The federal government is increasing its immigration targets again with the intention of welcoming 432,000 new immigrants in 2022.
Immigration Levels Plan 2022-2024: Immigration targets increased by Canada
Targets raised in new plan as Canada plans on welcoming a higher number of new immigrants by 2024
As promised earlier in the new year, the Immigration Levels Plan 2022-2024 was unveiled by the Canadian government on February 14, 2022.
The federal government is increasing its immigration targets again with the intention of welcoming 432,000 new immigrants in 2022.
This is 21,000 more newcomers than initially planned for 2022 under the Immigration Levels 2021-2023 plan.
Under the new plan, immigration landings targets have increased for each year until 2024, the numbers are as follows:
- Year 2022: 431,645 newcomers
- Year 2023: 447,055 newcomers
- Year 2024: 451,000 newcomers
According to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) Minister, Sean Fraser, the higher levels will help balance Canada’s economic and social needs as well as fulfil international obligations by helping vulnerable people and refugees.
Like always, the immigration plan is focused on attracting skilled and experienced foreign workers who can help fill labour shortages and contribute to the country’s economy. Family is a core value for the Canadian government, as such, a significant part of the immigration process involves family reunification.
By 2022, approximately 56% of Canada’s newcomers will be gaining their permanent residency through economic class pathways like the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP), the Express Entry system, and the Temporary to Permanent Residence (TR2PR) stream.
Of these programs, the bulk of the admissions will be done through PNPs with IRCC planning to land 83,500 newcomers through PNPs this year. However, the admissions rate for Express Entry has been halved for 2022. Levels will return to normal by 2024 when 111,500 Express Entry immigrants are expected to arrive.
It appears that Canada is reducing the number of Express Entry admissions temporarily in order to have admissions under the TR2PR program. Approximately 40,000 immigrants are expected to come to Canada through this program in 2022 and a final 32,000 by 2023.
The processing of Express Entry applications has not stopped and IRCC is working hard to reduce the backlog of applications. Express Entry draws are also being held twice a month while provinces across Canada continue to hold their regular PNP draws.
Nearly one quarter (24%) of the admission targets in 2022 will fall under the Family Class. Sponsorship of spouses, parents and children will account for 80,000 new arrivals this year with another 25,000 expected to arrive through the Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP). The target for PGP has been increased by 1,500 additional spots.
The rest of the newcomers (20%) will arrive under refugee and humanitarian programs. This target has also been increased in comparison to the last immigration levels plan. With the crisis in Afghanistan and the war in Ukraine, this increase in numbers is more important than ever.
Due to the increase in refugee and humanitarian intake, the targets for economic and family class programs are slightly smaller, however, those targets will go up in 2023 and 2024 once the humanitarian operations are completed.
Immigration Levels Plan number at a glance:
| Immigration Class | Year 2022 | Year 2023 | Year 2024 |
| Economic | 241,850 | 253,000 | 267,750 |
| Family | 105,000 | 109,500 | 113,000 |
| Refugee | 76,545 | 74,055 | 62,500 |
| Humanitarian | 8,250 | 10,500 | 7,750 |
| Total | 431,645 | 447,055 | 451,000 |
What is the Immigration Levels Plan?
It’s a very important piece of policy and under Canada’s immigration law, the government has to announce an immigration plan by the first of November each year.
This did not happen last year due to the Federal election in September 2021, so the February 14 announcement is the first immigration levels plan to be unveiled since October 2020.
What does it do? The purpose of the plan is to guide Canada’s immigration system. It provides a detailed breakdown of the number of new immigrants Canada will welcome through a number of federal, provincial and territorial programs.
The provincial and federal governments then adjust their immigration operations based on the outlined targets.
Since 2015, there has been a steady increase in the number of immigrants arriving in Canada year after year. Up until 2015, approximately 250,000 newcomers arrived every year. This number increased to 300,000 in 2016. Before the pandemic, the target had been increased to 340,000. Not surprisingly, this goal was not met in 2020 as a result of the pandemic.
In October 2020, a new, aggressive plan, with the highest immigration targets ever, was unveiled with the announcement that IRCC would welcome over 400,000 new immigrants annually.
A new plan is expected to be announced and unveiled by November 1, 2022. When it is, that plan will replace the one announced in February.
Barring any significant developments or radical changes, the new plan will likely closely resemble this one.
Canada has set out very aggressive goals for itself and all signs point to targets being met.