Canada: 2024-2026 Immigration Levels Plan Announced, Emphasizing Sustainable Growth
November 2, 2023
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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:
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- Maintaining overall immigration admissions over the next three years, with a special focus on economic immigrant categories;
- Attracting more French-speaking individuals; and
- Upholding Canadaβs 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.
A closer look
Details of the plan include:
| TOPIC | DETAILS | IMPACT |
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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:
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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 Canadaβs labor market. |
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Increased French-speaking targets |
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The government is seeking to strengthen Francophone communities outside of Quebec and ensure the economic prosperity of Francophone minority communities across Canada. |
Background
- 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 Canadaβs Future. The 2024 to 2026 Immigration Levels Plan comes one day after the Minister unveiled a comprehensive report called βAn Immigration System for Canadaβs Future.β It sets out IRCCβs 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.
Looking ahead
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 Canadaβs 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].
