The government of Quebec is intending to soften its immigration rules to welcome more and more Haitians, following the tragic earthquake in the Caribbean nation, despite the disapproval of the federal government. If we go by the statistics, Quebec hosts about ninety percent of the total 135,000 Haitian population in Canada.

At present, as per the immigration law, Canadian government allows Canadians to sponsor close members of their families, but does not let siblings, children above the 21-year-old or cousins and other relatives to immigrate to the country on family sponsorship. Recently, the Haitian community in Quebec appealed the government to allow them to include other family members under the family class category.

In response to the appeal, the Quebec government is looking forward to ease the immigration regulations for the Haitians and their families in Canada. The government is planning to relax the rules on a number of facets, such as family sponsorships; third party sponsorships; relaxation in the costs involved in filing the paperwork etc. The Immigration and Cultural Communities Minister of Quebec said that the government is going to use the ‘power of selection’ in the process, which is used on rare occasions. This is a clause included in the federal and provincial immigration agreement that allows implementing an expanded definition of family class category.

However, Quebec is not going to welcome above 55,000 immigrants this for 2010. It has set the target to allow between 52,00 and 55,000 migrants!