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Sean Fraser, Canada’s Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship, led the nation in announcing its revised immigration levels plan for 2023–2025 on November 1. The Immigration Levels Plan serves as a roadmap for immigration and specifies immigration goals for the following three years. Every year, the minister submits the levels plan to the parliament, which anticipates the number of permanent residents who will be admitted to Canada and sets goals for total admissions per immigration category.
According to Statistics Canada, there are now around one million job opportunities in Canada, an all-time record. More than 80% higher than pre-pandemic levels, this was a rise of 2.7% over the peak of the previous quarter. In recent years, this is the highest level ever noted. Vacancies in key industries are going up over time. The ageing population has led to a rapid expansion in the health care and social assistance sectors, creating high demand without adequate supply within that sector. The shortage has been made worse by the COVID-19 outbreak. Due to the severe shortage of competent workers in Canada, many firms are having trouble filling positions.
The new immigration plan reflects the current state of the Canadian labour market, it shows that the government is using immigration as one of the ways to resolve this issue.
KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THE IMMIGRATION LEVELS ANNOUNCEMENT
1. In 2025, Canada will welcome 500,000 new immigrants. Listed below is the numbers of admission in the previous year and projected admissions in the coming years
| 2021: | 405,000 |
| 2022: | 432,000 |
| 2023: | 465,000 |
| 2024: | 485,000 |
2. EXPRESS ENTRY
The IRCC will continue to hold Express Entry draws as usual for the time being. That is, based on comprehensive ranking scores, a certain number of invitations to apply (ITAs) for Canadian PR will be distributed every two weeks (CRS).
Beginning in early 2023, however, the Express Entry system will shift away from a focus on CRS scores and instead conduct draws that will allow Canada to welcome immigrants while also allowing the country to better focus on addressing specific areas of labour market needs in key sectors. For example, sector-specific draws will allow highly skilled foreign nationals in industries such as STEM and healthcare to obtain ITA even if their CRS is low.
The Express Entry system will continue to operate three major federal economic programmes: the Federal Skilled Worker (FSW), the Federal Skilled Trades (FST), and the Canadian Experience Class (CEC). The target number of Express Entry applicants (principal applicants, spouses, and dependents) will rise to 82,880 in 2023, 109,020 in 2024, and 114,000 in 2025.
According to Immigration Minister Sean Fraser, significant changes will be made to Express Entry in order to attract foreign nationals who best match the country’s most in-demand skills and qualifications.
3. Humanitarian & Refugee Immigration
Canada’s current humanitarian class targets are high. This is because of its continuous efforts to finish a number of programmes, including accepting 40,000 Afghan migrants and helping people who are fleeing the Ukraine war. The target for the entire refugee class is 76,305 new arrivals in 2023 and 2024, then 72,750 in 2025. Similarly to that, the goal for the humanitarian class drops from about 16,000 in 2023 to 8,000 in 2025.
4. Federal Economic Public Policies Set to End by 2024
The Federal Economic Public Policies category of the 2023–2025 Immigration Levels plan includes 25,000 PR applications under the Federal Economic Policies issued in response to COVID-19 pandemic. IRCC Expects all pending applications to be processed by the end of 2023.
5. Other Economic Categories
Federal Business, Economic Pilot Programs, Caregivers, and the Atlantic Immigration Program are additional programmes that fall within the economic category of the 2023–2025 Immigration Levels Plan. These categories aim for immigration of 10,000 or fewer by 2023, with further increase every year. Additionally, there has been an emphasis on business immigration to boost economic activities.
6. Family Immigration
With a target of 106,500 total family immigrants for 2023, family immigration is the second-largest group under the 2023–2025 Immigration Levels Plan. Additionally, until 2025, the overall number of family immigrants will rise each year. 78,000 of the 106,500 family immigrants anticipated for 2023 will be sponsored by a spouse, partner, or child. If the sponsor can provide for them financially once they arrive in Canada, spouses, partners, and kids may be sponsored for residence. Parent and grandparent sponsorships will receive the remaining 28,500 target immigrants for 2023 under the family immigration category.
Our analysis above makes it quite evident that the Canadian government’s current priority is economic immigration. In 2023, 2024, and 2025, more than half of all immigration will be economic. It comes as no surprise that Canada has turned to immigration in order to fill a record number of job opportunities; this trend is anticipated to continue in the future to meet labour demands and fill crucial positions. By 2032, immigration will likely account for all of Canada’s population growth as well as nearly all of the country’s labour force growth.