By Mata Press Service

Canada is steering itself into an immigration crisis, warn labour unions, human-rights advocates and refugee agencies as they launch a national campaign to counter rising hostility toward newcomers and the policies driving it.

That warning sits at the centre of We’re Better Together, a national campaign launched by the Canadian Council for Refugees (CCR) and more than a dozen partner organizations. According to its organizers, this is a defensive response to a political climate that is shifting sharply against newcomers, even as Canada continues to rely on immigration for its labour force, economic growth and international identity.

The campaign arrives at a moment when federal policy, public sentiment and global pressures are colliding in ways not seen in decades. Immigration levels are being cut. Processing delays are reaching historic highs. New border and security legislation threatens refugee protections. Employers across health care, construction, agriculture and technology report vacant jobs they simply cannot fill. Meanwhile, public confidence is eroding amid rising anti-immigrant rhetoric, housing pressures and mixed political messaging.

CCR President Diana Gallego says the trigger for the campaign was not only the tone of political debate but the concrete retreat in federal action. Ottawa has reduced immigration targets, cut settlement services, and introduced sweeping new powers under Bills C-12 and C-2, which allow the government to cancel immigration applications and militarize border enforcement.

“Blame and hate towards immigrants and refugees in Canada is increasing while government support is declining,” Gallego said. “More Canadians still support than oppose immigration. This campaign gives voice to that support and sends a clear message to political leaders: we are better together.”

The coalition supporting the work includes Amnesty International, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), migrant-worker advocates and a wide network of NGOs. Each group sees a different part of the problem. Together, they see the same structural failure: a system drifting away from fairness and predictability just as Canada enters a period of unprecedented labour shortages.

Among the most vocal critics is Amnesty International Canada, whose Secretary General Ketty Nivyabandi warns that Bill C-12 opens the door to policies that trample international obligations.

“The bill undermines the rights and dignity of refugees and migrants,” she said. “Every person deserves to be safe from persecution and treated fairly. Canada must resist the global authoritarian trend that treats newcomers as a threat rather than human beings seeking protection.”

These changes arrive as the world sees rising displacement from conflict, climate disasters, corruption and collapsing states. Yet the federal government has proposed new limitations on asylum claims, revived the ability to cancel approved documents “in the public interest,” and introduced financial co-pays for refugees accessing basic services such as dental care.

Former foreign affairs minister Lloyd Axworthy, long considered one of Canada’s most respected voices on refugee policy, warns that Canada is “putting its reputation at risk” and backtracking on commitments made under the UN Refugee Convention.

Beyond legislation, delays have become the defining crisis.

Processing backlogs now stretch across virtually every stream from family reunification, skilled workers, refugees and temporary residents. Wait times in some categories exceed 10 years.

One of the starkest examples is the Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot (EMPP), once celebrated for bringing skilled refugees into hard-to-fill jobs. Its average processing time has ballooned from six months to 54 months. Employers report cancelled projects, stalled expansion plans and millions in losses as approved workers wait abroad in unsafe conditions.

“Canada is no longer treating this applicant group like the skilled workers they are,” says Dana Wagner of TalentLift Canada.

These failures sit uneasily alongside government plans to cut both temporary and permanent resident intakes over the next three years. The government argues that reductions are needed to ease pressures on housing and social services. But critics say Ottawa is simply shifting blame for broader policy failures onto newcomers.

Industry groups point to a different risk: economic stagnation.

Restaurants Canada, representing 90,000 businesses, says immigration cuts will deepen hiring shortages, especially in tourism-based regions. The Canadian Construction Association (CCA) warns that Canada cannot build homes, hospitals or infrastructure without a coherent workforce strategy tied to immigration.

The construction sector alone employs 1.6 million workers and contributes $165 billion to GDP. Without more newcomers, CCA president Rodrigue Gilbert says, “any ambitious construction agenda will stall.”

Universities and colleges are also seeing fallout from the halving of international-student admissions. Institutions from coast to coast have reported deficits tied largely to the foreign student cuts.

The government’s shift comes as public attitudes become more divided. An Environics poll shows that 56 percent of Canadians now believe the country admits too many immigrants, a sharp increase from previous years. Housing shortages, emergency-room crises and rising rents have created fertile ground for political actors seeking to scapegoat newcomers.

This is the climate the new campaign intends to reshape.

The campaign’s public-opinion research, which surveyed over 2,000 Canadians, found wide support for immigration when framed around fairness, community contribution and shared prosperity. That insight led to a strategy built around positive messaging, personal stories and myth-busting—rather than confrontational political combat.

CUPE President Mark Hancock says the labour movement joined the campaign to counter efforts to “divide and distract” workers.

“We must stand together for a future where all families and workers can thrive,” he said.

The underlying question driving the new movement is whether Canada still sees immigration as a nation-building project or simply an administrative file to scale up or down based on political pressures.

Lawyers, employers, researchers and civil-society groups fear the latter.

CILA, the national association of immigration lawyers, warns that the government’s approach risks “eroding predictability and competitiveness,” noting that newcomers account for more than 80 percent of the country’s labour-force growth. Cuts now, they argue, will be felt in every sector within years—especially as Canada’s population ages and retirements accelerate.

Those concerns echo across industries. The Fraser Institute warns of declining productivity. The BC Business Council points to declining transparency. And the construction sector calls for direct alignment between immigration planning and national housing goals.

For CCR and its partners, the campaign is not only about policy but also about reclaiming a narrative that has veered off course.

“Immigrants and refugees contribute much to our communities and our country,” Gallego said. “People in Canada are pushing back against political efforts to blame them for problems they didn’t create.”

The campaign’s message is simple, stating Canada’s future depends on newcomers, and the country cannot afford to drift toward policies that treat them as burdens.

Whether that message resonates will become clear in the months leading up to the next federal budget cycle, where immigration will again sit at the centre of political debate.

But for now, the groups behind We’re Better Together say they are stepping up because the economic, social and moral stakes are too high to ignore.