How Canada’s refugee system has changed since 2015

Ten years ago, Canada responded to the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Syria with an unprecedented program that rapidly resettled 25,000 Syrian refugees in roughly 100 days. 

To meet that target, the federal government accelerated every step of the process — from identifying refugees, processing visas, co-ordinating transportation and supporting their arrival and integration across the country. 

“It was surreal to live through,” said Chris Friesen, CEO of the Immigrant Services Society of British Columbia, which was at the forefront in settling families in that province.

Friesen recalls holding a news conference appealing to the public for help — housing options, job leads and volunteers who could step in to welcome the families about to arrive.

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

But a decade after Canada fast-tracked Syrians to safety, settlement workers and advocates say the system facing current refugees is far slower and constrained. 

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

Christina Clark-Kazak, 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, Clark-Kazak says the government is acutely aware that it must respond to domestic pressures — particularly from Conservative-leaning voters who are far less supportive of accepting refugees. 

She says — as Canadians face rising living costs, ongoing challenges in finding affordable housing, and increasing pressure on public services — refugees and newcomers have too often been unfairly cast as scapegoats for deeper systemic issues. 

“We often focus on the demand side … and we don’t look enough at the supply side,” said Clark-Kazak. “People who are coming to this country are also trained as doctors, engineers and construction workers who could build housing." 

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

Amal Kago came to Canada from Sudan as a government-assisted refugee in 2003, one of millions who have been displaced by its long-running civil war. 

She recalls the process as being “better” then, and that “it did not take [her] long to come to Canada.”