A new immigration record for Canada: welcomes over 4.3 lakh immigrants in 2022

Recently, data shows that Canada has broken its record by inviting more than 4.3 lakh immigrants to be permanent residents in 2022. In 2021, Canada allowed over 4.05 lakh immigrants. The country-wise stats are not revealed yet, but India has been one of the top sources of immigrants to Canada for many years. The immigration minister said that this event is an important milestone for the country. He also said that this milestone is a testimony to the strength and resilience of their country and its people. Newcomers are considered assets- filling labor gaps, bringing new talents, and ideas to the table enriching the country’s overall growth. 

The Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) operated on 5.2 million applications from all businesses in 2022 that includes permanent/temporary residence and citizenship. The number is double the number of applications processed in 2021. The credit for such an increase in application processing goes to new technology, resources, applications being processed online, etc. 

The labor force growth of Canada is almost fully dependent on immigration. The reason for the shortage of skilled labor in Canada is mainly because of the aging workforce and due to this, nearly one million job vacancies are available. So, Canada mainly focuses on immigration and its search for talented resources to boost the economy. It is also expected that around nine million people will reach their retirement age of 65 by 2030 which is also a reason for boosting the immigration process. 

Canada’s targets are set in the annual Immigration Levels Plan. The 2022 plan became the biggest success as this broke Canada’s record for the highest immigrants' admission. Now, the plan for 2023-25 aims at welcoming over 500,000 immigrants to permanent/temporary residences by 2025. 

As the government now targets 500,000 immigrants a year, the other parts of Canada disagree. For example, the province of Quebec gets to set the immigration limit on its own, so they said that they will not allow more than 50,000 immigrants per year. 23% of Canada’s population is Quebec which means it will be taking only 10% of the country’s immigrants. The reason given for this decision states that the increase in immigrants would weaken the province’s French language. 

Other than inviting skilled immigrants, Canada is one of the top countries accepting refugee resettlement. The country allowed 20,428 refugees in 2021 and has a target of resettling 76,000 refugees by 2023. 

IRCC is the part of the Government of Canada established in 1994 that deals with immigration to Canada, refugees, and citizenship of Canada.

There are several reasons why Canada works more on increasing the number of immigrants every year- 

• Immigrants contribute to the economy by taking place of the aging/retiring population and continuing the growth of the country.

• Students immigrating to Canada for higher studies spend money on education, tuition, and daily needs. Hence, this contributes to the economy, and students from all over the world immigrate to Canada helping the country's people to learn new cultures and ideas, and explore new talents. 

• Immigrants also help in boosting trade among countries. Immigrants often wish for goods from their homes, which widens the scope of imports available to Canadians also. 

• People between 18-54 years after some time apply for citizenship in Canada by taking the citizenship test. The test is to know whether the person knows about Canada, its culture, history, etc.

Immigration is not an easy process. It requires thorough knowledge and counseling about any country you wish to immigrate to. For that, you can find the best immigration consultants in Chandigarh on studydekho.com