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Stop blaming immigrants

Just before unsubscribing from one of a million mailing lists to an email address I'm trying to shut down, I discovered an opportunity to adapt and send a letter on a subject I care about. 

As a constituent in [your jurisdiction will go here], I want to begin by thanking you for your work on behalf of myself and my neighbours. I’m grateful to live in a country in which we have the opportunity to engage with our elected representatives and speak into issues that affect our communities. 

As [my MP] has a record of using her power for the people, I don't think she needs convincing, so the rest of this letter is addressed to Minister Diab and the Department of Immigration, Reguees and Citizenship:  

The federal government's Immigration Levels plan for 2026 and beyond is unacceptable. The devastating cuts affect real people fleeing conflict and persecution and real Canadians who love them and are waiting to welcome them. Worse, these cuts implicitly suggest the disgusting narrative that immigrants are behind all that ails Canada -- rather than the truth which is that decades of federal budget cuts and whittling away at the social safety net, something which Carney is now doing with a chainsaw. That is patently untrue, whether regarding housing, university funding or even crime.

I want to express my disappointment in these cuts -- and this disgusting rhetoric -- and encourage you to join me (and many other Canadians) in advocating for a strong welcome by Canada for those seeking refuge. 

To reduce the total number of Refugees and Protected Persons by 16% is simply unacceptable as it comes at a time when, as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports, there are over 36.4 million refugees seeking safety. It is further appalling that in 2026, the resettlement targets make up only 8% of the overall Permanent Residence (PR) target despite the long-time calls from the Canadian Sponsorship Agreement Holders (SAH) Association, the Canadian Council for Refugees (CCR) and others that this be at least 15%.

This government needs to stop blaming immigration for pressures in areas such as housing and healthcare and start fixing those problems at their root by actually funding them -- the *lives* of Canadians, not building up the military and subsidizing fossil fuels. None of the challenges in our social systems are the fault of newcomers to Canada.  

Furthermore, the cuts to private sponsorship (30% reduction in the Private Sponsorship of Refugees category and 54% reduction in the Global Cap for Sponsorship Agreement Holders) are especially cruel and mean-spirited given that in most cases, the sponsors have private funds, housing, and robust settlement teams ready and waiting to welcome the refugees they are sponsoring, and they are committed to and supportive of a strong refugee welcome system in Canada. The reduction in the Private Sponsorship of Refugees category will not reduce the backlog of approximately 90,000 applicants. Refugees will be waiting even longer than the already too-long average waiting period of over 2 years. Even more concerning is that this will leave refugees who are already in vulnerable situations at even greater risk. 

I join with people and organizations across Canada in asking that the Canadian government keep its humanitarian commitments by rescinding the cuts to the Global Cap and raising the number of resettled refugees in Canada to a minimum of 15% of the overall Permanent Resident target. 

The government has said that they have made these recent cuts to immigration levels in part because “this is what Canadians want.” This is not what this Canadian wants. And to the extent many Canadians think reducing immigration is necessary, it is because you have lied to them about the real causes of the housing crisis and thus their opinion is predicated upon faulty information. 

Stop blaming immigrants. 

Thanks to World Renew and the Christian Reformed Centre for Public Dialogue

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