CIMM - Immigration Levels Plan 2020-2022
[redacted] appears where sensitive information has been removed in accordance with the principles of the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act.
Key Messages
- We are committed to an immigration system that strengthens the Canadian middle class through economic growth and supports diversity by helping build vibrant, dynamic and inclusive communities, while also maintaining border security to preserve the safety and security of Canadians.
- The Multi-Year Levels Plan supports my mandate for responsible growth and will continue to bring more people to Canada through well managed and measured increases in immigration levels.
- The plan includes welcoming 341,000 permanent residents in 2020; 351,000 in 2021; and 361,000 in 2022.
Supplementary Messages
The next Levels Plan will support:
- Making the Atlantic Immigration Pilot a permanent program over time, with 5,000 admissions.
- Adding 250 admissions for a new stream in the Refugee Class, beginning in 2021, to provide a safe haven for human rights advocates, journalists and humanitarian workers;
- Reducing application processing times and improving IRCC’s service delivery and client services; and
- Creating admissions space for pilots launched in 2019 that will address specific labour market needs and help spread the benefits of immigration across the country.
Supporting Facts And Figures
- Faced with an aging population and declining fertility rates, as well as labour and economic challenges, the Canadian labour force and population growth will depend even more on immigration. In fact, immigration accounts for 100% of Canada's labour force growth, and immigrants will represent up to 30% of Canada’s population by 2036, compared with 20.7% in 2011.
- Immigration contributes to maintaining the vitality of official languages communities; the Government of Canada has a 4.4% target for Francophone immigration by 2023.
- Compared to other G7 countries, immigration flows at near record high levels will put Canada in a comparative advantage in terms of working-age populations and labour force supply.
- Canada’s integration outcomes are strong for first generation immigrants - in particular for more recent cohorts - and get even stronger in second and further generations.
- A big and relatively open immigration program demonstrates international leadership and can further international interests and trade connections.
- In the shorter-term, the 2020-2022 Levels Plan will bring real benefits to help drive economic growth and innovation:
- Businesses want to attract talent and investment to Canada on a permanent basis to spur innovation and help address labour market needs. To achieve this, the Economic Class makes up nearly 60% of the overall plan, growing 11% between 2019 and 2022.
- This plan increases admissions in federal Express Entry programs based on a human capital model, which are particularly geared towards attracting and providing talented newcomers to the labour market.
- Provinces and territories want to see more immigration through their nominee programs to satisfy regional economic objectives. This plan addresses this call by growing the Provincial Nominee Program 20% between 2019 and 2022. It also increases admissions in the Atlantic Immigration Pilot Program to 5,000 each year, over the course of the plan.
- Overall, economic immigrants make up approximately 35% of all information and communications technology employment in Canada; represent approximately 50% of all degree-holders in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields (despite accounting for 20% of Canada’s population); and also have a higher rate of entrepreneurship than their Canadian-born counterparts. Beyond job creation, these activities can also attract investment and trade ties to Canada, and help generate innovation domestically.
- The plan ensures that we maintain a well-managed system by providing more capacity to bring down application wait times. Quite simply, more admissions means we can process more applications waiting in our inventories.
- We have a 6 month service standard for high-skilled immigrants in our Federal High Skilled programs and a portion of the Provincial Nominee Program, whose applications are processed through the Express Entry system. With this levels plan, even more immigrants will be coming through Express Entry.
- The increases to the Provincial Nominee Program over these three years will facilitate our work with provinces and territories to bring down processing times for applicants outside Express Entry (i.e., paper-based applications rather than electronic).
- Levels in the Family Class are reasonably aligned with intake, meaning that we can meet projected demand while upholding our commitment to reuniting spouses, parents and children in 12 months or less.
- In the Refugee Class, increases to Government Assisted Refugee admissions will help Canada maintain its leadership role in refugee resettlement, including the addition of 250 spaces beginning in 2021 for human rights advocates, journalists, and humanitarian workers at risk.
- Furthermore, the plan accounts for increases in successful asylum claimants by adding spaces to the Protected Persons category. The plan allocates 2,000 more spaces in 2021 and a further 500 more spaces in 2022. This growth does not compromise admissions in other categories.
| Year | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall Admissions | 330,800 (310,000 - 350,000) |
341,000 (320,000 - 370,000) |
351,000 (330,000 - 380,000) |
361,000 (340,000 - 390,000) |
| Federal High Skilled | 81,400 (76,000 – 86,000) |
91,800 (88,500 - 100,000) |
91,150 (89,300 - 100,000) |
91,550 (88,800 – 100,600) |
| Federal Business | 700 (500 - 1,500) |
750 (500 - 1,400) |
750 (500 - 1,500) |
750 (500 - 1,500) |
| Economic Pilots: Caregivers; Agri-Food; Rural and Northern | 16,000 (9,000 – 20,500) |
5,200 (4,100 – 6,500) |
7,150 (5,100 – 9,200) |
9,500 (6,300 – 11,300) |
| Atlantic Immigration Pilot Program | 2,000 (1,000 - 5,000) |
5,000 (3,000 - 5,500) |
5,000 (3,500 - 6,000) |
5,000 (4,000 - 6,500) |
| Provincial Nominee Program | 61,000 (57,000 – 68,000) |
67,800 (65,500 - 74,000) |
71,300 (67,200 – 74,800) |
73,000 (70,000 - 76,000) |
| Quebec Skilled Workers and Business (outer years are notional) | 22,700 (21,100 – 23,500) |
25,250 (24,900 - 25,600) |
27,700 (26,900 - 28,500) |
32,250 (31,400 - 33,100) |
| Year | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Economic | 191,600 (174,000 – 209,500) 57.90% |
195,800 (186,500 – 213,000) 57.40% |
203,050 (192,500 - 220,000) 57.80% |
212,050 (201,000 - 229,000) 58.70% |
| Spouses, Partners, and Children | 68,000 (66,000 - 76,000) |
70,000 (65,500 - 72,000) |
70,000 (68,000 - 74,000) |
70,000 (68,000 - 74,000) |
| Parents and Grandparents | 20,500 (17,000 - 22,000) |
21,000 (19,000 - 24,000) |
21,000 (19,000 - 24,000) |
21,000 (19,000 - 24,000) |
| Year | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Family | 88,500 (83,000 - 98,000) 26.80% |
91,000 (84,500 - 96,000) 26.70% |
91,000 (87,000 - 98,000) 25.90% |
91,000 (87,000 - 98,000) 25.20% |
| Protected Persons in Canada and Dependents Abroad | 16,500 (14,000 - 20,000) |
18,000 (17,500 - 23,000) |
20,000 (18,500 – 23,500) |
20,500 (19,500 – 24,000) |
| Resettled Refugees | 29,950 (25,500 – 33,500) |
31,700 (27,500 - 33,000) |
31,950 (27,500 – 33,000) |
32,450 (28,000 – 33,000) |
| Government Assisted | 9,300 (7,500 – 9,500) |
10,700 (10,500 – 11,500) |
10,950 (10,500 - 11,500) |
11,450 (11,000 - 12,000) |
| Blended Visa Office Referred | 1,650 (1,000 - 3,000) |
1,000 (300 – 1,000) |
1,000 (300 – 1,000) |
1,000 (300 – 1,000) |
| Privately Sponsored | 19,000 (17,000 - 21,000) |
20,000 (16,700 – 20,500) |
20,000 (16,700 – 20,500) |
20,000 (16,700 – 20,500) |
| Year | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Refugees and Protected Persons | 46,450 (39,500 – 53,500) 14.00% |
49,700 (45,000 – 56,000) 14.60% |
51,950 (46,000 - 56,500) 14.80% |
52,950 (47,500 - 57,500) 14.70% |
| Year | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Humanitarian and Other | 4,250 (3,500 – 5,000) 1.3% |
4,500 (4,000 - 5,000) 1.3% |
5,000 (4,500 - 5,500) 1.4% |
5,000 (4,500 - 5,500) 1.4% |
| Immigrant Category | 2019 |
|---|---|
| Federal High Skilled | 90,235Footnote * |
| Economic Pilots | 13954 |
| Caregivers | 9812 |
| Atlantic Immigration Pilot Program | 4142 |
| Federal Business | 1337 |
| Provincial Nominee Program | 68,640Footnote * |
| Quebec Skilled Workers and Business | 22470 |
| Total Economic | 196636 |
| Spouses, Partners and Children | 69342 |
| Parents and Grandparents | 22,002Footnote * |
| Total Family | 91344 |
| Protected Persons and Dependents Abroad | 18441 |
| Resettled Refugees | 30080 |
| Government-Assisted & Blended Visa Office Referred Refugees | 10942 |
| Privately Sponsored Refugees | 19138 |
| Total Protected Persons and Refugees | 48521 |
| Humanitarian and Compassionate & Other | 4680 |
| All Categories | 341181 |
Background
- Multi-year planning: In fall 2017, Canada introduced its first multi-year immigration levels plan in over a decade last year. The current plan adds an additional year (2022), maintaining the three-year planning horizon set out in last year’s plan. Prior to the 2018-2020 Immigration Levels Plan, the most recent multi-year plan was in 2001-2002. Three- and five-year plans were introduced in the 1980s and 1990s.
- A multi-year approach provides the means to set out a longer-term vision and make the decisions and investments needed to achieve it. It supports better planning by securing approvals and investments earlier, providing time for the Department and partners to increase capacity and to prepare to manage higher volumes of applications.
- Levels planning: The immigration levels plan is a statutory requirement. The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act requires that a projection of permanent resident admissions for the coming year be tabled in Parliament by November 1 of the preceding year, or if the House is not in session, within 30 sitting days once the House resumes. The next levels plan (2021-2023) will be tabled in fall 2020.
- By setting targets and planning ranges for each of the immigration categories, the Government of Canada establishes priorities among economic, social, and refugee objectives. Levels planning then enables the Department and its partners to allocate processing, security, and settlement resources accordingly.
- The levels plan is a statement of public policy and is a key tool to communicate the Government’s immigration priorities to partners (including provinces and territories), stakeholders, and the public.
- Canada is notable internationally (e.g., Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) for its approach to managed migration, including specifically its use of immigration levels plans for setting transparent priorities and targets. Canada is among very few countries, like Australia and New Zealand, which have also adopted this approach.
Quebec Immigration Levels
- Under the Canada-Quebec Accord, Quebec has full responsibility for the selection of immigrants destined to the province (except Family class and in-Canada refugee claimants). The Accord commits the federal government to take into consideration Quebec’s desired levels in all categories, [redacted]. Quebec’s immigration levels plan is established annually and incorporated in the federal levels plan.
- [redacted]
- In 2019, IRCC managed Quebec’s reduced levels by redistributing admission spaces to other categories, in particular the Federal High Skilled category, as well as re-destining refugees to jurisdictions outside Quebec. The proposed levels plan for 2020-2022 assumed a similar redistribution, in particular in the family and refugee categories.
- In line with the requirements of the Accord, IRCC consults with Quebec on an annual basis on immigration levels through an exchange of letters at the ADM level. Typically, this exchange seeks to solicit Quebec’s proposed immigration levels ahead of them being finalized in the province, but this year Quebec’s levels were approved ahead of the federal immigration levels. [redacted]
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