Canada plans to take in more than one million new immigrants between 2019 and 2021

The 2018 Annual Report on Immigration states the plans to admit around 1,080,000 new immigrants between 2019 and 2021, which equates to around 360,000 individuals per year. This is 74,000 more than the 286,000 immigrants that were welcomed as permanent residents in 2017, as stated by the World Economic Forum.

Canadian immigration minister Ahmed Hussen mentioned the plans in his annual report, securing his country’s position as a world-leader in immigration policy.

The intake of immigrants will be distributed among the different programmes the government offers, like Federal Economic, Provincial/Territorial Nominees, or the Quebec-selected Skilled Workers and Business, which accounts for around 59% of the immigration admissions of the region (CIC News).

These Economic Programmes will account for the highest admission of migrants, helping fill gaps in the labour market and assuage the effects of the ageing population, since most immigrants are of young working age. These programmes accounted for more than half of the immigrant intake in 2017, with the remaining distributed as refugees, protected persons, or those admitted under humanitarian policies.

Canada has the 7th largest foreign-born population in the world and is one of the largest resettling countries along with the United States of America.

The country has always been known for being welcoming to immigrants, namely refugees, having resettled around 621,000 since 1979.

The openness goes beyond the government, with many NGO’s and private institutions focused on aiding refugees and migrants in their settlement into Canada. This collaboration of private, public, and third sector entities has been greatly praised by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, who said that this “mix is very important” as it helps citizens become familiar with the situation, and “helps the government to do more to help organisations like [the UNHCR]”.

Author: Ana Hernandez