Canada’s Oppn party campaigns for curtailing birthright citizenship for kids of non-permanent residents
Toronto: Canadian principal opposition party has started campaigning for curtailing birthright citizenship for the children of non-permanent residents, a category that includes both international students and workers.
A passenger pushes luggage at Toronto Pearson International Airport, in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. (REUTERS)
The move comes as anti-immigrant sentiment continues to surge in the country, large directed against the influx of temporary residents due to policies adopted during the tenure of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The Conservative Party, the main opposition in the House of Commons, started a petition on Thursday calling upon the government “to require at least one parent to have citizenship or permanent residency in order for Canadian citizenship to be automatically granted, just like in peer countries, like the UK, France, Germany, New Zealand, and Australia”. The proposal would deny citizenship at birth to a child born of two parents who are temporary residents.
The government, so far, has defended birthright citizenship but has, in recent times, adopted measures first espoused by the opposition to curb the country’s intake of newcomers.
The campaign comes before the Canadian government presents its levels plan for immigration this fall.
The petition stated that with “over three million temporary residents and half a million undocumented persons now living in Canada, continuing to allow temporary residents’ descendants to automatically claim citizenship will deeply impact Canada’s immigration system, housing, jobs, and social services”.
It was supported by Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, who said, in a social media post, “We must end birth tourism, and restore the value and integrity of Canadian citizenship.”
The measure was moved by MP Michelle Rempel Garner, the Conservative critic of immigration, who said this was part of an “ongoing policy rollout to address Canada’s broken immigration system and restore the value of Canadian citizenship”.
The government is already under pressure to control the numbers of immigrants coming into the country. Temporary residents account for seven per cent of the country’s population and Prime Minister Mark Carney has promised to bring that figure down to close to five per cent by the end of 2027.
The anti-immigrant sentiment is being driven further by high-profile incident involving those who came to the country as temporary residents. For instance, trucker Navjeet Singh, came to Canada as an international student, was arrested in August for an accident near the town of Altona in the province of Manitoba on November 15, 2024, that claimed the lives of a 35-year-old woman and her daughter. Singh, 26, resident of Brampton, fled to India but returned to Canada and was taken into custody by law enforcement at Toronto’s Pearson Airport.
Meanwhile, it has also emerged that a person charged with targeting the residence of Punjabi-language entertainer AP Dhillon in September last year, came to Canada on a study permit. Abjeet Kingra, 25, was linked to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, and was sentenced to six years in prison recently.
