David Clement: Importing the EU’s migration problems would be near impossible

Prime Minister Mark Carney delivers a speech in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, as part of a trip during which he welcomed a proposal by European Commission President for Canada to become the EU's first associate member. Photo by JEAN-CHRISTOPHE VERHAEGEN /AFP via Getty Images

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When European Commission President Ursula von der Leyan used her State of the Union address to invite Canada to become the EU’s first ever “Associate Member,” Conservative critics were beating the immigration drum as soon as the news broke.

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Conservative immigration critic Michele Rempel Garner warned that Canada risks importing Europe’s migration crisis through further integration, while MP Roman Baber argued that the EU is unable to control its borders and that Canada shouldn’t open our borders to the EU. Even Pierre Poilievre bundled the prospect of the visa-free travel and labour mobility with Europe’s migration issues suggesting that Brussels could have a say over Canadian immigration policy.

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Canada replicating Europe’s migration woes would be concerning, but that concern doesn’t survive a quick look at a map of the world.

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Europe’s migration strain has one structural cause that Canada can not replicate, because Canada has no land border with Europe, and is separated by thousands of kilometres of ocean. Geography, plain and simple, prevents a scenario where someone enters the Schengen zone and then enters Canada with no further checks. Canada could never join the Schengen Area because every EU member needs to approve it. That universal approval is why Romania and Bulgaria, despite being EU members since 2007, weren’t approved to fully join the Schengen until 2025. It taking nearly 20 years for two member states to join Schengen should be a dose of reality for anyone thinking that is possible for Canada.

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Every single European resident entering Canada under the terms of whatever an “Associate Membership” means will have to, by virtue of geography and political reality, enter Canada via an official point of entry and through a Canada Border Services Agency checkpoint. There is no walking into Canada like there is between EU member states.

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Those travelling to Canada from Europe, whether it be for study, tourism, or for a job, would still be screened by CBSA. Screening doesn’t magically disappear if a work permit exists, it happens at the airport as it always has, for the same traveler, carrying the same passport.

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And, we’ve already tested what visa-free travel can look like with Europe, because citizens of any EU member state can already enter visa-free for stays up to six months, which has been in place for years. This has never resembled anything remotely close to a crisis because the Electronic Travel Authorization (eTA) and admissibility check never went away. Those Europeans just don’t need a visa stamped in advance. A labour mobility deal would change what a CBSA officer was authorized to approve, but it doesn’t remove the officer, the biometric check, or the port of entry standing between any traveller and Canadian soil.

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A reciprocal labour mobility deal with Europe would allow for a Canadian company to recruit European tradespeople and professionals to fill holes in the labour force, but that prospective employee would still be processed through the same system for every other traveller to Canada. It would, on the flip side, give Canadians the opportunity to work anywhere from Lisbon to Helsinki without the hurdles of a work-visa or lottery system. None of the benefits from that openness require Canada to adopt EU migration policy, asylum rules, or border management because none of that governs how a person physically reaches Canada. One would think that it would be obvious that nothing decided in Brussels operates in place of the checkpoint at Pearson or Vancouver International Airport.