Immigration to Canada surged in May after gradually dropping for three consecutive months, culminating in a sluggish performance in April, reveals the latest data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).
Canada welcomed 45,825 new permanent residents in May, up 55.1 per cent or 16,280 more newcomers, than the 29,545 the previous month.
The stronger monthly immigration performance in May comes after a month in which immigration to Canada had fallen by 34.1 per cent, down 15,320 new permanent residents from the 44,865 in March.
And the immigration figures for March were themselves already down 9.7 per cent compared to February.
With the bounce back up in May, the monthly rate of immigration to Canada has risen to slightly more than where it was in March.
Read More
Ontario, Nova Scotia And Newfoundland All Saw Canada Jobs Growth In June
Canada Targets French-Language Candidate In Fourth Express Entry Draw This Week
Prince Edward Island Issues 90 Canada Immigration Invitations In New PNP Draw
Despite the latest rally, the monthly number of new permanent residents to Canada was still down by 5,090 new permanent residents, or slightly under 10 per cent, of the high of 50,910 new permanent residents in a single month set in January.
Projecting out from the first five months of this year, Canada could expect to welcome 529,932 new permanent residents this year if the current trend continues, allowing Ottawa to easily surpass its immigration target for not only this year but even the much-higher target for 2025.
In its 2023-2025 Immigration Levels Plan, Ottawa has set its immigration target for 2023 at 465,000 new permanent residents. The country is also to welcome 485,000 new permanent residents in 2024 and another 500,000 in 2025.
That’s a total of 1.45 million immigrants to Canada over the coming three years.
By far the most popular destination for newcomers to Canada in the first five months of the year was Ontario which attracted 95,779 new permanent residents, or about 44.4 per cent of the total for Canada.
Video
Economic programs, including the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP), Agri-Food Immigration Pilot (AFIP), Canadian Experience Class (CEC), Caregiver programs, Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot (RNIP), Federal Skilled Trades (FST) and Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) programs, the Start-Up Visa (SUV) and Self-Employed Persons (SEP) programs, and the Temporary Resident to Permanent Resident Pathway accounted for slightly more than half of all new permanent residents coming to Ontario in the first five months of this year.
Those programs helped 48,940 new permanent residents arrive in Ontario in the first five months of this year.
Newfoundland And Labrador Is Seeing Fastest Rate Of Growth In Immigration Of All The Provinces
Another 26,370 new permanent residents arrived in Ontario through family sponsorships and 15,950 came to that province through Canada’s refugee and protected persons programs in the first five months of 2023.
The other provinces and territories attracted the following number of new permanent residents each during that period:
- Newfoundland and Labrador – 2,690
- Prince Edward Island – 1,715
- Nova Scotia – 5,470
- New Brunswick – 4,400
- Quebec – 22,925
- Manitoba – 12,835
- Saskatchewan – 11,595
- Alberta – 26,670
- British Columbia – 36,075
- Yukon – 465
- Northwest Territories – 175
- Nunavut – 20
The Atlantic Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador was by far the province with the fastest rate of immigration growth in the first five months of this year compared to the same period in 2022.
In the first third or this year, the Rock, as the province is affectionately called, saw an immigration boom of 158.7 per cent compared to the same five months last year, with 2,690 new permanent residents for that period.
The Atlantic Immigration Program (AIP) was a big contributor to the province’s boost in immigration with the number of new permanent residents through the AIP soaring by 84.9 per cent during the first five months of this year.
But the biggest difference on the Rock has been its Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) which saw growth of 489.1 per cent in its number of new permanent residents in the first five months of this year, or 1,620 newcomers to the province.
