IRCC’s 2022 consultations on immigration levels
The 2022 consultations on immigration levels are now closed.
The 2023–2025 Immigration Levels Plan, the 2022 Annual Report to Parliament on Immigration, and the final report on the 2022 consultations on immigration levels have now been published. Read Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s (IRCC) latest news release with the full announcement.
We invite you to check out what we’ve heard from you during our regional virtual town hall conversations, which took place from August 2 to September 1, 2022, with participants from all over Canada. You will find answers to some of the questions that we did not have time to discuss during these town halls.
You can also check out our #ImmigrationMatters toolkit, designed to help you and your organizations show the benefits of immigration in your community.
Thank you for engaging with us in this dialogue. Your feedback was invaluable in helping us shape a collective national vision for planning immigration levels in the coming years.
If you have any questions or comments for us, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us at IRCC.COMMConsultations-ConsultationsCOMM.IRCC@cic.gc.ca.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC)
#ImmigrationMatters
Every year, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) engages with a wide range of stakeholders from across the country to help us shape a national vision for immigration and contribute to Canada’s next Immigration Levels Plan, which will be announced in the fall of 2022.
A few weeks ago, we invited you to complete an online consultation survey to ask your feedback on immigration levels planning. We are now inviting you to join the conversation here, on Let’s Talk Immigration, an online engagement platform that allows you to share your thoughts and comments with participants from coast to coast to coast.
Based on your survey responses, we developed dedicated sections on Let’s Talk Immigration around five key themes related to immigration. For each theme, you will find additional background information to help you dig deeper into the topic. Every week, we will be posting new material and discussion questions, and we will invite you to respond directly via the platform. We will also want to hear your personal experiences and seek your ideas on each topic.
Addressing economic and labour force needs
Immigration to rural communities throughout Canada
Supporting family reunification
Resettlement for refugees and special measures for persons in need of protection
Francophone immigration and immigration to official language minority communities
How does it work?
If you have not registered yet, the first step is to register and create your profile – you will be asked to provide your name, your organization’s name, the type of organization where you work, as well as your postal code. Make sure you have checked the boxes related to the themes that interest you.
Every week, we will be posting new discussion questions – general questions about immigration levels planning that you will find below, and specific questions related to each of the five topics highlighted above. Click on each link to find a dedicated page for each theme. You will be notified when a new question has been posted, and you can respond directly via Let’s Talk Immigration after logging in.
For each theme, you can share your personal experiences and submit ideas for consideration. We also encourage you to share your perspective and/or the perspective of the organization you are representing when participating in this forum.
If you have any questions for us or wish to provide feedback on this online engagement platform, use the Ask us anything section below, or send us an email at: IRCC.COMMConsultations-ConsultationsCOMM.IRCC@cic.gc.ca.
What are these consultations about?
IRCC conducts consultations on immigration in Canada every year.
We are interested in hearing your thoughts on immigration in the current context, as well as considerations for the longer term. As such, we are seeking your views on Canada’s Immigration Levels Plan – including the balance among different categories and programs, and how immigration can be better positioned to support Canada, from the perspectives of economic recovery and future growth, the vitality of communities in all parts of the country, and Canada’s response to humanitarian crises.
Through your experiences with immigration, your views and advice will help to shape a collective national vision for planning immigration levels in the coming years.
Planning Canada’s immigration levels
The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act requires the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship to table a projection of permanent resident admissions (the Immigration Levels Plan) in Parliament every year. The Immigration Levels Plan details how many immigrants Canada will welcome as permanent residents under the economic, family, and refugee and humanitarian programs.
The 2022-2024 Immigration Levels Plan renews the three-year time frame for the multi-year plan and proposes to increase the number of permanent residents Canada welcomes annually to 431,645 in 2022, 447,055 in 2023, and 451,000 in 2024. While targets and ranges are firm in the first year, the outer years are notional – which are subject to review to allow reflections of any developments or changes in reality. We are seeking your feedback as there is an opportunity to adjust outer year admissions targets (currently 2023 and 2024) and to help inform targets for 2025. See the full 2022-2024 Immigration Levels Plan.
A number of considerations are taken into account when developing the Immigration Levels Plan, including:
- Government priorities and objectives for immigration, as set out in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act;
- Economic and regional needs across Canada, including at this time, considerations of economic needs of various sectors in the context of economic recovery due to COVID-19;
- International obligations with respect to refugees and offering protection to those in need;
- Ability of IRCC and its partner departments to screen and process applications in a timely manner;
- Capacity to settle, integrate, and retain newcomers (settlement services, housing accessibility and affordability, public infrastructure, etc.).
The plan is designed to contribute to an immigration system that fosters economic growth, supports diversity, and helps build vibrant, dynamic, and inclusive communities, while ensuring the safety and security of Canadians.
The current plan outlines a steady increase in admissions that trends towards just over 1 percent of Canada’s population by 2024.
Closely linked with the question of how many people to welcome, is the question of the appropriate mix (or distribution) of permanent residents across the main immigration classes. In the current plan, for 2024, the economic class accounts for 59 percent of total admissions. The family reunification class represents 25 percent, and the refugee and humanitarian classes account for 16 percent.
For reference, you will find below the full list of immigration classes and categories.
Immigration classes and categories
Economic immigration
- Federal High Skilled
- Federal Economic Public Policies
- Federal Business
- Economic Pilots:
- Caregivers
- Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot
- Agri-Food Pilot
- Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot
- Atlantic Immigration Program
- Provincial Nominee Program
- Quebec Skilled Workers and Business
Family
- Spouses, Partners, and Children
- Parents and Grandparents
Refugees and protected persons
- Protected Persons in Canada and Dependents Abroad
- Resettled Refugees
- Government-Assisted Refugees
- Blended Visa Office-Referred Refugees
- Privately Sponsored Refugees
Humanitarian and others
Ask us anything
If you have questions related to this year’s consultations on immigration levels or wish to provide feedback on IRCC’s Let’s Talk Immigration online engagement platform, use the space below to submit your contribution and our team will get back to you as quickly as possible.
Thank you for your contribution!
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