Canada Hits Historic Immigration Target Of 431,000 Newcomers

Canada reached its historic target of 431,645 new immigrants in 2022, the federal government revealed on Tuesday.

Without giving an exact figure, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) only said that it reached the target laid out in the Immigration Levels Plan for last year.

The number surpasses the record of more than 405,000 newcomers welcomed in 2021. IRCC also plans to break the record in each of the next three years, according to the 2023 to 2025 Immigration Levels Plan released in November.

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Canada was already well on target to break the record, with official figures up until October showing 387,560 new permanent residents had been welcomed. That equates to a rate of 38,756 new immigrants per month, which works out as more than 465,000 for the year.

“Today marks an important milestone for Canada, setting a new record for newcomers welcomed in a single year,” said Immigration Minister Sean Fraser.

“Newcomers play an essential role in filling labour shortages, bringing new perspectives and talents to our communities, and enriching our society as a whole. 

“I am excited to see what the future holds and look forward to another historic year in 2023 as we continue to welcome newcomers.”

Prior to setting a new record for admissions in 2021, the last time Canada welcomed such a large number of newcomers was in 1913.

The 2022 figure comes after IRCC doubled the number of applications it processed for permanent residence, temporary residence and citizenship from the previous year to 5.2 million.

The increased processing came after a massive funding boost from the federal government to tackle an enormous application backlog, which was causing growing processing times.

The latest Fall Economic Statement set aside $50 million in 2022 to 2023 to address the issue and tackle a chronic labour shortage.

“As we plan to continue to welcome historic numbers of newcomers, IRCC has added resources, embraced new technology, streamlined processing, and brought more processes online,” said the IRCC.

Immigration accounts for almost 100 percent of Canada’s labour force growth and 75 percent of its population growth, mostly in the economic category. By 2036, immigrants will represent up to 30 percent of Canada’s population, compared with 20.7 percent in 2011.

Canada’s aging population means that the worker-to-retiree ratio is expected to shift from seven to one 50 years ago to two to one by 2035.

During the 2021 Census, nearly a quarter of people were or had been landed immigrants or permanent residents in Canada, the largest proportion among the G7 countries. Just over 1.3 million new immigrants settled in Canada from 2016 to 2021.

Immigrants account for 36 percent of physicians, 33 percent of business owners with paid staff and 41 percent of engineers, IRCC says.

The most recent Immigration Levels Plan promises to increase immigration to 465,000 newcomers per year in 2023, 485,000 in 2024 and 500,000 by 2025.

The vast majority of these are set to come through the Economic Class, which is set to grow to over 300,000 newcomers by itself within three years under the latest IRCC plan.

Canada’s 2023 to 2025 Immigration Levels Plan