BRAMPTON: The Statistics Canada report released today, entitled “Portrait of Immigration to Canada”, shows that 23% of Canada’s population is, or has been, a landed immigrant or permanent resident of the country.
Asia is the top source region of newcomers to Canada, and this continued in 2021. The share of newcomers from Africa has also increased. The census cinducted in 2021 has revealed.
Some 62% of the recent immigrant arrivals were born in Asia, with 18.6% coming from India alone, the leading source country of Canada’s newcomers. The Philippines accounts for 11.4% of newcomers, followed by China at 8.9%. This is the first time India took the top spot of Canada’s newcomers.
This is the largest immigrant share of Canada’s population since Canada was founded as a country in 1867.
This figure accounts for 8.3 million immigrants in 2021.
Statistics Canada forecasts the country’s immigrant population will continue to rise, as high as 34% by 2041.
The growth in newcomers can be attributed to the ever-increasing targets of Canada’s Immigration Levels Plan.
Just over 1.3 million new permanent residents settled in Canada between 2016 and 2021. Over half of these recent newcomers, or some 748, 120 immigrants, arrived under the economic class.
Over one-third of these immigrants, some 36.6% lived in Canada before gaining permanent residence as they were work or study permit holders or asylum claimants.
2022, the country looks to welcome some 432, 000 new immigrants by the end of the year and over 450, 000 by the end of 2024.
Immigration targets have increased over the past five years in part because of Canada’s labour shortage. Nearly a quarter of the population will age out of the workforce by 2030. The shortage is made more acute by the gradual rise in the number of deaths and the relatively low fertility levels in Canada.
Statistics Canada notes that recent immigrants have an age structure that is younger than the general population, which helps to mitigate the impacts of labour shortages in Canada.
Between 2016 and 2021, immigrants accounted for about 80% of Canada’s labour force growth.
For much of Canada’s history, most new immigrants came from Europe, however the share of new immigrants from Asia (including the Middle East) has increased over the past 50 years.
Some 62% of the recent immigrant arrivals were born in Asia, with 18.6% coming from India alone, the leading source country of Canada’s newcomers. The Philippines accounts for 11.4% of newcomers, followed by China at 8.9%. This is the first time India took the top spot of Canada’s newcomers.
The last time Canada had such a high percentage of immigrants from one country was noted in the 1971 census when 20.9% of immigrants were born in the United Kingdom. Europeans now account for only one in ten new immigrants.