Canada To Targets over 1.2 Million Immigrants From 2021 To 2023
Canada will aim to welcome 1.2 million immigrants from 2021 to 2023 to make up for a shortfall this year blamed on the pandemic, the immigration minister announced Friday.
Today, Canada announced its 2021-2023 Immigration Levels Plan. Canada will target the highest level of immigration in its history.
Over the coming three years, Canada will aim to welcome the following level of new permanent residents:
- 2021: 401,000 immigrants
- 2022: 411,000 immigrants
- 2023: 421,000 immigrants
An immigration rate equal to about one percent of Canada’s population. The only time Canada welcomed over 400,000 immigrants in a year was in 1913, when it admitted 401,000 newcomers. It has never come close to this figure again.
“The key to both short-term economic recovery and long-term prosperity is immigration,” Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino told a news conference.
Canada had expected to bring in 341,000 skilled workers, family members of Canadians, and refugees this year.
But because of closed borders and visa offices, quarantines, and few available international flights, only a fraction came.
“As with every other aspect of our lives, the pandemic has affected migration to Canada,” the minister commented.
The new target is about 50,000 per year higher than the previous goal.
To help make up the shortfall, Mendicino said the government would offer permanent resident status to temporary foreign workers, international students, and asylum claimants already in Canada.
He noted that immigrants have been “critical” to Canada’s pandemic response, representing one in four health care workers in hospitals and elderly care homes. They also account for one-third of business owners in Canada.
“Whether they’ve been taking care of our most vulnerable, or putting food on our tables, newcomers have played an outsized role in our response to Covid-19,” he said.
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