IRCC Plans on Welcoming 500,000 Immigrants in 2025

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has shared plans of increasing the number of immigrants to 500,000 by 2025. It states Canada is facing critical labor market shortages that are causing uncertainty for Canadian workers and businesses, even though the Canadian economy was among the fastest to recover from the pandemic.

Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Sean Fraser, released Canada’s 2023–2025 Immigration Levels Plan today, November 1. They support immigration and see it as a way to help businesses find workers and to attract the skills required in key sectors. This will help Canada face the challenges of the upcoming decades. The plan involves welcoming 500,000 immigrants to Canada by 2025.

Last year, Canada welcomed over 405,000 newcomers which were the highest ever. Next year, the government plans on inviting 465,000 permanent residents, followed by 485,000 in 2024 and then 500,000 in 2025. The plan also includes inviting newcomers to small towns and rural communities. The highlights of the plan shared by IRCC are:

1. a long-term focus on economic growth, with just over 60% of admissions in the economic class by 2025
2. using new features in the Express Entry system to welcome newcomers with the required skills and qualifications in sectors facing acute labour shortages such as, health care, manufacturing, building trades and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math)
3. increases in regional programs to address targeted local labour market needs, through the Provincial Nominee Program, the Atlantic Immigration Program, and the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot
4. reuniting more families faster
5. ensuring that at least 4.4 percent of new permanent residents outside Quebec are Francophone
6. support for global crises by providing a safe haven to those facing persecution, including by expanding the Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot

Reportedly, Ottawa is planning a more moderate increase in the number of family members allowed to immigrate and a decrease in the number of refugees.

Recently, Statistics Canada reported that 23 percent of the population of Canada are immigrants and out of the Asian countries, most of the immigrants are from India. The 2021 census data shows that 8.3 million people of the population of Canada are immigrants or have permanent residence between 2016 and 2021. This is the highest percentage of immigrants ever in the history of Canada. Asian-born immigrants accounted for a record 62 percent in 2021. And out of this, the majority of immigrants are from India coming in at 18.6 percent.

Vineet Washington