With nearly a million job openings, Canada is looking for foreigners to fill its labor shortage. To this end, it has set record immigration targets for the next three years.
The new policy aims to attract a total of 1.45 million immigrants between 2023 and 2025, as announced by Sean Fraser, Canada’s Minister of Immigration.
The plan to attract foreigners comes at the same time the country has reached a demographic milestone: the census agency announced that more than one in five Canadians is now an immigrant.
Canada is going against the immigration policies of many Western countries that seek to reduce immigration.
“Look, folks, it’s simple for me: Canada needs more people,” Fraser said during a press conference. “Canadians understand the need to continue to grow our population if we want to meet the needs of the workforce, if we want to rebalance a concerning demographic trend.”
Some of the concerning trends, Fraser continued, include an aging population and an impending wave of retirements. Census data released in April showed that the number of people nearing retirement in Canada is reaching record rates.
“If we don’t do something to correct this demographic trend, the conversation we’ll be having in 10 or 15 years won’t be about labor shortages,” Fraser said. “It will be about whether we have the economic capacity to continue funding schools, hospitals, and public services.”
Canada has long pursued an immigrant recruitment strategy to offset the aging native population and low birth rates, a strategy that has broad public support. The country shows a preference for immigrants who are skilled workers in areas where there is a critical labor shortage – including healthcare, manufacturing, engineering, and trades.
In a recent survey by the Environics Institute for Survey Research, 58% of respondents said they supported more immigration, and 69% disagreed when asked if Canada was receiving too many immigrants.
However, there is a stumbling block on this path.
About half of the respondents also believe that newcomers “are not adopting Canadian values,” suggesting that the difficulties of adjusting to life in Canada as a new immigrant should not be underestimated.
The government aims to attract 465,000 permanent residents in 2023, 485,000 in 2024, and 500,000 in 2025.
The number of immigrants the country plans to receive in 2025 represents a 23% increase from the record of 405,000 newcomers last year.
Data published by the national census agency revealed that 23% of Canada’s population is made up of immigrants. Projections suggest that in about two decades, immigrants could represent 29% to 34% of the population if current immigration patterns continue and if Canada’s birth rate falls below what is necessary to maintain the current population.