Canada increases their Immigration Targets for 2022- 2024

The immigration minister of Canada recently made a statement mentioning their increased immigration levels for this year and the coming ones ahead. It has decided on inviting almost 451,000 permanent residents by 2024, the highest record ever. For this year, the numbers for issuing invitations will reach up to 431,000 Permanent Residents and 447,000 for the next year, i.e. 2023. The government mainly took this decision keeping in focus the current economical conditions and labor market needs. This measure is undertaken to deal with the labor shortage and attract highly skilled workers. It will also address the family reunification issues and refugee resettlement.

The country aims to retain the existing talent while inviting new to boost the economy and prevailing demography. Breaking down the immigration numbers, this year almost 56% of new migrants will be invited under the economic class categories. Majorly these are Express Entry, Provincial Nominee Program and Temporary to Permanent Residency Pathway. Even though the numbers allotted for Provincial Nominee Programs are greater being 83,500 It is good to know that Express Entry nominations will slowly return to their normal pace by 2024. For this year, Provincial Nominee Program will be the main category through which invitations will be issued to economic class immigrants.

Supposedly, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada might be cutting the numbers for Express Entry candidates to half so that they can meet the targets for candidates under the Temporary to Permanent Residents pathway. It plans on landing almost 40,000 migrants under this stream in 2022 and about 32,000 migrants in 2023 through TR to PR pathway.

Canada has increased the targets for immigration and invitations so that the new talent can support the economy and aid in improving the current fiscal standing. The current population mainly constitutes aging people and the birth rate is seemingly low. This, in addition to pandemic and hit on the global economy, has been steadily increasing the fiscal deficit of the country. Canada needs a high level of skilled workers now more than ever as they will help in assisting in meeting labor market needs, supporting the population, aiding economic growth, and contributing towards the number of workers to pay the taxes. Through this, the government will get the funds to support essential social services like health care and education. Another aim of increasing immigration levels for 2022-2024 is to focus on reuniting families, giving humanitarian assistance, and promoting the Francophone heritage.