylum in the North American perimeter, as well as international migration and refugee protection issues.

• Addressing irregular migration at the Canada-U.S. border and into the North American perimeter is the key focus for Canada-U.S. engagement.
• Other key areas of collaboration include:
  • Information sharing to assist in the administration and enforcement of their respective immigration and citizenship laws
  • Joint efforts to address and deter irregular migration and forced displacement from the Americas
  • Management of asylum seekers at the land border (including the Safe Third Country Agreement and pandemic-related measures)
  • Close cooperation on processing of vulnerable refugees from Afghanistan
• Key migration and refugee protection priorities for the U.S. Administration include:
  • A broad, whole-of-government effort to reform the U.S. immigration system to be “fair, orderly and humane”
  • Investing in Central America and Mexico to address the root causes of irregular migration and forced displacement
  • Strengthening collaborative migration management with regional partners

International Capacity Building

Through capacity building, IRCC helps countries develop tools and policies to manage migration, strengthen asylum systems, and deal with migration and protection challenges. These efforts support both safe and regular pathways for migration, the deterrence of irregular migration, as well as strengthen protection systems.

Global Refugee Sponsorship Initiative (GRSI)

• IRCC shares its experience in private sponsorship of refugees with other countries and helps them to create similar programs, expanding the number of resettlement spaces available globally. Since GRSI’s establishment in December 2016, an estimated 1,000+ new protection spaces have been created worldwide.

Comprehensive Regional Framework for Protection and Solution (also known as MIRPS) Support Platform

• This mechanism supports responsibility-sharing on forced displacement in the seven MIRPS countries (Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama and Mexico) to offer protection, seek solutions and to mobilize support from other conventional and unconventional players in these efforts. Canada is chair of the MIRPS Support Platform in 2021-2022.

International Migration Capacity Building Program

• Through financial support, Canada works with partners to strengthen migration and asylum management systems worldwide and influence the global discourse on international mobility, to advance Canada’s migration and protection priorities.
• Funding envelopes under the program include core funding for migration-related projects, separate funding to strengthen removal cooperation, and dedicated funds to support countries hosting Venezuelan refugees and migrants.

Key Takeaways

• Engagement with provincial/territorial and international partners is key to the effective delivery of the Department’s mandate, as well as to address global migration challenges.
• While provinces and territories remain supportive of immigration as a means to grow the economy, meaningful collaboration is required on a range of immigration issues such as faster processing times, additional allocations under the Provincial Nominee Program, and compensation for asylum costs.
• Prior to COVID-19, increasing global migration flows without a corresponding increase in regular pathways for immigration led to an increase in irregular migration, which has posed challenges for receiving countries in terms of managing arrivals, returns and growing anti-immigrant sentiment. This trend is expected to continue post-pandemic.
• Canada has a balanced narrative on migration and refugees that is viewed positively and allows us to present a positive approach to migration and refugee protection on the world stage.
• International engagement to deter irregular migration and support returns is an important component of efforts to support the integrity of Canada’s migration and asylum system and to help preserve public confidence in Canada’s capacity to effectively manage migration, while delivering its commitments to refugees under international law.