Canada: 2024-2026 Immigration Levels Plan Announced, Emphasizing Sustainable Growth

November 2, 2023

insight-news-default

Country / Territory

At a Glance

The Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada has announced the 2024 to 2026 Immigration Levels Plan which aims to stabilize immigration targets to support sustainable growth. Specific details on the plan include:

    • Maintaining overall immigration admissions over the next three years, with a special focus on economic immigrant categories;
    • Attracting more French-speaking individuals; and
    • Upholding Canada’s humanitarian support efforts for asylees and refugees.

The situation

The Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has announced the 2024 to 2026 Immigration Levels Plan. The plan aims to stabilize immigration targets to support economic growth while balancing immigration pressures on housing, health care, and infrastructure.

Details of the plan include:

TOPIC DETAILS IMPACT

Targets maintained as planned for 2024 and 2025

The government is maintaining its overall target of 485,000 permanent residents for 2024 and 500,000 permanent residents for 2025, as set out in the 2023-2025 Immigration Levels Plan. The distribution will now be as follows:

    • 2024:
      • 281,135 under Economic pathways (including Express, Canadian Experience Class, economic pilot programs, Start-Up Visa Program, and Provincial Nominee Program, among others)
      • 114,000 under Family pathways
      • 76,115 under Refugees and Protected Persons pathways
      • 13,750 under Humanitarian and Compassionate, and other pathways
    • 2025:
      • 301,250 under Economic pathways
      • 118,000 under Family pathways
      • 72,750 under Refugees and Protected Persons pathways
      • 8,000 under Humanitarian and Compassionate, and other pathways
  • The high admission of permanent residents through the economic pathways will allow businesses to fill labor gaps and foreign nationals to start businesses in Canada, contributing to economic recovery.
  • Notably, the Express Entry program targets individuals with specific skills, training, education or language ability that can help alleviate labor shortages in key sectors (e.g., health, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), trades, transportation and agriculture).
  • The continuing family reunification levels will help families reunite more quickly while also helping address labor shortages in Canada.
  • The Levels Plan continues Canada’s long-standing commitment to welcoming skilled refugees to contribute to addressing labor gaps in the Canadian workforce. It also supports Canada’s commitment to respond to humanitarian and geopolitical crises around the world.

Targets to level out in 2026

Starting in 2026, the government will stabilize permanent resident levels at 500,000, with the same distribution between categories as for 2025.

According to the government, stabilizing permanent resident levels will allow time for the successful integration of immigrants into Canadian society and labor force while continuing to augment Canada’s labor market.

Increased French-speaking targets
  • The plan includes new annual and progressively increasing French-speaking permanent resident targets outside Quebec.
  • The plan will ensure that a minimum percentage of permanent residents outside of Quebec speak French, as follows: 6% in 2024, 7% in 2025, and 8% in 2026 (up from the 4.4% target in the 2023-2025 Immigration Levels Plan).

The government is seeking to strengthen Francophone communities outside of Quebec and ensure the economic prosperity of Francophone minority communities across Canada.
  • Immigration Levels Plan. The Levels Plan is a projection of how many permanent residents Canada plans to admit each year and sets targets for overall admissions per immigration category. The Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship must table the Levels Plan in Parliament each year.
  • Emphasis on sustainable growth. The 2024-2026 plan reinforces that immigrants are needed to fill critical labor gaps in key sectors under pressure in Canada. However, it aims to stabilize immigration levels to balance economic growth with the pressure that immigration growth presents in areas such as housing prices, health care, and infrastructure.
  • An Immigration System for Canada’s Future. The 2024 to 2026 Immigration Levels Plan comes one day after the Minister unveiled a comprehensive report called “An Immigration System for Canada’s Future.” It sets out IRCC’s intention to improve service standards and reduce wait times; strengthen partnerships with employers and educational institutions; use digital and virtual technologies in immigration processing more widely; and align immigration with labor market needs, among other initiatives, in the next few years.

Canada is likely to continue to promote policies to encourage immigration into Canada, as it continues to face an aging population and critical labor shortages in key sectors like health care, transportation and home building. More policies are likely forthcoming as set out in the Immigration System for Canada’s Future report.

The government also plans to take action over the next year to recalibrate the number of temporary resident admissions to ensure this aspect of the immigration system also remains sustainable.

Fragomen will report on relevant developments.

This alert is for informational purposes only. If you have any questions, please contact the global immigration professional with whom you work at Fragomen or send an email to [email protected].

Fragomen.com home
Search Fragomen.com
Important Updates
Important Updates
Subscribe