I am now about to remake our immigration system. Here are a few of my likely policy changes.
Immigration numbers will be cut back to 200,000
Family immigration will be eliminated except in humanitarian cases.
Investor class immgiration will be eliminated entirely.
All potential immmigrants must pass basic language tests given at the embassy or consulate.
All potential immigrants must have a job offer for a job which cannot be easily filled by Canadians in order to immigrate to Canada (which is the requirement in the US)
The requirement that immigrants attest to their desire to reside in Canada will be reinstated. The period of residency before acquiring citizenship will be raised back to 5 years.
All potential immigrants will be interviewed, which will allow an immigration officer to assess their language skills as well as their personal suitability and willingness to adapt and assimilate into Canada. They will also be required to answer, in writing, a series of fairly routine questions related to the profession they claim to be a member of in order to weed out those with fake documents and degrees. They will also be given a version of the 'personality' tests Canadian business routinely use to assess people's values and beliefs to see if they will fit in.
In addition for a potential immigrant getting points for language ability, education, job skills, etc., the potential immigrant's spouse will also be able to add points to his score if he/she also has language skills, education and job skills.
Canada will prioritize immigration from countries and areas in order to prevent the build-up of ethnic ghettos in Canada. For years Canada has taken a large number of immigrants from certain countries and areas which has supplied a continuing stream of that group to help enlarge and sustain such ethnic communities. Changing the focus of our immigration will allow those ethnic groups to more readily assimilate. This would mean targeting places like South America and Europe which have supplied minimal numbers of immigrants over the past few decades and which, consequently, do not have large ethnic communities here which retain the values and beliefs of their homeland.
Every refugee applicant will be kept in custody pending their hearing. Every refugee applicant's story will be checked out by the embassy/consulate in the country where they reside (Which means if you claim to be persecuted because you're gay your family and friends better know about your being gay). Canada will only grant temporary asylum for a perdiod of five years. After which the condition of their country or situation will be reassessed to see if they can return home.
Canada will adhere to the UN definition of refugee. This definition does not consider people living in a war torn counry like syrian (except minorities being persecuted) as refugees. Nor does it consider poverty, ie, Hait, to be a justification for asylum claims. Nor would it allow women who claim their husbands beat them to make asylum claims.
Immigrants/refugees who have met the residency requirements and wish to apply for citizenship must pass language tests (more than basic) and must demonstrate the efforts they have made to assimilate, as well as having been self-supporting and having no criminal record. (this is the case in most western countries).
Citizenship will be automatic only to those born to Canadian citizens. It will not be granted to those who happen to be flying overhead at birth, or to people who come here to give birth, or to visitors or refugees or students (except in the case where the resulting offspring would otherwise be stateless). If refugees become Canadian citizens then any child born to them in Canada automatically becomes a citizen.