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ABSTRACT
This article provides a brief overview of the history of family reunification policy in Canada and outlines current policy and procedures with respect to family sponsorship. Interspersed throughout are a few myths about family reunification and some responses. These are included because one impetus for this edition of Canadian Issues was the number of myths surrounding this type of immigration. The article concludes with some current issues of interest on the family reunification front.
Canada, like Australia and the United States, has a tradition of favouring family reunification with liberal policies. Some have argued that such policies are supported with the understanding that benefits to society will flow to it in the medium to long term.2 Others have argued recently and strenuously that immigration based on family relationship should not continue in Canada. For example, in a paper published in September 2005 by a senior fellow of the Fraser Institute, it was argued that given recent declining outcomes for immigrants, Canada should only allow immigration for temporary work purposes.3
Although no international instruments recognize family reunification as a right, the concept that the family unit should be protected can be inferred from the principles enunciated in international instruments. For example, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, Article 16 states that the "family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State."4 Furthermore, there are many more references to the right of family protection in international law. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 1966 acknowledges that, "the widest possible protection and assistance should be accorded to the family, which is the natural and fundamental group unit of society (Article 1O)."5
In Canadian legislation, the objective of "family reunification" was articulated for the first time in the 1976 Immigration Act though, as will be outlined below, the concept of family reunion as an immigration method had existed since 1908. This objective was outlined in the 1976 Act under 3(c) as "to facilitate the reunion in Canada of Canadian citizens and permanent residents with their close relatives from abroad." In the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), which was implemented in 2002, the equivalent objective is much simpler in text...