July 2026 marks another significant shift in Canada’s immigration system. While federal and Quebec governments present these measures as administrative reforms, they reflect a broader political and economic strategy: managing migration primarily according to labour market needs while imposing tighter controls on temporary migrants, refugee claimants and international students.
Although many of the new measures apply across Canada, their impact will be particularly significant in Quebec, where debates over immigration levels, labour shortages and migrant workers’ rights have become increasingly polarized.
These changes also come only weeks after the federal government introduced Bill C-2, legislation that expands state powers over immigration and asylum. Together, the bill and the July reforms point toward an immigration system that prioritizes border management and labour market flexibility over migrants’ rights and long-term integration.
Quebec’s selective openness
One of the most positive developments is Quebec’s temporary public policy allowing spouses of applicants under the Quebec Skilled Worker Selection Program (PSTQ) to obtain open work permits.
The measure recognizes that economic immigration cannot succeed if workers’ families are denied the right to work and achieve financial stability. However, its scope remains limited. It excludes hundreds of thousands of temporary foreign workers tied to employer-specific work permits, many refugee claimants and large numbers of low-wage migrant workers who continue to face precarious employment and immigration status.
Labour shortages without permanent status
Quebec’s immigration strategy reveals a deeper contradiction. Governments argue that temporary immigration must be reduced while simultaneously relying on migrant labour to keep hospitals, long-term care facilities, farms, warehouses, restaurants, transportation, manufacturing and logistics operating.
This is not simply a contradiction—it reflects an economic model that increasingly depends on migrant workers while denying many of them permanent status and equal rights. Workers are welcomed when their labour is needed, but too often remain excluded from the security and protections enjoyed by permanent residents.
Tougher asylum policies
The federal government is also proposing major reforms to the refugee determination system, including shorter deadlines for submitting asylum applications and supporting evidence, while allowing eligible refugee claimants to receive open work permits earlier in the process.
Earlier access to work permits can help refugee claimants achieve financial independence and integrate more quickly into the labour market. However, the shortened deadlines risk creating additional barriers for vulnerable people who need time to obtain documents or recover from trauma.
Combined with Bill C-2, these measures indicate a broader shift away from refugee protection toward tighter migration control.
A more precarious immigration system
International students continue to face stricter regulations, including additional administrative requirements when changing educational institutions and the continuation of the national cap on study permits.
More broadly, Canada’s immigration system is moving away from expanding permanent residence pathways and toward increasing reliance on temporary migration. As employers gain greater influence over who can remain in the country, many migrant workers become increasingly dependent on their employers for both their jobs and their legal status.
This imbalance discourages workers from reporting unsafe conditions, wage theft or abuse, and undermines their ability to organize collectively.
Immigration and workers’ rights are inseparable
Immigration policy cannot be separated from labour rights.
Workers whose legal status depends on a single employer are often reluctant to unionize, file health and safety complaints or challenge exploitation for fear of losing both their employment and their right to remain in Canada.
Experiences across Quebec—from Amazon warehouses to agriculture, hospitality and long-term care—demonstrate that precarious immigration status has become a powerful tool for weakening workers’ bargaining power.
Protecting migrant workers therefore requires more than improving immigration processing. It requires dismantling the structural conditions that make exploitation possible.
A rights-based alternative
Canada’s July immigration reforms send a clear message: governments are willing to facilitate migration when it serves economic needs, while simultaneously tightening controls over refugee protection, temporary migration and access to permanent status.
For the Immigrant Workers Centre, the alternative is clear. Canada must replace employer-tied work permits with open permits, create accessible pathways to permanent residence for all migrant workers, withdraw Bill C-2, strengthen refugee protection, and guarantee every worker—regardless of immigration status—the right to organize, work safely and live with dignity.
Migration should not be treated merely as a tool for supplying labour to the economy. It is fundamentally a question of human rights, social justice and equality. An economy that depends on migrant workers cannot be built on a system that denies them equal rights.
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