Not just Canada but various countries worldwide are facing talent shortages and a decline in skilled workforces. Several ageing Baby Boomers and startups have left the market, creating a leak in the country’s economy. Ergo, Canada plans to bridge this gap by bringing in 1.5 million immigrants by 2025.
The nation bids to lure talent to bridge the gap of skill shortages in prime sectors and manage demographic, economic, and social challenges in the years ahead. While this sounds like a great plan, not everybody is on board with welcoming people from abroad.
The federal government announced its stringent plan to take in 500,000 immigrants annually by 2025. Over the next three years, this will almost amount to 1.5 million new immigrants.
This strategy may witness Canada welcoming about four times the number of permanent residents yearly – per population than the United States, its southern neighbour, and eight times more than the United Kingdom.
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Canada Immigration Plan — Why?
Among various advanced economies in the world, Canada is the one that has experienced one of the fastest recoveries from the pandemic. However, the nation is currently observing severe labour market shortages. This has created uncertainty for Canadian workers and businesses. As a result, the federal government created a strict plan.
The Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Honourable Sean Fraser, released the 2023-2025 Immigration Levels Plan of Canada. The program embraces immigration as a tactic to aid businesses in discovering workers and luring the talents required in key sectors such as manufacturing, technology, skilled trades, and health care. Furthermore, it will help manage the economic and social challenges Canada will face in decades.
In 2021, Canada embraced over 405,000 newcomers, the highest number they have ever witnessed in a single year. By establishing targets in this new Immigration Plan of welcoming 500,000 permanent residents in 2025, 485,000 in 2024, and 465,000 in 2023, the Government will stand on the previous year’s goal. The plan also emphasises luring immigrants to various parts of the nation, particularly rural and small-town areas.
Highlights of the Canada Immigration Plan
Now the question arises — what does the plan feature? Let’s find out:
- The plan tends to focus on Canada’s economic growth for the long term, with the economic class getting more than 60% of admissions over the next three years.
- The plan will help reunite more families as soon as possible.
- It will employ new attributes in the Express Entry system to attract newcomers with the desired qualifications and skills in industries facing serious workforce shortages, including manufacturing, health care, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), and building trades.
- It will ensure that at least 4.4% of new permanent residents outside Quebec are Francophone.
- The plan will support the global crisis by offering safe refuge to people who encounter oppression and boosting the Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot.
- There will be an increase in regional programs to cater to the market needs of the targeted local labour, via various programs, including the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot, the Atlantic Immigration Program, and the Provincial Nominee Program.
Before You Leave, Scroll through these Facts
Given below are some significant facts about the Canada Immigration plans that you must know:
- Canada’s ageing population suggests that the worker-to-retiree ratio may shift to 2 to 1 by 2035 from 7 to 1, 50 years ago.
- During the 2021 Census, about 1 in 4 individuals counted had been or were either permanent Canadian residents or landed immigrants, which was the highest ratio since Confederation and among G7 nations.
- The levels plan projects the number of permanent residents accepted for the defined year and assign targets for all admissions per immigration class. As per the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, the Minister must propose the Levels Plan in Parliament yearly.
- Immigration equals nearly 100% of the labour force growth of Canada. Moreover, the projection depicts that the number may account for 100% of Canada’s population growth.
- The Levels Plan considers comprehensive engagement with territorial and provincial representatives, along with stakeholder consultations and public opinion research.
- Under the Canada-Quebec Accord, Quebec sets its own immigration levels.
- Citizens of Canada can see how newcomers are helping local communities via the Refugees, Immigration, and Citizenship campaign of Canada’s Immigration Matters.
- The Action Plan for Official Languages – 2018 to 2023: The investment in their future offered about $500 million over five years in supporting official languages, comprising $40.8 million for Francophone immigration endeavours.
- From 2016 to 2021, more than 1.3 million new immigrants became permanent citizens of Canada, the highest number recorded in a Canadian census.
see also – How Many Types of Passports are there in India? Complete Guide
What Do Experts Have to Say?
With Canada putting forward its big plan in front of the general public, a few people at different levels have reacted by supporting and disagreeing with the program. A few opinions are as follows:
Madeleine Sumption
The director of the Migration Observatory at Oxford University, Madeleine Sumption, said that those numbers do not imply that the United Kingdom lags in immigration. Still, instead, Canada is a bit of an “outlier”.
Adding to it, she said that the UK, which has twice the population of Canada, already has a high population density. On the other hand, Canada, one of the world’s largest land masses, has a mere population of over 38 million and has room to grow.
Further, she added that the United Kingdom has usually never had any target for population growth in the same way Canada has set.
Geoffrey Cameron
A political scientist at McMaster University, Geoffrey Cameron, said that while various countries, such as Canada, are experiencing an ageing population and lower birth rates, the success of any immigration will depend on popular support.
Further, he added that public opinion is the limiting factor for most countries.
Goldy Hyder
The President and Business Council CEO, Goldy Hyder, said in a statement that the Business Council of Canada is delighted and embraces the plan of the federal government to increase the number of new permanent residents become permanent by 2025.
