The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that more than 1.44 million refugees are currently in need of resettlement to a third country. These are refugees who, according to the UNHCR, can neither return to their country of origin nor integrate into their country of first asylum. A total of 107,800 refugees were resettled worldwide in 2019, both with and without UNHCR assistance. According to the Pew Research Center, in 2018, Canada accepted more refugees than any other country.
In 2018, Canada joined with 181 other countries to endorse the United Nations Global Compact on Refugees (GCR). The GCR espouses four central objectives: 1) to ease pressure on refugee host countries; 2) to enhance refugee self-reliance; 3) to expand access to third-country solutions; and 4) to support conditions in countries of origin for return in safety and dignity. Refugee resettlement addresses both the first and third of these objectives. Canada's resettlement programs offer three main streams through which refugees enter Canada:
The PSR program is considered a “complementary pathway” by the GCR, creating an alternative means by which refugees can resettle in a third country. This program has been successful in resettling large numbers of refugees, and as a result, the Government of Canada has partnered with the UNHCR and other organizations in the Global Refugee Sponsorship Initiative (GRSI). The GRSI is an international project that shares best practices with other countries interested in implementing a private refugee sponsorship model. Since its launch at the end of 2016, different variants of community sponsorships have begun across the world.
Other complementary pathways include the Student Refugee Program offered through World University Service Canada, which combines resettlement with international student programs at Canadian universities, colleges and CEGEPs. Additionally, the relatively new Economic Mobility Pathways Project introduces skilled refugees to Canada through an economic immigration stream.
The Canadian government has longstanding commitments to resettle special groups such as women at risk and LGBTQ2 (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or two-spirited) refugees. Other priority groups that have been targeted by special government resettlement initiatives in recent years include survivors of Daesh in 2016 and Syrian refugees in 2015–2016.
At the time of writing, the worldwide coronavirus pandemic continues to seriously affect refugee resettlement on a global and domestic scale. The UNHCR halted its resettlement program in mid-March 2020, with Canada following suit. In June 2020, international resettlement programs, including Canada's, officially resumed though Canada's resettlement numbers remain very small as a result of travel and other restrictions.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that more than 1.44 million refugees are currently in need of resettlement in a third country.1 These are refugees who, according to the UNHCR, can neither return to their country of origin nor integrate into their country of first asylum. The international community resettled 107,800 refugees in 2019, both with and without UNHCR assistance.2
Canada accepted more refugees than any other country for the first time ever in 2018 when the United States (U.S.) greatly reduced its refugee resettlement program.3 Each year, Canada accepts about 9% of its new permanent residents as refugees. Projected levels for refugee intake will remain consistent with this figure for the next two years.4
The number of resettled refugees entering under private sponsorships has increased significantly over the past five years, and as of 2017, overtook the number of government-assisted refugees. The success of the private sponsorship program led the Government of Canada, in partnership with the UNHCR and others, to launch the Global Refugee Sponsorship Initiative (GRSI), an international project sharing best practices with other countries interested in implementing a private refugee sponsorship model.
Canada's immigration policy is shaped by the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act,5 which states that Canada's refugee program is primarily a means of saving lives by offering protection to those who need it and aiding the international effort to help those in need of resettlement. At the end of 2018, Canada joined with 181 other countries to endorse the United Nations (UN) Global Compact on Refugees (GCR),6 supporting its objectives of easing the burden on refugee host countries and promoting third-country solutions for refugees. In addition to resettlement, Canada has international obligations to those who come to Canada on their own and need protection (asylum seekers).7
At the time of writing, the worldwide coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continues to seriously affect refugee resettlement on a global and domestic scale. The UNHCR halted its resettlement program in mid-March, with Canada following suit. Although the UNHCR announced the resumption of its program in mid-June 2020, as of September 2020, Canada's restrictions on all non-essential travel into the country have continued to severely limit its domestic refugee resettlement programs.
This Background Paper provides an overview of Canada's refugee resettlement programs, outlining eligibility for resettlement and the different programs in place for resettlement in Canada. It also discusses the role that resettlement plays in recent international agreements like the GCR and examines Canada's role in the GRSI. The paper concludes with a consideration of some of the operational issues involved in refugee resettlement.
In order to be eligible for resettlement in Canada as a refugee, a person must meet the criteria of the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol: they must have a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion. Further, the person must be outside their country of nationality or habitual residence and not able to find protection there.
In addition, the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations stipulate that those persons outside their country who are “seriously and personally affected by civil war, armed conflict or massive violation of human rights” are eligible for refugee resettlement.8 The regulations also state that the applicant must be without a reasonable prospect, within a reasonable period, of a durable solution in a country other than Canada.9 Finally, the applicant must normally show potential to become successfully established and must meet admissibility criteria related to medical condition and security screening.10
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) visa officers stationed overseas generally determine if an individual is eligible for resettlement and admissible to Canada. Some refugees are referred to IRCC for consideration by a designated referral organization (primarily the UNHCR), while others are referred by private sponsors. Applications are considered individually, except where the mass movement of refugees (i.e., as a result of conflicts or generalized violence) has caused the UNHCR to declare a group prima facie refugees.11 Syrians fleeing the civil war who were resettled to Canada in 2015 were given this designation, as recommended by the UNHCR.
Refugees are resettled to Canada through one of the following programs:
Under the 1991 Canada–Québec Accord relating to Immigration and Temporary Admission of Aliens,15 the Quebec government selects refugees from the pool of IRCC-approved cases for resettlement and administers its own private sponsorship program.
IRCC began releasing multi-year immigration levels commitments in 2017, allowing those working with newcomers to plan beyond one year. The current plan maintains fixed intake levels for the PSR and BVOR programs until 2021 but provides for slight increases in the GAR program's quota between 2019 and 2021.16
The federal government bears complete responsibility for refugees who arrive through the GAR program. IRCC's Resettlement Assistance Program (RAP) provides settlement support for government-assisted refugees through a network of service provider organizations. This support includes the following:
Eligible refugees may also receive income assistance through RAP to cover start-up and ongoing costs, usually for the first year in Canada.17
Some refugees selected for resettlement by the government need special assistance, so the government works with private sponsors to meet their needs for a longer settlement period through the Joint Assistance Sponsorship program. A refugee may qualify for the JAS program for a variety of reasons, some of which include
The PSR program is unique among resettlement programs in that sponsors may refer refugees for resettlement to IRCC. The sponsors assume all the financial costs for the initial resettlement period of 12 months.
In the PSR program, private sponsors provide initial settlement support like that provided by RAP, as well as emotional and social support. In 2018, the estimated cost for sponsoring a single individual was $16,500, while the cost of sponsoring a family of six was $35,500.18 The PSR program's reliance on private resources allows refugees to be resettled to Canada without significant increases in government funding.
Private sponsors in the PSR program include
In 2017 and 2018, the number of resettled refugees assisted by the government was approximately half the number of those sponsored by private groups, as shown in Figure 1. As the target immigration levels between 2020 and 2022 show the planned intake of privately sponsored refugees to be approximately double that of government-assisted refugees every year, this trend is likely to continue.20
Figure 1 – New Permanent Residents Admitted Through the Government-Assisted Refugee Program and the Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program, 2010–2018
Sources: Figure prepared by the author using data obtained from Government of Canada, “02. Canada – Permanent residents by category, 2008–2017,” Facts and Figures 2017: Immigration Overview – Permanent Residents. Figures for 2018 are taken from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, Annual Report to Parliament on Immigration 2019 
(1.93 MB, 44 pages), 2020, p. 21.
Some critics of the PSR program have voiced concerns that the government may shift the responsibility it has towards international refugees to the private sector by neglecting the GAR program in favour of expanding the PSR program.21 This critique stems largely from the way in which refugees for each program are selected – those in the GAR are referred by the UNHCR on the basis of vulnerability, and those in the PSR program are often chosen because of their existing links with Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada.22
The BVOR program is a partnership program that began in 2013 between IRCC, refugee referral organizations23 and private sponsors (SAH, Groups of Five and Community Sponsors). The program matches private sponsors with refugees who have already been referred to IRCC by an organization and approved for resettlement. Refugees referred by Groups of Five and Community Sponsors must have documentation showing that the UNHCR or a foreign government has officially recognized their refugee status.24 The costs of sponsorship are shared between the government and private sponsors, with RAP providing the initial six months of financial support and private sponsors covering the start-up costs and an additional six months of financial support. Private sponsors provide the entirety of the settlement support. The BVOR program represents a minority of Canada's resettled refugees, with targets of 1,000 per year set for 2020–2022.25
Table 1 below summarizes the main differences between the different resettlement programs.
| Government-Assisted Refugees Program | Joint Assistance Sponsorship Program | Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program | Blended Visa Office–Referred Program | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Referred to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) by: | United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) | UNHCR | Private sponsors | UNHCR |
| Funded by: | IRCC, through the Resettlement Assistance Program (RAP) | IRCC, through RAP | Private sponsors | IRCC and private sponsors; each is responsible for six months of financial support. Sponsors pay start-up costs |
| Settlement support provided by: | IRCC, through RAP | Private sponsors | Private sponsors | Private sponsors |
| Coverage under the Interim Federal Health Program |
|
|
|
|
Source: Table prepared by the author using information obtained from Government of Canada, Government-Assisted Refugees Program; Government of Canada, Joint Assistance Program: About the process; Government of Canada, Sponsor a refugee; Government of Canada, Blended Visa Office–Referred Program: About the process; and Government of Canada, Interim Federal Health Program: What is covered.
In recent decades, international migration has increased substantially. By 2019, migrants comprised 3.5% of the world's total population versus 2.8% in 2000.27 Correspondingly, between 2010 and 2019, the world's refugee population doubled, from about 10 million to 20.4 million.28 This reality prompted the international community to design cooperative mechanisms for managing and protecting these people flows. The results are the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM)29 and the GCR. Both build on the UN's Sustainable Development Goals30 and the 2016 New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants. This declaration outlined an initial set of voluntary commitments that UN member states adopted to strengthen and enhance mechanisms to protect refugees and migrants, and to pledge support for host countries. The compacts are non-binding, instead providing incentives to garner states' participation.
In affirming the global compacts, Canada has expressed support for increased global coordination of migration and refugee policies, sharing best practices and learning from other states. The Government of Canada's position is that the compacts provide a framework to guide states in achieving objectives that reflect Canadian values such as respect for human rights and dignity, and protecting those who are most vulnerable. Their implementation presents Canada with the opportunity to continue to share and participate in developing processes that reflect its priorities, such as a consideration of gender in policies and actions.31
Negotiations to achieve the GCM were led by former Supreme Court of Canada Justice and current Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for International Migration, the Honourable Louise Arbour, in consultation with the International Organization for Migration (IOM)32 and UN member states. UN member states were invited to endorse the compact at the Intergovernmental Conference to Adopt the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, which took place in Marrakech, Morocco, in December 2018. The GCM was approved by 152 states, Canada included.33
In supporting the GCM, the Government of Canada aims to resolve the tensions over such issues as national security and human rights that surround international migration. It also hopes to highlight the positive role migrants play in well-managed systems and the challenges of irregular migration.34 The GCM provides for the newly established UN Network on Migration, housed in the IOM, to support its implementation.
In 2018, Canada and most other UN member states affirmed the GCR, an initiative led by the UNHCR in consultation with numerous non-governmental organizations and governments.35 The agreement espouses four central objectives:
The Government of Canada views the GCR as a means of respecting a common humanity and of strengthening collective security by preserving a rules-based order that respects human rights. In terms of Canada's international priorities, the GCR provides a means of continuing to advocate for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.36
Resettlement of refugees to Canada largely aligns with the third objective of the GCR (expanding access to third-country solutions) and includes both formal resettlement programs and what are known as “complementary pathways” that provide alternative, regulated immigration routes for refugees to a third country. Canada's PSR program is a complementary pathway that has served as a model that other countries have since adopted in the spirit of the GCR. Other routes available to refugees include entry to a Canadian university through sponsorship by World University Service Canada (WUSC) and opening economic immigration pathways to refugees.
The GRSI brings together the Government of Canada, the UNHCR, the University of Ottawa, the Open Society Foundations and the Giustra Foundation to increase refugees' access to complementary pathways to third countries by working with these countries to design their own community refugee sponsorship programs. Canada's PSR program, as discussed above, has proven successful in sponsoring and integrating large numbers of refugees while keeping the government costs of sponsorship to a minimum.
The GRSI's objectives are as follows:
Since the GRSI's launch at the end of 2016, different variants of community sponsorships have begun across the world. Programs have been launched in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Spain and the United Kingdom, with additional short-term programs elsewhere.37 While Canada's PSR program is offered as a model through the GRSI, each country's approach is unique, and there is substantial variation between all the programs.
The Student Refugee Program offered through WUSC has combined resettlement with international student programs at Canadian universities, colleges and CEGEPs38 since 1978. WUSC is an official SAH through the PSR program, bringing in more than 130 refugees as permanent residents to Canada each year to study. One of the noted strengths of this program is the natural means of integration that student and campus life offer new refugees, with language skills development, social networks and work opportunities built into the student experience.39
In partnership with the UNHCR and the non-profit Talent Beyond Boundaries, the Canadian government began a pilot program in 2018 to introduce skilled refugees to Canada through an economic immigration stream. The resulting Economic Mobility Pathways Project (EMPP) was initiated in response to the GCR's emphasis on complementary pathways. The program aimed to address the needs of both global refugee resettlement and Canada's labour market. Following its initial success and evaluation, the launch of a second phase of this project was announced at the Global Refugee Forum in December 2019.40 Six months later, the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship announced the creation of up to 500 places over two years for the EMPP at the Annual Tripartite Consultations on Resettlement.41
The UNHCR refers refugees for resettlement who are deemed at risk in their host country or who have particular needs or vulnerabilities. In other cases, a lack of foreseeable solutions for whole population groups may result in the UNHCR referring them collectively for resettlement.42 The UNHCR and the international community recognize that resettlement places should be given to both individuals experiencing urgent unfolding conflicts and to those in protracted refugee situations who have been displaced for many years.
The Canadian government sets its own priorities for refugee settlement by identifying particularly vulnerable groups and specific refugee populations. Women refugees have been a long-standing priority for government sponsored resettlement, beginning in 1988 when IRCC introduced the Women at Risk program. The program aims to streamline refugee applications from women who lack the usual family protections and whose safety is not guaranteed by local authorities.43 Eligible candidates can enter through any of the resettlement programs. In 2016, in response to the Yazidi genocide in northern Iraq,44 the government resettled 1,215 survivors of Daesh, the vast majority of them Yazidi women and girls.45 IRCC's 2018 budget committed Canada to settling an additional 1,000 vulnerable women and girls through the GAR program, and this resettlement was completed in 2019.46 IRCC also announced that a pilot project focused on resettling vulnerable women and children, among others, would begin in 2020.47
More recently, the government has prioritized LGBTQ2 (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or two-spirited) refugees for resettlement. Since 2011, the Rainbow Refugee Assistance Partnership has blended government and private support to sponsor refugees fleeing persecution on account of their sexual orientation and gender identity.48
In the past few years, the GAR program has evolved considerably in terms of the numbers and types of refugees prioritized for resettlement, with two notable examples being the refugees settled under the Syrian Refugee Resettlement Initiative in 2015–2016 and the survivors of Daesh in 2016. In 2015 and 2016, approximately 25,000 Syrian refugees landed in Canada, with 53% entering through the GAR program.49
As previously noted, the PSR program presents some challenges in terms of resettlement priorities. Sponsored refugees are selected privately, often based on factors such as existing family or community ties to Canada. Some critics fear that this tends to favour refugees from a handful of select regions of the world to the detriment of others where refugees are also in need of resettlement.50
The refugee resettlement programs all face lengthy processing times. IRCC does not make data regarding average processing times public, although the department had yet to reach its goal of reducing processing times to 12 months as of September 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted this progress, and many voices are raising the issue of backlogs increasing once again as a result of the pandemic shutdowns.51 Some IRCC visa officers have pointed to difficulties in achieving the targets set by multi-year immigration levels plans, which add more applications to those that already exceed their processing capacity.52 Once a refugee's application is processed and approved, the wait time can be up to four months before arrival in Canada.53 In general, government-assisted refugees are processed more quickly than privately sponsored refugees, although the GAR program is still affected by delays. Both the PSR and GAR programs require visa officers to conduct in-person interviews and assessments with referred refugees, and this can sometimes be delayed further by poor security conditions in the refugee's country of asylum.54
In recent years, the LGBTQ2 community, among others, has raised concerns regarding some of the operational difficulties facing refugees who find themselves in a country of asylum where they are unable to be recognized as refugees or be given protection. This may occur for a range of political or cultural reasons. In the case of LGBTQ2 individuals, their identities and activities are criminalized in many countries worldwide, and thus their ability to gain refugee status based on being LGBTQ2 is likewise negatively affected.55 While the UNHCR can provide refugee status determination and protection to those who need it when possible, doing so in some cases can have political ramifications for the UNHCR within that country of asylum.56 This can consequently negatively impact a refugee's ability to be recognized and to be referred for resettlement.
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and worldwide travel restrictions, the UNHCR and IOM paused all resettlement operations. The Canadian government followed suit, bringing its resettlement programs to a halt on 18 March 2020. As of 18 June 2020, the UNHCR and IOM announced the resumption of resettlement travel. However, Canada's travel restrictions continue to bar most discretionary travel into the country, thereby effectively continuing the pause on domestic resettlement programs.57 The UNHCR estimates that 10,000 departures of refugees to international resettlement destinations were affected by the two-month-long disruption caused by the pandemic.58
Canada resettles very high numbers of refugees each year, in large part through its reliance on successful and innovative complementary pathways like the PSR program. In the new age of global cooperation facilitated by the GCR, Canada is continuing to introduce new means of resettling refugees. As the world's numbers of refugees continue to rise, these strategies for supporting refugees, their host countries and resettlement programs will need to be ever more robust.
* This Background Paper is based on an earlier publication by Sandra Elgersma, Resettling Refugees: Canada’s Humanitarian Commitments, Publication no. 2015-11-E, Parliamentary Information and Research Service, Library of Parliament, Ottawa, 1 April 2015. [ Return to text ]
† Library of Parliament Background Papers provide in-depth studies of policy issues. They feature historical background, current information and references, and many anticipate the emergence of the issues they examine. They are prepared by the Parliamentary Information and Research Service, which carries out research for and provides information and analysis to parliamentarians and Senate and House of Commons committees and parliamentary associations in an objective, impartial manner. [ Return to text ]
(10.25 MB, 84 pages), 18 June 2020, p. 2. [ Return to text ] (1.93 MB, 44 pages), 2020, p. 37; and IRCC, Annual Report to Parliament on Immigration 2018 (3.48 MB, 45 pages), 2018, p. 39. For 2020, the federal government committed to accepting 31,700 refugees out of a total 341,000 new immigrants and 31,950 of 351,000 in 2021. See Government of Canada, “Notice – Supplementary Information 2020–2022 Immigration Levels Plan,” Notice, 12 March 2020. Note that these numbers do not reflect the current and future impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on international and domestic immigration policies and practice. [ Return to text ][s]ituations of mass influx frequently involve groups of persons acknowledged as refugees on a group basis because of the readily apparent and objective reasons for flight. … The immediate impracticality of individual status determinations has led to use of a prima facie refugee designation or acceptance for the group.UNHCR, Handbook on Procedures and Criteria for Determining Refugee Status Under the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, Geneva, February 2019, p. 104. [ Return to text ]
(319 KB, 4 pages),” Forced Migration Review, No. 54, February 2017, p. 56; and House of Commons, Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration [CIMM], Evidence, 1st Session, 42nd Parliament, 30 November 2017, 1000 (Shauna Labman, Assistant Professor, University of Manitoba, as an individual). [ Return to text ] (1.15 MB, 16 pages), Publication no. 2019-21-E, Parliamentary Information and Research Service, Library of Parliament, Ottawa, 20 May 2019. [ Return to text ] (258 KB, 4 pages),” Fact sheet, No. 2019/4, September 2019. [ Return to text ] (10.25 MB, 84 pages), 18 June 2020, p. 16. [ Return to text ] (1.11 MB, 21 pages),” Policy Brief, Migration Policy Institute Europe, No. 15, December 2019, p. 3. [ Return to text ] (816 KB, 41 pages), A/HRC/32/CRP.2, 32nd Session, 15 June 2016. This was followed by a supporting statement in the House of Commons by then Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Honourable Stéphane Dion, who confirmed Canada's recognition of the violence as a genocide. See House of Commons, Debates, 1st Session, 42nd Parliament, 16 June 2016. [ Return to text ] (1.59 MB, 114 pages), University of Manitoba, January 2019. [ Return to text ] (731 KB, 22 pages),” Insights on Canadian Society, Statistics Canada, 12 February 2019, p. 1. [ Return to text ] (4.71 MB, 18 pages), Citizens for Public Justice, June 2020, p. 7. The processing time for those in the GAR program is said to be from 18 to 36 months. See Ervis Martani, “Rebalancing and improving refugee resettlement in Canada,” Policy Options, 2 November 2020. [ Return to text ] (3.30 MB, 120 pages), Twenty-Fifth Report, 1st Session, 42nd Parliament, June 2019, pp. 53–55. [ Return to text ]
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