Canada Immigration Levels Plan Announcement 2022

February 14, 2022, is a big day for Canadian Immigration. On the same day as Valentine’s, Honorable Sean Fraser, the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, presented the 2022-2024 Canada Immigration Levels Plan.

Last year, 2021, Canada welcomed 405,000 new permeant residents. This is a massive undertaking since this has been the largest number of immigrants accepted in a single year. The latest three-year Canada new immigration plan pushes for the acceptance of more than 1.3 million immigrants in the country over the next three years, which is a rate of about 1% of Canada’s population:

• 431,645 permanent residents in 2022
• 447,055 permanent residents in 2023

• 451,000 permanent residents in 2024

  The three-year admission plan for Canada new immigration plan is as follows:

The new Canada immigration plan will alter the composition of the applicants to be accepted this year. Economic and skilled immigrants will go down from 60% to 56 percent. Newcomers under family class will fall from 26% to 24 %, and refugees will increase from 14% to 20%. The acceptance of economic and family classes in Canada will be lowered for the next two years to accommodate more refugees who require assistance.

The Rationale Behind the Immigration Level Plan 2022-2024

Since this IRCC news has been released to the press, many people consider this immigration level plan 2022 one of the most ambitious plans developed by Canadian Immigration. The rationale behind this is the impact of immigrants on the country’s economy. The success behind Canada’s strong economy and key sectors such as healthcare, transportation, and manufacturing has been backed up by the country’s robust immigration system.

In an interview, Fraser said:

“If we’re not ready to significantly increase our ambition when it comes to immigration, we are going to be in a position where our economy will suffer, and it could put into jeopardy so many of the public services and social supports that make me very proud to be Canadian.”

True, what the CIC wants to achieve in the next three years is a considerable undertaking, but it is a very responsible and strategic move. There is a considerable labour market gap in Canada’s work system that needs to be filled. With 5 million Canadians set to retire at the end of this decade, the worker-to-retiree ratio will drop to 3:1, hence the need for increased immigration.

A strong economy backed by many immigrant workers is essential for the Canadian economy to recover and fuel the country’s post-pandemic growth. However, to make this plan more efficient, it is lobbied to modernize Canada’s immigration system.

With this improvement, the IRCC will reduce the wait time of applicants by hiring 500 new processing staff, digitizing applications, and reallocating work among offices worldwide. Advanced data analytics will also help accelerate the processing work of visa applications, therefore reducing the 1.8 million application backlog that piled up during the pandemic surge.

Challenges Along the Way

The goal of welcoming more immigrants to Canada is admirable. However, some also see the potential challenges the government may face along the way. One of which is pointed out by Shamira Madhany, the managing director of World Education Services: “In terms of our capacity (to absorb immigrants), it’s a different question. We need to make sure we have mechanisms and tools in place to leverage their prior skills and experience. We don’t want highly skilled people to come here to do low-skilled jobs.”

How this will be addressed by the IRCC and the rest of the Canadian government is something the country will have to see in the succeeding months and years.

Summary of Canada’s New Immigration Plan

This new plan projects the total number of permanent residents admitted to Canada in the next three years in different immigration categories.

• The overall admission will amount to 1.14% of Canada’s population by 2024.
• Around 60% of the Economic Class will be admitted to the country in the next three years to push for the country’s economic recovery and growth.
• The granting of permanent residency to refugee claimants working in health care is a help shown towards the vulnerable population.
• To support the global crises, Canada, through humanitarian immigration, will accept applicants facing persecution.
• Talent retention in the country is hoped to be achieved by granting permanent status to temporary residents accepted through the time-limited pathways for essential workers launched in 2021.
• This ambitious three-year immigration plan will help make Canada maintain its position as one of the world’s top destinations for talent, post-pandemic economic growth, reuniting families, and fulfilling the country’s humanitarian commitments.