Amid migrant surge, Canada's Trudeau says immigration there needs to be brought 'under control'

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently warned that the stream of temporary immigrants entering their country must be brought "under control."

The liberal prime minister, who has been a staunch immigration supporter, said the rate of temporary immigrants crossing their border has come at a pace much faster than it can handle.

"Whether it's temporary foreign workers or whether it's international students in particular, that have grown at a rate far beyond what Canada has been able to absorb," Trudeau warned Tuesday.

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Trudeau said temporary immigrants now make up 7.5% of the population, up from 2% in 2017, adding that they need to get the numbers "back under control."

"We want to get those numbers down," he said. "It's a responsible approach to immigration that continues on our permanent residents, as we have, but also hold the line a little more on the temporary immigration that has caused so much pressure in our communities."

Trudeau's shift in tone comes after he's relied on immigrants to push economic growth and shorten labor gaps, Reuters previously reported.

The influx of immigrants into Canada since the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a dire crunch in several areas and has also led to increased rent prices and a strain on the health care system. 

"One of the reasons why we got here in the first place was that (provincial and federal) governments just didn't want to touch this issue out of a fear of looking xenophobic," Mike Moffatt, founding director of the Place Centre, told Reuters in February.

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The publication said Canadian citizens supported immigration at a historically high level in 2020, which has since fallen to a three-decade low at the end of last year.

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Trudeau's shift toward current public opinion on immigration also comes after his challenger, Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, has taken a big lead in many opinion polls in the country.