By definition, never-married people admitted on humanitarian grounds will have no spouses and likely no children to sponsor. In contrast, married people admitted to Canada on these grounds may sponsor the eventual migration of spouses and children. Unfortunately, there is no way to determine from the Canadian landed immigrant data base which migrants admitted to Canada on the basis of family ties are actually a continuation of an earlier refugee movement. Footnotes Refugees with permanent resident status are no longer required to sponsor the migration of their spouses and children. Instead, when the applicants receive permanent resident status so do their spouses and children.
Men are more likely than women to travel to Canada's borders and become refugee applicants.
Men are also more likely than women to be politically active participants when repression, insurgency and civil war occur and thus meet the criteria of a UN convention refugee. The UN convention definition of a refugee considers race, religion, nationality and membership in a particular social group or political opinion as reasons why an individual may fear being persecuted in their home country. In many countries, however, women undergo persecution as a consequence of the actions of other family members. These guidelines are directed to members of the IRB who review refugee claimant cases and are not part of Canada's immigration legislation. The process used to select refugees from outside Canada also results in men being more likely than women to be admitted.