© Reuters. An asylum seeker walks down Roxham Highway to cross into Canada from the U.S. in Champlain, New York, U.S., February 28, 2023. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi/File Photograph
By Wa Lone
TORONTO (Reuters) – The dream of constructing it large in Canada is popping right into a battle for survival for a lot of immigrants because of the excessive price of residing and rental shortages, as rising emigration numbers hints to newcomers being compelled to show their again on a rustic that they selected to make their adopted house.
Trudeau has made immigration his essential weapon to blunt Canada’s large problem of an getting old and slowing inhabitants, and it has additionally helped gas financial progress. That drove Canada’s inhabitants up at its quickest clip in additional than six a long time this 12 months, Statistics Canada mentioned.
However now a reversal of that pattern is step by step taking maintain. Within the first six months of 2023 some 42,000 people departed Canada, including to 93,818 individuals who left in 2022 and 85,927 exits in 2021, official information present.
The speed of immigrants leaving Canada hit a two-decade excessive in 2019, in line with a latest report from the Institute for Canadian Citizenship (ICC), an immigration advocacy group. Whereas the numbers went down throughout pandemic lockdowns, Statistics Canada information exhibits it’s as soon as once more rising.
Whereas that could be a fraction of the 263,000 who got here to the nation over the identical interval, a gradual rise in emigration is making some observers cautious.
For a nation constructed on immigrants, a rising pattern of individuals leaving Canada dangers undermining one among Prime Minister Justin Trudeau authorities’s signature insurance policies, which granted everlasting residency to a file 2.5 million individuals in simply eight years.
Reuters spoke with a half a dozen individuals who have both left the nation or are getting ready to take action, due to the excessive price of residing.
Cara, 25, who got here to Canada in 2022 as a refugee from Hong Kong, now pays C$650 ($474) in month-to-month hire for a single-room basement house in Scarborough, north of Toronto, which is about 30% of her month-to-month take-home wage.
“I never realized that living in a Western country, you can only afford renting a room in the basement,” she mentioned. She declined to provide her actual identify as a result of she fled Hong Kong after taking part within the 2019 protests triggered by a now-abandoned extradition invoice.
Cara works three part-time jobs, making Ontario’s minimal wage of C$16.55 per hour, and goes to an grownup studying faculty to earn college credit.
“I almost use every single penny,” she mentioned, whereas in Hong Kong she was in a position to save a couple of third of her month-to-month wage.
To make sure, emigration as a share of Canada’s general inhabitants touched a excessive of 0.2% within the mid Nineties, and presently stands at about 0.09%, in line with official authorities information.
Whereas the numbers are small now, legal professionals and immigration consultants warn {that a} pick-up might forged a shroud over Canada’s attraction because the one of many favoured locations for newcomers.
“There’s a real importance in creating positive experiences in those early years” so that folks resolve to remain, mentioned Daniel Bernhard, CEO of ICC.
Immigrants blame the sky-rocketing housing prices as the largest cause for his or her determination to contemplate a brand new nation.
On common in Canada about 60% of family earnings can be wanted to cowl house possession prices, a determine that rises to about 98% for Vancouver and 80% for Toronto, RBC mentioned in a September report.
Myo Maung, 55, migrated to Canada from Myanmar over three a long time in the past and made a profitable profession as an actual property agent and a restaurateur. However he plans to retire in a rustic like Thailand since he can’t see himself sustaining his residing customary in Canada on his retirement earnings.
Phil Triadafilopoulos, a political science professor specializing in immigration on the College of Toronto (UofT), mentioned fast immigration is exacerbating the housing scarcity.
“It’s not surprising then that people who have options… either go to another country or go back home having had a taste of the situation in Canada,” Triadafilopoulos mentioned.
Final month Trudeau’s authorities capped its goal for brand new residents at a half million per 12 months from 2025 onwards to ease strain on the housing market.
However for some it’s too little too late.
Justinas Stankus, 38, who got here to Canada from Lithuania in 2019 to pursue a doctorate in political science on the UofT is contemplating relocating to Southeast Asia the place the price of residing is decrease and the place he might nonetheless pursue his analysis.
Stankus, who pays C$2,000, together with utilities, for a one-bedroom house, mentioned growing residing bills has made it troublesome to afford fundamental requirements.
“With a graduate student’s budget, it is not sustainable,” Stankus mentioned.
Cara from Hong Kong says she feels trapped and needs to go. “Whenever I get a chance to leave, I will take the chance.”
($1 = 1.3718 Canadian {dollars})
