Citizenship: Citizenship Applications and Citizenship Canada

citizenship: According to the latest government data, only 36,000 citizenship applications were received from January to June in 2016, just more than one-third of the number for the same period last year, according to Metro News. In 2015, a total of 130,000 citizenship applications were submitted to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, compared to an average of 200,000 received in previous years. The trend has prompted fears that the current citizenship costs — $530 per adult, plus a $100 right of citizenship fee — are creating a growing underclass of newcomers who can't afford the fee and hence are prevented from full integration and participation in Canadian society, according to a report published in the Institute for Research on Public Policy. The decline is so significant that it cannot be ignored, said retired immigration department director-general Andrew Griffith, who obtained the government statistics for policy analysis for the Montreal-based Institute for Research on Public Policy. Griffith report came just as Canada is celebrating Citizenship Week that runs Oct. 10 to 16. I had thought the citizenship fee increases would provoke a decline in applications, but I was surprised by the steepness of the decline. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.