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Canada received 262,236 immigrants in 2005, including 44,000 Chinese and 33,000 Indians; the target for 2006 is 225,000 to 255,000, and for 2007 between 240,000 and 265,000. In 2005, China accounted for 16 percent of immigrants, followed by India, 13 percent, and the Philippines, seven percent. The immigrants in 2005 included 50 percent skilled workers and 20 percent family unification immigrants.

There is a three- to four-year lag between applying for immigrant status in Canada and receiving permission to move to Canada; about 800,000 foreigners are in the queue. Applications from Indians have risen sharply, so that India will surpass China as the major source of immigrants within a few years, reflecting improved opportunities in China as well as a 2002 policy change that increased points awarded to skilled workers for knowledge of English or French.

Immigration Minister Monte Solberg announced that employers in British Columbia and Alberta will be able to obtain foreign workers faster if they are seeking foreigners to fill jobs in occupations deemed to have shortages of workers. The 170 occupations on the shortage list in Alberta include housekeepers and cooks as well as head nurses and chiropractors. In British Columbia, there are 129 occupations on the list, including construction trades and physicists, professors, editors and veterinarians.

Solberg told Parliament in November 2006 there would be no amnesty for undocumented workers. An estimated 200,000 to 300,000 failed refugee claimants and visitors with expired visas are working in Canada. Unions and employers, especially in the Toronto construction industry, agree that unauthorized workers should be legalized, but Solberg said Canadian policy is to speed up admissions of immigrants and temporary workers. Foreign students are also being allowed to work off campus.

The number of asylum seekers who cross the US-Canadian border and file a refugee claim dropped by 55 percent in 2005, according to a review of the two-year old Safe Third Country Agreement. The 2004 agreement requires that refugee claims in the US and Canada be processed in the country that an asylum seeker first enters.

Maher Arar, the Canadian Muslim detained in a New York airport while changing planes and "rendered" to Syria to reportedly be tortured over 10 months, has been cleared of all links to terrorism by an exhaustive Canadian inquiry. However, the US has kept him on its watch list, saying it made an independent assessment of his threat to the US. The head of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police resigned as a result of the finding that the RCMP gave the US false information that raised suspicion about Arar, and the Canadian government is preparing compensation for the engineer.

Studies released by United Nations University in Toronto found that Afghans, Colombians, Eritreans, Ethiopians and Jamaicans face racism and social and economic exclusion in Canada. Two-thirds of 176 Ethiopian youth in Toronto identified themselves as Ethiopians first, raising questions about the meaning of being Canadian; most were born in Canada or immigrated when they were very young.

Doug Struck, "Tortured Canadian Still on U.S. Watch List," Washington Post, December 16, 2006. Sharda Vaidyanath, "No Amnesty for undocumented Workers, Epoch Times, November 17, 2006. Nicholas Keung, "Asylum bids blocked at US border," Toronto Star, November 17, 2006. Jeff Sallot, "Minister set to visit UN's Asian camps to weigh resettling refugees in Canada," Globe and Mail, November 4, 2006. Marina Jimenez, "Canada's welcome mat worn, immigrant studies find," Globe and Mail, October 20, 2006.