Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) released recent figures which show that Canada welcomed 35,260 new permanent residents in January 2022. The figures suggest that Canada is off to a good start as it prepares to welcome over 400,000 new immigrants for the second year in a row.
Canada announced its revised Immigration Levels Plan 2022-2024 in February. According to that, the country aims to integrate roughly 432,000 new immigrants this year. It is Canada’s largest immigration level target in history. Last year, Canada welcomed nearly 405,000 newcomers, mostly by converting temporary residents to permanent residents. It was a record-breaking year for Canada, with over 400,000 immigrants arriving for the first time since 1913.
The economic class accounted for 65% of new permanent resident landings in January, which is greater than the 56% targeted under the levels plan. The family class accounted for 20% of the total, which is lower than the plan’s aim of 24%. The remaining 15% of landings were in the refugee and humanitarian category, which is less than the 20% level plan target for this year.
The Canadian Experience Class (CEC) remains the most popular program for new economic class arrivals with over 7,700 immigrants. Last year, the IRCC depended heavily on the CEC to meet its immigration targets, with the CEC accounting for around one-third of all new admissions.
With nearly 7,000 immigrants arriving in January, the Temporary Resident to Permanent Resident (TR2PR) Program was the second most popular economic class admissions program. It was open to international graduates and essential workers between May and November 2021.
The Provincial Nominee Program was placed third in the economic class with 4,200 immigrants landing. It was followed by the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP), which had nearly 2,600 landings.
According to IRCC data, the department is processing FSWP applications at a faster rate than before. This is significant since, between 1967 to the outbreak of the pandemic, the FSWP was Canada’s most popular economic-class immigration program. IRCC reduced FSWP processing last year in order to convert as many international students, temporary foreign workers, and other temporary residents as possible to permanent residence in order to meet its 2021 levels plan target. The reason behind this decision was that it would be considerably more difficult for IRCC to meet its level plan target if it attempted to admit large numbers of FSWP and other international immigrants while dealing with the pandemic’s operational issues.
However, IRCC has been processing more FSWP applications in recent months. From mid-December until the end of February, it processed over 9,000 FSWP applications. This is significantly higher than the average of 600 people it processed under the FSWP in 2021. This is proof that the IRCC is starting to normalise its operations. They would soon establish a balance between processing immigration applications from within as well as outside Canada.
Another reason the January 2022 immigrant admissions data are noteworthy is that they are expected to be the lowest point in the monthly landings Canada can expect this year. Prior to the pandemic, Canada’s immigration landings were normally lower in the first and fourth quarters of each year due to the colder weather and the winter holiday season. In the warmer spring and summer months of Q2 and Q4, landings would increase by roughly 40%. Higher immigration landings are expected in Q2 and Q3 of this year, given that IRCC is processing more applicants from abroad. However, the extent of the growth may not be as high as 40%, given that IRCC still has many permanent residence applications to process from within Canada which includes the TR2PR program.
It is not doubtful that Canada will meet its immigration targets in 2022. Last year there were substantial COVID-19 operational problems like Canada’s travel restrictions and global difficulties because of which the international immigration landings were disturbed. However, the IRCC has demonstrated that it can process even more permanent residency applications than it did before the pandemic. IRCC is also investing considerably in updating its application processing technologies. Moreover, the majority of Canada’s travel restrictions have been lifted now giving way to more overseas immigrants.
The category wise breakdown of landings is as follows:
