Mexican refugees in Canada post-NAFTA and the effects of immigration and refugee policy reforms: 1994-2012

Canada and Mexican relations have not been written about in much length past Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) recruiting Mexican laborers. In recent years, migration from Mexico to Canada has increased at an exponential rate. The most significant and notable increase has been in the number of refugee claims from Mexicans wanting to seek asylum in Canada. It is found that Canada is the number one destination for Mexican refugees, while Canada accepts their claims at an alarmingly low rate compared to claims from other nations, even in Latin America. I argue the reason Mexicans chose Canada to claim refugee status is Canada's long history of an open immigration policy and especially their economic and temporary labor agreements with Canada. These policies give the impression to Mexicans they are very much welcome in Canada. This is proved to be untrue when Canada changed their immigration and refugee policies in response, specifically, to the overwhelming number of Mexican refugee claims.