Rachel Bendayan is Canada’s new Immigration Minister

Mark Carney, Canada’s new Prime Minister, has announced his cabinet in anticipation of the coming 2025 federal election, shuffling immigration ministers in the process.

Canada’s new minister of immigration is Rachel Bendayan, a Member of Parliament from Outremont, Quebec. She will serve as the head of Canada's immigration department, taking over from previous Immigration Minister Marc Miller.

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Cabinet reshuffles are a common occurrence in Canadian politics and allow Prime Ministers the opportunity to reappoint ministers to different government departments or remove them from office entirely.

This may be done for a variety of reasons, including to award ministers for good performance, to address poor-performing departments, or to better align government policy with public opinion.

The last cabinet shuffle occurred in July of 2023, in which immigration ministers switched from Sean Fraser to Marc Miller.

This article will cover:

• Who Canada’s new immigration minister is;
• The impact that Marc Miller had on Canada’s immigration system; and
• The importance of immigration in Canadian politics.

Who is Canada’s new immigration minister?

Minister Bendayan has held several roles in Canadian politics, including serving as the country's previous Minister of Official Languages.

In addition, Minister Bendayan previously served as the Parliamentary Secretary to the:

• Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance;
• Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance; and
• Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion, and International Trade.

Bendayan was born into a Morrocan-Jewish family, and raised in Quebec. She holds both a Bachelor of Arts in International Development Studies and a joint Bachelor of Civil Law/Juris Doctor, from McGill University.

With nearly a decade of experience, she established a thriving legal career at Norton Rose Fulbright before entering politics. During her legal career, Bendayan focused on litigation and international arbitration, with a specialization in international trade law. Additionally, she has taught at the Université de Montréal’s Faculty of Law.

Immigration policy under Prime Minister Mark Carney

With a transition of administrations, Canada's immigration policy is now in the hands of a new Prime Minister and Immigration Minister.

Canadian ministers (including the Immigration Minister) are given Mandate Letters from the Prime Minister, detailing the objectives that each minister must work to achieve, and the challenges that they will have to address in their role.

Prime Minister Carney's views on these objectives and challenges for Canada's Immigration Minister are unclear at this moment—however previous statements provide some idea of his thinking. Among other policies, Carney has previously advocated for:

• Capping immigration to a "sustainable pre-pandemic trend";
• Prioritizing temporary residents of Canada for permanent residence; and
• Reining in numbers of temporary foreign workers.

What impact did Marc Miller have on Canada’s immigration system?

Marc Miller’s tenure as Immigration Minister of Canada yielded significant changes to the country’s immigration system, particularly around the contraction in temporary and permanent immigration to the country.

Many of Miller’s policies follow along these themes, with the most impactful measures working to curb inflows of newcomers in order to treat domestic housing and affordability pressures.

Among other changes, in his time as Immigration Minister Miller:

• Imposed levels on in-flows of new study and work permit holders;
• Reduced the levels of permanent resident immigration to roughly pre-pandemic numbers;
• Instituted a pause on applications for new Labour Market Impact Assessments in metropolitan areas with an unemployment rate equal to or greater than 6%;
• Re-oriented federal economic immigration to an “In-Canada” focus;
• Established a cap on new international student enrollment, imposing province-by-province student allocations in the process;
• Committed to serious rollbacks of Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program;
• Made sweeping changes to Canada’s Express Entry category occupations;
• Introduced language and field of study requirements for Post-Graduation Work Permit issuances;
• Introduced new permanent residence pathways and study permit exemptions for skilled workers working in in-demand trades and construction sectors;
• Implemented restrictions on the issuance of family Open Work Permits; and
• Announced the removal of arranged employment points under the Comprehensive Ranking System for Express Entry candidates.

The importance of the immigration portfolio

Immigration is a key issue in Canadian society, with the inflow of newcomers serving crucially to bolster Canada’s labour market and demography. In his time as minister of immigration, Marc Miller often noted the important role that immigration played in Canadian society, allowing Canada to avoid a recession in 2023.

The immigration file is such a key focal point in Canadian politics that former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau led the announcement of the 2025-2027 Immigration Levels Plan himself.

The importance of the immigration portfolio is further evidenced by the prominent role many immigration ministers play even after their time heading IRCC.

Sean Fraser, the immigration minister who preceded Marc Miller, has gone on to become Canada’s Minister of Housing Infrastructure and Communities—a pivotal role given the current asymmetry between housing stock and housing demand in the country, and the associated negative effects on affordability.

The immigration minister preceding Fraser, Marc Mendicino has similarly continued to hold prominent positions in Canadian politics, serving as the nation’s Minister of Public Safety until 2023. Mendicino currently serves as Canada’s 16th Chief of Staff-designate under Mark Carney.

In addition to its heightened importance, regulations around immigration in Canada are such that the country’s immigration department (IRCC), wields a level of control and leeway around its operations that many other governmental departments do not enjoy.

This is evidenced, for example, by the sweeping public policies that IRCC can enact to meet its governmental mandate.

One example of a previously enacted public policy was the temporary policy to lift work hour caps for international students in Canada, during regular school semesters.

Under this COVID-era policy, students could work an unlimited number of hours off-campus, while attending classes during regular school semesters. This temporary policy was a significant change to the previous limit of only 20 off-campus work hours per week, during school semesters. Currently, international students may only work 24 hours a week off-campus during regular school semesters.

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