Canada has replaced the United States as the number one country to admit the most refugees in the world.
According to the United Nations, Canada has admitted a total of 28,100 refugees in 2018 alone. Another 18,000 were also naturalized into Canadian citizens also.
“Canada admitted the largest number of resettled refugees (28,100). The United States of America was second with 22,900. Other countries that admitted large numbers of resettled refugees during the year were Australia (12,700), the United Kingdom (5,800) and France (5,600),” writes the UNHCR report.
Since the election of Donald Trump, the number of refugees admitted into the country has gone significantly down. Due to implementing a cap of 30,000 admissions, the United States has seen a 76 per cent decrease in refugee resettlement.
Liberal Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen has said that he would like to see Canada’s refugee admissions go up and had evensuggested admitting them into the country as economic migrants.
“My wish is that we continue to increase levels in our immigration system for refugees. I’m very open to saying that, and I will do whatever I can, in whatever position I am in, to continue to push for higher refugee numbers every single year,” said Hussen in June.
It is currently estimated that there is a total of approximately 26 million refugees seeking relocation worldwide.
Despite the Liberal government’s wishes, Canadians across the country are expressing a desire to see those admission numbers drop.
According to a poll commissioned by the CBC 57 per cent of Canadians have stated that they think Canada should not be accepting any more refugees.
