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IMPACT – MEDIUM
What is the change? Canada has set a target of admitting 300,000 new immigrants in 2017 – the same number as in 2016, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship John McCallum announced Monday.
What does the change mean? Despite recommendations to dramatically increase the number of immigrants, the government will keep the total number of immigrants the same, but apportion a greater number to the skilled-worker and family-reunification categories and decrease the overall number of immigrants in the refugee and humanitarian categories.
A comparison of 2016 and 2017 immigration targets:
The number of total economic immigrants will increase by 7 percent compared with 2016. The Federal Economic programs – which includes the Federal Skilled Worker Program, Federal Skilled Trades Program, Canadian Experience Class and Atlantic Immigration Pilot Program – will represent 73,700 (about 43 percent) of total economic immigration, followed by the Provincial Nominee Program which will represent 51,000 (nearly 30 percent) of the total.
Earlier this month, the government’s advisory council on economic growth recommended that Canada increase immigration by 50 percent to 450,000 over each of the next five years to help boost the economy and attract foreign investors, students and entrepreneurs.
BAL Analysis: Despite suggestions by the minister that Canada would substantially increase the number of new immigrants in 2017, the total number will remain the same in an effort to reduce wait times and backlogs. The increase to the targets for the economic and family streams is positive news for businesses, skilled migrants and their family members.
This alert has been provided by the BAL Global Practice group and our network provider located in Canada. For additional information, please contact your BAL attorney.
Copyright © 2016 Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. All rights reserved. Reprinting or digital redistribution to the public is permitted only with the express written permission of Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. For inquiries please contact copyright@bal.com.
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