The Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) recently revealed that around 45,000 new immigrants landed in Canada in September 2021. This has put Canada back on track to achieve its immigration target of inviting 401,000 new immigrants in 2021. To fully achieve this target, Canada needs to maintain this pace and invite at least 45,000 immigrants every month for the rest of the year.
Inviting 45,000 immigrants per month is easily the highest immigration target set by the Canadian government in modern Canadian history. The immigration landings in September rank among the all-time highest level. Previous to this, Canada welcomed 80% of the 401,000 immigrants between May and September 1913, meaning around 64,000 immigrants per month.
What Are Immigrant Landings for Foreign Nationals?
Immigrant landings happen when a foreign national enters Canada as a permanent resident. It is valid for foreign nationals entering from abroad and those residing in Canada and transitioning to permanent residence. Currently, the IRCC is focused on inviting foreign workers who are already residing in Canada to apply for permanent residence. This is because temporary residents present in Canada will be less affected by the Covid-19 restrictions, allowing them to apply for permanent residence without facing a lot of disruptions. The focus on transitioning temporary residents in Canada also explains why the immigration levels are at an all-time high but the population growth remains low. According to a report by Statistics Canada, the Canadian population has grown by only 0.5% in the last year, the lowest since World War I. Before the pandemic, the Canadian population growth rate was 1% per annum fueled by immigrant landings.
What Does the Historic Immigrant Landings Signify?
The September immigrant landings signify the recovery of the Canadian immigration system that has been struggling to process immigrants due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Before the onset of the pandemic, Canada was welcoming 25,000-35,000 immigrants per month. However, immigrant landings during the pandemic dropped as low as 4,000.
While the immigrant landings started to recover by the end of 2020, they were still not enough to meet the immigration levels target of inviting 341,000 new immigrants in 2020. In 2020, Canada hardly managed to welcome 184,000 new immigrants.
This is the reason why the Canadian government increased the immigration levels target to 401,000. It was to compensate for the low immigration levels in 2020 and to help the Canadian economy recover post-pandemic.
