Refugee Claims and Successful Claimants in Canada 2000-2014: A Description of a Forgotten Reality in Canada

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2016-06
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Abstract
Current Canadian immigration and refugee provisions define two different types of refugees depending on where the applicants are located when submitting a claim (from within Canada or elsewhere), giving them different procedures and conditions to apply, as well as different benefits and support once their claim is approved. Thus, under the In- Canada Asylum Program, if the claim is successfully submitted in person from within Canada at any Port Of Entry (POE), the applicant receives a Refugee Claimant status and is entitled to stay in the country under certain conditions and limited rights while his/her application is processed. In turn, through the Refugee and Humanitarian Resettlement Program, if the applicant’s claim is submitted from outside Canada, refugee applicants have to remain outside the country until a decision on his/her claim is reached. Once a refugee claim submitted from outside the country is approved, the applicant is allowed to come to Canada and is eligible to be sponsored by private entities or public funds. These refugees are known as Sponsored Refugees or Resettled Refugees and are given particular benefits and support. Refugees granted status after applying from within Canada (Successful Refugee Claimants), on the other hand, are permitted to remain in the country but without any type of sponsorship and with different levels of support. Using information provided to the author by Statistics Canada, this paper shows to be false the common perception that most refugees come to Canada after applying from overseas and arrive supported by the government or by private funds. In fact, the number of refugees annually given Refugee Claimant status in Canada significantly exceeds the number of Sponsored Refugees in the country. Moreover, the number of Successful Refugee Claimants is also greater than the number of Resettled Refugees in the country. As this research suggests, despite the efforts made by the government to reduce the number of claims submitted from within Canada along with the number of Successful Refugee Claimants, the Inland Refugee Program continues to be the main source of refugees in the country over the period 2000-2014.
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Escamilla, Camilo. (2016). Refugee Claims and Successful Claimants in Canada 2000-2014: A Description of a Forgotten Reality in Canada ( Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.