November 16, 2024 — Canada is slashing immigration levels in the face of rising negative public opinion about new arrivals.
Marc Miller, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, on October 24, 2024 announced cuts to the number of permanent residents to be accepted by the country starting in 2025.
The Quebec MP also said that the government is reducing the number of temporary residents, who are mainly international students and temporary foreign workers.
“While it’s clear our economy needs newcomers, we see the pressures facing our country, and we must adapt our policies accordingly,” Miller said in a media release.
The cuts come in the face of shifting public opinion in Canada about immigration.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his federal Liberal government are facing criticisms about how Ottawa has been managing immigration.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his government are under fire for their handling of immigration. Photo by the Office of the Prime Minister.
Public support for immigration has seen an erosion due to pressures on housing and economic concerns.
In an October 17, 2024 report, the Environics Institute for Survey Research stated that its recent survey indicated that for the first time in 25 years, a majority of Canadians now think that the country is accepting too many immigrants.
“For the first time in a quarter century, a clear majority of Canadians say there is too much immigration, with this view strengthening considerably for the second consecutive year,” the Environics Institute reported.
The Toronto-based nonprofit noted that based on its September 2024 poll, almost six in 10 (58 percent) Canadians “now believe the country accepts too many immigrants, reflecting a 14 percentage point increase since 2023, building on a 17 point increase over the previous year (2022 to 2023)”.
“The latest findings suggest the balance of public opinion about the volume of immigration currently being admitted into the country has effectively flipped from being acceptable (if not valuable) to problematic.”
The nonprofit also looked into factors behind the trend.
“Public judgement about too much immigration continues to be driven by concerns about housing, but also by the state of the economy, about over-population and – increasingly – about how the immigration system is being managed,” the Environics Institute stated.
On November 1, 2023, Miller released the government’s 2024-2026 immigration levels plan, noting that Canada faces an “aging population and critical labour shortages in key sectors like health care, transportation and home building”.
The said plan laid down targets of 485,000 permanent residents for 2024; 500,000 in 2025; and another 500,000 in 2026.
However, in the October 24, 2024 release, Miller presented a plan that will “pause population growth in the short term to achieve well-managed, sustainable growth in the long term”.
The 2025-2027 immigration level plan will reduce the number of new permanent residents from the previous 2025 target of 500,000 to 395,000.
The previous 2026 target of 500,000 permanent residents will also be slashed to 380,000.
Also, the 2027 target is pegged at an even lower number of 365,000 permanent residents.
The 2025-2027 level plan also aims to reduce temporary resident volumes to five percent of Canada’s population by the end of 2026.
The media release acknowledged without explicitly mentioning the public backlash against immigration.
“These changes will make immigration work for our country so that everyone has access to the quality jobs, homes and supports they need to thrive,” Miller said.
As well, “We have listened to Canadians, and we will continue to protect the integrity of our system and grow our population responsibly.”
The media release noted that the new plan “alleviates pressures on housing, infrastructure and social services”.
The release recalled that Canada’s population has grown in recent years, reaching 41 million in April 2024, with immigration accounting for almost 98 percent of this growth in 2023. Moreover, 60 percent of the growth in population is attributed to temporary residents.
A survey for the National Post newspaper by market research firm Leger showed that 65 percent of Canadians believe that the federal Liberal government’s current immigration targets are too high.
Leger conducted the poll in August 2024, which showed that 78 percent of respondents believe that high immigration levels are contributing to the housing crisis.
The Leger survey also revealed that 76 percent think that immigration is having an impact on health care.
