The Committee on Canadian Studies presents
Marta Morgan, former Deputy Minister, Immigration, Citizenship and Refugees Canada and Global Affairs Canada and Professor Mireille Paquet, Concordia University Research Chair in Politics of Immigration:
“Making Modern Canadian Immigration Politics & Policy.”
Moderated by Dr. Brendan A. Shanahan, Canadian Studies and Department of History, Yale University.
Canada remains one of the top destinations of immigration in the world. The 2021 Canadian Census found nearly one-quarter of country’s total population to be foreign-born. Support for multiculturalism, embraced as an official federal policy in Canada more than half a century ago, remains well above average by international standards. In recent years, however, a longstanding cross-party “consensus” in support of comparatively high rates of immigration have come into question in both Canadian partisan politics and federal policymaking. The COVID pandemic, paperwork backlogs, a growing housing crisis, controversial temporary worker and international student programs, increasing asylum claims, and recent right-wing populist movements each posed vexing challenges to policymakers during years of the Trudeau government (2015–2025). The new Carney administration (2025–present) continues to navigate many of them, while negotiating with provincial and territorial partners (particularly the Government of Quebec, which, under a 1991 agreement, retains significant powers vis-à-vis the selection of immigrants and refugees moving to the province from abroad). In sum, the future of Canadian immigration politics and policy remains in question.
The Yale Committee on Canadian Studies is pleased to welcome two leading Canadian voices to discuss these and related topics that have helped to make Modern Canadian Immigration Politics and Policy. Marta Morgan (former Deputy Minister, Immigration, Citizenship and Refugees Canada and later Foreign Affairs, Government of Canada) comes to Yale from the C.D. Howe Institute in Toronto. She will draw from her time as the leading civil servant in the Canadian federal government tasked with managing the immigration portfolio (2016–19) and later international affairs (2019–22). Mireille Paquet (Concordia University Research Chair in Politics of Immigration) visits Yale from Montreal. A prolific scholar, Professor Paquet has published widely in political science and interdisciplinary venues on topics ranging from Canadian immigration federalism, citizenship policy, and immigrant rights politics, among other subjects. Brendan A. Shanahan (Yale Canadian Studies Associate Research Scholar; History Department Lecturer) will host and moderate.
Lunch will be served. We hope you can join us!