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In October 2020, Canada’s government released the annual report to Parliament on Immigration 2020. This report was released to provide Parliament and the public with an overview of the latest immigration developments in Canada, alongside Canada’s Immigration Levels Plan from 2021 to 2023. With Canada aiming to welcome over 400,000 immigrants annually under its 2021-2023 Immigration Levels Plan, the annual report sheds some additional light on how the federal government aims to achieve its ambitious new immigration targets.
Canada welcomed over 1 million immigrants and study and work permit holders combined in 2019. Over 341,000 newcomers arrived as permanent residents. Over 400,000 obtained study permits. An additional 400,000 obtained work permits. However, with the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, the number of newcomers, international students and workers all reduced drastically. Statistics from IRCC has reflected a 90% decrease of confirmed study permits issued at university level and more than 65% decrease in all other levels of education in 2020. The total number of confirmed study permits issued from January to September 2020 is 36,798, compared with 177,772 in 2019. IRCC reflected the total approximate number of work permit holders in Canada in 2019 VS. 2020 has dropped from 403,000 to 211,000 (nearly 52%). To meet the shorting caused by COVID pandemic, the Canadian government will facilitate more aggressive measures in welcoming newcomers and helping existing international students and workers to stay inside Canada. Without immigration, Canada’s economic recover from COVID-19 will be much slower and more arduous than with the help of new permanent residents.
2020 Annual Immigration Report has demonstrated the process Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) was making in tackling family reunification backlogs prior to the pandemic. Of the over 90,000 immigrants that arrived at Canada under the family class in 2019, nearly 90,000 came under the spouses, partners, and children category. IRCC has a standard of processing family class applications within 12 months of being received. The report notes that at the end of 2015, Canada had a backlog of 77,000 applications under the spouses, partners, and children category with a processing time of 21 months. At the end of 2019, this fell to 13 months. Processing time has been greatly slowed down due to the COVID pandemic, however several measures have been taken by IRCC to expedite the family reunification applications:
The population of international students in Canada have been growing drastically in the past few years, some of them have successfully gained Canadian work experience, adapted to the society and finally established well inside Canada. According to IRCC, successfully CEC (Canadian Experience Class) candidates who have at least one year of Canadian work experience, have proven that they can contribute to the economy and have paid taxes.
During COVID pandemic, many international students have chosen to stay inside Canada, which means they are unaffected by current travel restrictions and won’t face the same barriers as overseas applicants when gathering required documentation and undergoing criminality and medical screenings. Hence the Canadian government favors and needs to take action to help those international students stay inside the country, “Their status may be temporary, but their contributions are lasting – and we’re hoping to help more of them stay permanently,” said a statement from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).
Many have been asking: Was Canada moving to reduce the number of Express Entry ITAs issued? On February 13, 2021, IRCC has issued 27,332 invitations to apply (ITAs) to CEC candidates with Comprehensive Ranking System score as low as 75. As we can see, IRCC has delivered its answer, and we are expecting more pioneering measure to be imlemented by IRCC to engage with international students.
Strengthening its Francophone character through immigration is always one of IRCC’s key priorities in history. In recent decades, government has struggled to attract Francophone immigrants to communities outside of Quebec however efforts have been increased in the last few years. IRCC made some changes that will grant additional points to French-speaking Express Entry candidates since 2020. French-speaking candidates will now receive 25 additional points for their language skills, up from 15. Bilingual candidates (with meeting language requirement of both English and French) will now get additional 50 points, compared to 30 from before. Additional efforts made by IRCC include launching a Francophone Immigration Strategy and investing more money in settlement services for Francophone immigrants. It’s obvious that government will target to increase Francophone immigration outside of Quebec. Based on this rate of progress, Canada would achieve its Francophone immigration target of 4.4 per cent of newcomers to Canada settling outside of Quebec by 2023.
On December 11, 2020, a new bilateral youth mobility agreement has been signed between Canada and Italy under the International Experience Canada (IEC) program. The new program will allow Canadian and Italian youth between 18 and 35 years old to travel and gain professional work experience for 12 months each time with a total of 24 months. Youths will also be able to gain international co-op and young professionals. During the COVID pandemic, only youth with a current and valid job offer can travel to Canada under the IEC program. On January 27, 2021, Minister of IRCC announced the establishment of a new Canada–Ukraine Mobility Working Group, a unique partnership between the Canadian and Ukrainian governments that will let Canada and Ukraine share best practices on migration management, increase recruitment, promote Canada’s economic immigration programs and further strengthen co-operation on migration-related matters. This new migration collaboration marked the 29th anniversary of the establishment of diplomaitc relations between Canada and Ukraine since 1992. In the near future, Canad and Ukranine government will implement a youth mobility agreement which will embrace more travel and employment opporunities for both Canadian and Ukrainian youths and bring the world closer together. Further to the announcement of Hong Kong immigration program in end of 2020, on February 4, 2021 Minister of IRCC has confirmed that eligible Hong Kong residents will be able to apply for a 3-year open work permit beginning on February 8, 2021. Applicants who are a Hong Kong resident and have recently graduated from a 2-year Canadian post-secondary diploma or degree (or equivalent foreign credentials) within last 5 years, they will be benefit from this new fast-track immigration policy.
