Why Canada wants to welcome 1.5 million immigrants by 2025

Canada is betting on immigration to fill the void left in its economy by the aging baby boomer generation. But not everyone agrees with the arrival of so many foreigners.

In early November, the federal government announced an aggressive plan to welcome 500,000 immigrants a year by 2025, for a total of 1.5 million new migrants.

With this plan, Canada would receive eight times the number of permanent residents each year -by population- than the United Kingdom and four times more than its neighbour to the south, the United States.

For many years, Canada has tried to attract permanent residents - immigrants who have the right to stay in the country indefinitely without being citizens - to keep the population and economy growing.

Last year, the country welcomed 405,000 permanent residents, the highest number in its history. The reasons have to do, in a way, with simple mathematics. Like many Western nations, Canada has an aging population and a low birth rate. This means that if the country wants to grow, it will have to bring in immigrants. Immigration adds to the growth of the active population and by 2032 it is expected to also contribute to the increase in the country's population, according to a government press release.

Today, one in four Canadians has arrived in the country as an immigrant, the highest number among the G7 nations. In the United States, known as "the melting pot of the world," only 14% are immigrants.

Another way in which Canada is unique in the Western world is its emphasis on economic immigration: about half of permanent residents are taken in based on skills, not family reunification. The government expects to reach 60% by 2025. This is partly due to how the Canadian system was designed, Cameron explains. In the 1960s, Canada moved from a quota system to a points-based system that gave preference to highly-skilled immigrants who would contribute to Canada's economy.

Canada not only hosts more skilled immigrants than other major nations, but is also one of the top countries for refugee resettlement, accepting 20,428 refugees in 2021. Although the country has set ambitious goals for the future, history has shown that it does not always meet its own expectations. In 2021, Canada had a goal of resettling some 59,000 refugees, almost three times as many as the country took in.

In an interview with Canadian public broadcaster CBC, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said the lag was largely due to covid-related border closures, both in Canada and around the world. By 2023, Canada aims to help resettle 76,000 refugees.