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Sure, being poor in Canada is probably better than being poor in Syria. But is this any basis for a rational refugee policy?

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Though the idea of doubling the number of asylum seekers and refugees admitted to Canada, as the Liberals intend to do, may sound nice, it ignores the reality that many of them will face poor outcomes once they arrive, residing in homeless shelters and living off the largesse of the state.

On June 18, Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino announced ambitious new targets for the number of protected persons refugees and asylum seekers who are given leave to reside in Canada while their cases are being decided and their families who will be admitted to Canada. The number will go up from 23,500 in 2020, to 45,000 in 2021 (Canada has admitted an average of 30,000 in recent years).

In making the announcement, Mendicino claimed that the success refugees see in Canada is a reason that Canadas light shines brightly. He added that, Weve seen refugees give back to their new communities and their countries, even during the pandemic.

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This stirring rhetoric from the minister is unfortunately not always matched by the reality on the ground. A number of recent studies document that a growing number of refugees and asylum seekers wind up homeless, increasing the burden on a system that is already stretched thin, and has only become worse throughout the pandemic.

According to 2019 data from the City of Toronto, 40 per cent of individuals living in the citys homeless shelters were refugees and asylum claimants. Among families staying in Toronto shelters, in 2018, the city noted that refugees and asylum claimants represented a staggering 80 per cent of the total. Similarly, a study of Ottawas homeless shelters in 2018 revealed that almost a quarter of those using the shelters were refugees or immigrants.

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While we do not have more recent data, a walk around the downtown core of any major Canadian city will tell you that the problem of homelessness has worsened. With shelters bursting at the seams, and many people refusing to live in such cramped conditions during a global pandemic, many have spilled out onto the sidewalks and into public parks.

There are sections of my Ottawa neighbourhood of ByWard Market, which is home to most of the citys shelters, where an average person simply cannot walk safely. Illegal tent cities have become commonplace.

Theres a serious disconnect between the Trudeau governments progressive rhetoric on admitting refugees and the reality that so many of them face after they arrive in Canada. The problem is made worse by the fact that, in addition to those who enter Canada through official channels, an increasing number of asylum seekers enter irregularly, most by crossing the land border with the United States.

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Asylum seekers have learned that they can bypass Canadas Safe Third Country Agreement with the United States which stipulates that asylum seekers will be turned back if they try to cross the border at official crossings by entering the country elsewhere along our long, undefended border.

Unlike permanent residents, who qualify based on their skills or are transitioning from study or work permits, refugees, almost by definition, are fleeing their home countries out of desperation and do not necessarily have the skills, education or means to support themselves once they arrive in Canada. And many of those who do have qualifications quickly learn that they are not recognized in Canada, thus requiring them to go through a costly and time-consuming certification process to ensure that they meet Canadian standards.

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It is striking that Canada admits more refugees than the United States, a country with a vastly larger population. In fact, Canada overtook the U.S. in 2018, when this country resettled 28,000 refugees, compared to 23,000 in the U.S. Part of this no doubt reflects the Trump administrations crackdown on admitting refugees, but it also speaks to the Trudeau governments ambition to accept a large number of them.

It is not a mark of virtue for a country to admit more refugees and asylum seekers than it can realistically resettle and offer a decent life to. Rather, it smacks of the cynicism of progressive rhetoric on the one hand and a much bleaker reality on the other.

Canada is not the only country to have suffered as a result of its government believing that it is participating in some sort of Olympic Games for resettling more refugees than everyone else. Germany learned this the hard way, when Chancellor Angela Merkels government admitted hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing turmoil in Syrian.

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In 2015, almost 500,000 people applied for asylum and a further 750,000 applied in 2016. Merkel was hailed internationally as a champion of the refugee cause, but her decision sowed deep divisions in Germany and in part fuelled the rise of the far right.

Migrants in Germany remain heavily dependent on state support and they are disproportionately involved in violent crime, according to government data. This is not surprising, since only about half of the migrants who have come to Germany since 2013 are employed, according to a 2020 study from the Institute for Employment Research.

Likewise, Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus virtue signalling does no favours to the many refugees who arrive in Canada and find that without education, skills or income, life here is a new kind of hell and not what was promised in the brochures. Sure, being poor in Canada is probably better than being poor in Syria. But is this any basis for a rational refugee policy?

National Post

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Rupa Subramanya: Why are the Liberals doubling our refugee intake when so many of them end up on the streets? - National Post