Canada aims to welcome 485,000 new permanent residents in 2024, following the 2024-2026 Immigration Levels Plan.
Through a statement, the government announced its plans to open its doors to 500,000 residents in 2025 and 500,000 in 2026, VisaGuide.World reports.
The plan prioritizes economic growth while supporting family reunification, responding to humanitarian crises, and recognizing the fast growth in immigration in recent years.
Building on the achievement of a 4.4% target of French-speaking permanent residents outside Quebec in 2022, the Plan includes new annual and progressively increasing French-speaking permanent resident targets outside Quebec: 6 percent in 2024, 7 percent in 2025 and 8 percent in 2026.
Government of Canada
It emphasized that immigrants have an important role in the labor market and in growing the country’s economy, helping to ensure Canada has the skills needed in order to meet the main goals, such as supporting sustainability initiatives to transition to a net-zero and digital economy, thus help fill in labour shortage gaps.
For the Family Class, having family support is important for newcomers’ well-being and social adaptation, and it also provides an economic benefit. Spouses and partners often join the workforce and help supplement household income, and parents and grandparents often provide childcare, enabling their sponsors to enter or remain in the workforce.
Government of Canada
The government has highlighted that welcoming people from other countries is not just about the targets set for admission but also must take into account support and services required by newcomers as well as Canadians alike, including housing and healthcare.
In an effort to boost economic growth, Canada’s authorities introduced a plan to simplify the process for Canadian employers planning to hire persons from the Philippines.
In this regard, the Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) visa office in Manila introduced CAN Work Philippines, which is a program aimed at expediting work permit processing for Filipino workers.
IRCC said that the pilot is open to all Canadian employers recruiting from the Philippines and also hiring nearly 50 or more workers for critical occupations in different fields, among them healthcare, construction, and agri-food.
Last month, the country also revealed a new humanitarian pathway that mainly would bring benefits to citizens of Colombia, as well as those from Haiti, Venezuela, already in Central South America or the Caribbean, who have extended family connections with Canada, as confirmed by the Immigration Minister, Marc Miller.
