O Canada!

Canada has recently taken steps to restrict access to social welfare programs and job opportunities to asylum seekers awaiting official refugee status. The new restrictions are hidden in Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's 2015 budget, and would bring the nation's refugee policies closer to those of Great Britain. 

At the moment, asylum seekers in Canada have the same access to social assistance as Canadian citizens, as well as the ability to work and to decide where they will live. These rights are ensured by the Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangement Act of 1985 which allows residents to qualify for social assistance regardless of their period of residence in the country. 

The new budget Bill C-43 would create a term of residency requirement to those requesting assistance. This bill would exclude citizens, permanent residents, human trafficking victims, and refugees, leaving only those who have not yet been granted refugee status. 

In the United Kingdom, asylum seekers have only limited access to social assistance programs, a highly restrictive employment policy, and are placed together into pre-selected, and often substandard, housing. This policy rests on the opinion that asylum seekers are not entitled to certain aspects of British society until the legitimacy of their claim of persecution has been proven.

While this policy is publicized as a protection for tax-payers, its affects are harmful for both asylum seekers and British residents. The government policy of segregating asylum seekers until their claim is approved delays integration, an already lengthy process, for years. When claimants are accepted (40% of British asylum seekers are approved, not including those who are successful in appealing rejections) after living in the country for years, they have often lost faith in national and local authorities, have only a tiny social network, and haven't learned English.

On the other hand, Canadian applicants are granted access to social assistance as soon as they enter the country, which allows them to feed, cloth, shelter, and educate their children, and integrate into Canadian neighborhoods. The ability to work and therefore support themselves reduces the strain on homeless shelters and charities, and allows applicants to be an active, contributing member of their new community. If Canada does implement a minimum residency requirement, asylum seekers would settle in areas where such laws are yet to be enforced, which would put an unequal strain on provinces, overwhelm refugee agencies in those areas, and increase the dependency of claimants upon the state. 

(http://coastlinejournal.org/2013/08/15/post-second-education-the-sri-lankan-immigrant-experience/)