How Canada’s refugee system has changed since 2015

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Ten years ago, Canada responded to the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Syria unprecedented program this quickly resettled 25,000 Syrian refugees in about 100 days.

To achieve this goal, the federal government has expedited every step of the process—from identifying refugees, processing visas, coordinating transportation, and supporting their arrival and integration across the country.

“It was a surreal experience,” said Chris Friesen, director of operations for the Immigrant Service Society of British Columbia, which has been at the forefront of resettling families in the province.

Friesen remembers holding a news conference asking the public for help — housing options, job managers and volunteers who could step in to greet the families who were about to arrive.

“The responses crashed our systems, it was just unbelievable,” Friesen said. Sunday Magazine.

But a decade after Canada quickly brought Syrians to safety, settlement workers and advocates say the system for today's refugees is much slower and more limited.

“It’s like night and day,” Friesen said. “We’re in a completely different climate now.”

Christina Clarke-Kazak, a professor of public and international affairs at the University of Ottawa, agrees and says Canada is “in a very different time now.”

After an election that returned the Liberals to power with only a fragile minority, Clarke-Kazak says the government is acutely aware it must respond to internal pressure – especially from Conservative voters who are much less supportive of accepting refugees.

As Canadians face rising costs of living, ongoing challenges finding affordable housing and increasing pressure on public services, refugees and newcomers are too often unfairly made scapegoats for deeper systemic problems, she said.

“We often focus on the demand side… and don't pay enough attention to the supply side,” said Clark-Cossack. “People coming to this country are also training to be doctors, engineers and construction workers who could build housing.”

Today's process is not easy

Data from the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada shows there were 9,999 pending refugee claims at the end of 2015. However, as of September 30, 2025, this number has risen to 295,819.

Amal Kago came to Canada from Sudan as a government-sponsored refugee in 2003. one of the millions who were forced to flee their homes as a result of the long civil war.

She recalls that the process was “better” back then and that “it didn’t take [her] I really want to come to Canada.”

But when Kago later helped sponsor a vulnerable woman from Sudan, the experience was very different.

She said the process was “not easy” and took five years before the woman finally reached Canada in 2024.

Rasha Youssef arrived in British Columbia from Syria in December 2014. She was sponsored by a group of five people who were with her “all the time” to help her get settled.

Inspired by a desire to give back, she worked on a program for women that was a lifeline where newcomers could share their struggles, celebrate together, and find joy in community.

Similarly, Hamoudi Saleh Baratta arrived in Canada in 2014, having survived imprisonment and torture under the Syrian Assad regime.

He says Canada's refugee policy at the time “saved” his life.

But both are unhappy with Canada's current approach to refugees.

Changing public sentiment also directly impacts the work of Regis Chivay, who oversees private sponsorship and resettlement programs at MOSAIC, a Vancouver-based nonprofit that supports refugees and migrants.

Chiwaya, who has worked in the sector for nearly five years, has noticed a “significant increase in processing time” at overseas visa offices.

“It doesn’t matter whether it comes from an African visa center, somewhere in the Middle East or from Europe,” he said.

In 2020, he said, processing applications took one and a half to two years. Now they often stretch out to four years.

For example, as part of an initiative to sponsor migrants held indefinitely off the coast of Australia, Chivaya says his team is still waiting to process applications from 60 people who submitted in 2019.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has attributed the delays to backlogs post-COVID, but Chivaya says she hasn't seen any improvement.

At the same time, Chivay said he is seeing “less and less” funding for MOSAIC programs from both the federal and provincial governments.

In January 2024 the government launched a special measures program allowing Canadians to sponsor extended family members in Gaza on temporary visas.

It was initially limited to 1,000 applications and later increased to 5,000, all of which were completed. However, as of July 29, only 880 people had arrived in Canada under the program.

Concerns about politics

In November 2024 the government announced a pause about two of the three forms of refugee sponsorship.

The change was originally scheduled to come into effect at the end of 2025, but has been extended until the end of December next year.

“The real consequences are that people can't get here,” Clark-Kazakh said.

In a statement to CBC News, IRCC said demand for the program has been very high, resulting in long wait times and uncertainty for sponsors. The extension of the pause is intended to help move towards more predictable processing times.

Ottawa is proposing other changes to the process under the Strong Borders Act, which was passed in June.

The proposed legislation seeks to amend several laws, including the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

Clark-Kazak says the legislation isThey prevent vulnerable people from applying in the first place, bar those who have previously come to Canada without filing an application, and fail to take into account the fragile global situation and the complex individual circumstances of asylum seekers.

IIn a statement, IRCC said the changes would strengthen internationalintegrity and efficiency of Canada's immigration and asylum system by improving internal information sharing, improving the processing of asylum applications, strengthening controls over immigration documents and applications, and helping to prevent surges in applications without harming vulnerable applicants.

Yousef, who came from Syria, now works in a law firm and runs her own small business. But she says she has noticed a drop in funds from “many organizations” supporting refugees.

She worries that the cuts could increase isolation and depression among new arrivals.

Baratta shares her concerns and says he is “very unhappy” that the programs that eased his path to Canada are in decline.

“I just urge politicians and people in power not to politicize humanitarian issues,” he said.