Key points:
- One-fourth of the total permanent residencies granted by Canada in 2019 were Indian immigrants, setting a new record.
- The data was disclosed as the 2020 Annual Report on Immigration to Parliament was submitted.
- Canada’s minister of immigration, refugees, and citizenship Marco Mendicino also tabled the 2021‒2023 Immigration Levels Plan.
- Mendicino said in a statement that our strategy would help solve some of our most urgent labour shortages.
- Canada’s population growth around 2018 and 2019 was 1.4 per cent.
One-fourth of the total permanent residencies granted by Canada in 2019 were Indian immigrants, setting a new record.
With 85,593 admitted last year, India was easily the largest source nation for permanent residents (PR), a figure that is greater than the total for the next four nations taken together. The data was disclosed as the 2020 Annual Report on Immigration to Parliament was submitted.
India has been the top source country since 2017 when it surpassed China among PRs, but the figures have jumped in recent years, with a rise of over 20% around 2018 and 2019.
Canada’s minister of immigration, refugees, and citizenship Marco Mendicino also tabled the 2021‒2023 Immigration Levels Plan.
Due to the travel and other restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Canadian government is rising the number of immigrants to be brought into the country between those years to compensate for the expected shortage this year.
While the former plan set goals for 2021 of 351,000 PRs and 2022 of 361,000, these have been raised to 401,000 and 411,000.
At 421,000, the number for 2023 is even higher. The bulk of admissions, 60%, would be in the economic class that has been dominated in recent years by Indians.
In order to get us through the pandemic, immigration is vital, but also for our short-term economic stabilization and long-term economic growth. Canadians saw how newcomers in our hospitals and nursing homes are playing an outsized part and allowing us to keep food on the table.
When we look to recovery, not only by offering our corporations the abilities they need to succeed but also by launching enterprises themselves, newcomers build jobs.
Mendicino said in a statement that our strategy would help solve some of our most urgent labour shortages and expand our population to keep Canada competitive on the world stage.
Canada’s population growth around 2018 and 2019 was 1.4 per cent, the fastest among G7 countries, according to a statement from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), so this was “overwhelmingly motivated” by the “accession of immigrants and non-permanent citizens,” who accounted for 82 per cent of the increase.
It also observed that Canada’s growing population would depend entirely on immigration by the early 2030s and “Canada must be prepared to compete globally for young, qualified and mobile jobs” with many of its key source countries for immigrants experiencing common challenges of lower fertility rates and an ageing demographic.
