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Correction: the US government didn't do this, trump and his cronies did it

Thank you for summarizing these key changes! Many problems are actually the Canadian immigration system not learning from the mistakes of the US system and now it’s suffering the same consequences. If Canada cuts down on those selected immigrations but still takes in refugees, it’s only going to make anti-immigrant sentiment worse. Selected immigrants are allowed into Canada to help alleviate Canadian issues…or at least people who come through Express Entry are less likely to become a burden. On the other hand, refugees, given their unfortunate circumstances, really need to rely on a lot of social services and resources to help them resettle. The US has eliminated pretty much all non-humanitarian immigration that’s why immigrants are so demonized there. Americans only feel the drags of refugees and asylum seekers (even though ethically we need to protect them) and there is no selected immigration to balance that out. Yet this round of Canadian policy change is heading exactly that direction.\n\nIt used to be international students in Canada are not paying a lot more tuition than Canadian students. But Canadian universities saw how much money universities in the US are making so they asked the federal government to change the policy to enable them to charge international students several times the regular tuition (whereas in countries like France, international students actually pay less than citizens). So now Canadian universities rely too much on international students to operate and it becomes an exploitative relationship even before students step foot on the campus. The new PGWP eligibility is awful because students can make contributions in every field. It might (and that's a big if) address the pressing problems, but it won't help Canada grow.\n\nI thought the new language requirement was interesting. Some Canadians who immigrated decades ago when the bar was really low still speak English poorly and now they are saying people can’t come to Canada because their language skills are not sufficient. Another point about language is if you apply through Express Entry now, even if you scored the highest language score, given how competitive the pool is, you still won’t get selected. So it’s a given that you need to be fluent in one of the languages at least to get an invitation. Express Entry also selects only the top people, I saw the head of The Institute for Canadian Citizenship in interviews talking about those top-tier people only expect the best treatment/lifestyle when they come to Canada. That's why many of them leave after seeing these Canadian problems play out. But I believe a good Canadian life is not about living in a high rise in Vancouver and Toronto, driving an expensive car, or buying luxury items...it's about the communities, nature and middle-class comfort. So the system is giving PRs to the wrong kind of people (just like mismatched people when hiring that don't align with company values).\n\nThis brings me to the last frustrating issue. There were so many people who attended “fake” universities and bought “fake” jobs to earn points to get an Express Entry invitation. And it's clear that the government wasn't proactively catching these abuses. They are taking up spots from those who try to earn the points fair and square. If I understand correctly, Canada doesn’t send these people away if they are found out (since some of them were scammed). So they still take up immigration quotas.\n\nI have wanted to move to Canada for a long time. I have visited Canada many times, hiking trails through the coastline and fjords, climbing mountains and glaciers. I lived in Montreal for two months to improve my French and I was told by my homestay family that I was the first student they had who didn’t complain about the cold (I wish the winter never ends so I can skate or xc ski in the parks year-round). I have probably seen more Canada than many Canadians and I love every bit of it. But the opportunity for me to even get a shot to move there is pretty much nonexistent now. If only there was a way for the system to allow people who really care about Canada to get a shot at being part of this beautiful country.\n\nThank you for making these videos.

28-year-old Female Sydneysider from Australia here. Apologise in advance for the long post and rambling.\n\n\nNot sure if it is just me, so please correct me if I am wrong. Just probably now too overly 'realistically too cynical'. So please take my input with a grain of salt. 

For context’ sake, for most of my adulthood I have always been poor & I am born with special health needs (E.g. disabilities).
\n\n\nSometimes on forums we are often contrasted to Canada, for some reason. Both Canada and Australia have remarkably similar problems with a different coat of paint. Sydney, for instance, has always been high up in the list of the cities with the highest cost of living in the world. Usually within the top 10-20. 

COVID-19 obviously made this issue clearer in some circumstances because we couldn't 'work' at all. Unless you were an essential service worker, to mentally block out personal and local difficulties.\n\n\nWe still have not recovered from that 2–3 years global shutdown. The only reason I was allowed to work for a period was because I work for the animal industry and aid in animal welfare. 

I still lost my job due to COVID-19 regardless and knew I would never get a decent job again. Merely just the last poor sod on the boat to be thrown off. 

Could not become a vet nurse despite working very hard. Just because no one wants to give me '2-years permanent paid experience’ to be taken seriously. 

At the same time, way too many employers will happily take 2+ years of veterinary students volunteering at their vet clinic. With the vague promise of a permanent job.

Which, of course, never happens, then say we are being too demanding or spoilt for politely asking for said job.\n\n\nHow are we supposed to pay off our student debt if any financial service expects us to have a per meant job to pay anything off??

 No, they do not want to train nor help you. They just want free labour, then kick you out once your time is up. All my jobs have been casual, and my animal industry has already become heavily casual based ages ago. Permanent job is like looking for a magical unicorn.\n\n\nSo, even if you and your relatives lived in the way outer suburbs of Sydney for decades, being typically considered roughly lower-middle socio-economic families. 

The younger adults and kids all know and have been aware for years, they have no future at all due to having an inflated cost of living. Sugar-coating it, saying it might go in a positive direction, sounds like a blatant lie. We all know it is a lie.\n\n\nNowadays, in contrast to the late nineties and early 2000s when I was just a tiny naive kid that didn't know any better. There seems to be a more jarring split between the income brackets of what the country assumes who is poor, middle class or rich today. 

\n\nBy today's standards, my family is no longer even considered close to the very lower end of the middle class if you were reaching hard. We are considered 'poor' just because my parents do not earn roughly $50,000 — $150,000 AUD a year on their own in 2023. When I worked, I usually earned $30,000-$35,000 AUD or less per year before COVID-19 happened.\n\n\n(Source — https://www.news.com.au/finance/money/wealth/middle-class-aussies-were-living-better-in-the-early-2000s-than-they-are-today/news-story/fe173db5bbe2b705a8d05df8c5cb14ee)\n\n\nLife is only comfortable living there if you're a selfish landlord, a nepo baby, new money or old money.\n\n\nI feel like most governments and other systems are only strictly being run by sociopathic narcissists that only want us to stay poor to remain in poor conditions to benefit off of. Wouldn’t want any kid to be born in a world where there are no safe guarantees for their future if their guardian unexpectedly passes away or can longer care for them. 

When something does not change within roughly 5–10 years, it is more than simply just valid for us to feel like we cannot fix what has been broken.

Not entirely accurate. It's pro-wealthy immigration here in Canada absolutely. It's citizenship for sale. Not necessarily wealthy in terms of really wealthy (like Switzerland) but it's definitely citizenship for sale, so if you don't have money, don't bother. Newcomers with medical and engineering expertise can't get jobs here in Canada, in spite of our healthcare system being on the point of collapse and our supposed hi-tech push. Regulatory boards here have made it impossible. Estimates are around 175000 qualified, internationally trained doctors and nurses who gave up trying to practice here and moved into other careers. Ukrainian doctors, for eg, with extensive trauma experience and willing to staff our emergency departments have been told they have to requalify by going to Canadian medical school to retrain for at least 4 years. Same story in engineering. By IT, our government seems to mean low-paid call center IT work, moving the IT sweatshop racket from India onto Canadian soil. If you can afford to buy a business - I believe the total business investment was 500 000 pre-pandemic - that's another way in. Not sure if thats gone up now. So many of our franchise businesses are essentially being used as citizenship tickets. The big ticket item: If you can afford 4 years of postgraduate or undergrad university program, or 3 to 4 year college program - and if you don't have the cash, loan sharks in India will distribute debt across the whole family for decades so one student can go . There us a very good documentary by an Indian filmmaker on the Canadian college/University recruitment drive in India and its consequences. Several of our colleges have student enrollments at over 70% of the entire student body, direct entry from India. Additional problems like grade inflation, different education standards, and outright fraud on ESL testing also mean that Indian students are not well prepared for school here. Many do not have enough English to succeed in their studies. They either need to spend for additional tutoring, take a qualifying year or two ESL (on top of the 3 or 4 program), or fail courses. Universities and colleges keep the tuition though. Honestly our colleges and universities are staying afloat because of Indian students. They're being treated like cash cows - and Indian recruiters are scamming the system, taking fees on their end with unsuspecting students getting falsified documents, or being told they passed their ESL when they didn't. It's a national disgrace. I'm a prof here, I've seen all of this firsthand. Your data may be correct, but the narrative you've constructed for it is not the real picture.