In particular, the country of almost 40 million people wants to respond to the labor shortages in several sectors such as healthcare, manufacturing or even the technological and engineering fields.
Canada has raised its immigration thresholds with a goal of welcoming 500,000 new arrivals each year by 2025 to fill a severe labor shortage, the immigration minister announced on Tuesday.
“Canada needs more people,” Sean Fraser said at a news conference.
More than 900,000 jobs are currently to be filled in many sectors in the state. Unemployment has also reached historic lows in recent months, standing at 5.2% in September. Therefore, to overcome this, Ottawa plans to grant permanent residency to 465,000 people in 2023 (i.e. 18,000 more than before), 485,000 in 2024 (i.e. 34,000 more) and 500,000 in 2025.
A target of 60% economic migrants
In particular, the federal government wants to improve its selection programs to best respond to “critical labor shortages” in sectors “such as healthcare, skilled jobs, manufacturing and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). By 2025, the goal is for more than 60% of total inflows to be economic migrants, Sean Fraser said. Canada also wants to reunite families with some members abroad faster but take in fewer refugees.
In 2021, the country accepted more than 405,000 immigrants, “the largest number we have ever accepted in a single year,” the Immigration Department said in a statement.
“Right now, Canada’s population is growing almost twice as fast as any other G7 economy,” added Minister Sean Fraser.
Of the seven great powers, Canada has the highest proportion of immigrants with almost 39 million inhabitants, almost one in four Canadians was born abroad. However, the country is also facing a “record wave” of retirements, Statistics Canada warned in the spring.