Source: China News Network
China News Network Toronto December 24 (Reporter Yu Ruidong) The Canadian government announced that it has absorbed more than 401,000 new permanent residents in 2021 in accordance with the annual target, and has set a new record for the number of new immigrants received annually. record.
Fraser, Canada’s Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, said on the 23rd that it is particularly important to achieve this goal in the face of the COVID-19 epidemic. Canada’s immigration department processed a record-breaking 500,000 applications in 2021. To this end, Canadian officials have increased resources, adopted new technologies, and moved more processes online.
Data map: Street scene in Toronto, Canada. Photo by China News Service reporter Yu Ruidong
In October 2020, the Canadian federal government announced that it would increase its target to absorb more than 1.23 million permanent residents in the next three years, thereby continuing to receive immigrants at a rate of approximately 1% of the Canadian population. The move is intended to close the gap and ensure Canada has a sufficient workforce and remains competitive on the world stage.
Specifically, the country plans to absorb 401,000 new permanent residents in 2021, 411,000 in 2022, and 421,000 in 2023.
However, the new crown epidemic has caused a serious backlog of immigration applications received by Canadian officials. Official data shows that as of late October this year, the number of pending immigration applications was approximately 1.792 million. Since July, the backlog has grown by nearly 350,000 applications. In the new fiscal budget report released in mid-December, the Canadian federal government committed to investing 85 million Canadian dollars to reduce the backlog in the Canadian immigration system and speed up the naturalization and family reunification processes.
In 2019, before the epidemic, Canada attracted more than 341,000 new immigrants. In 2020, due to the impact of the epidemic, the number of immigrants accepted by the country dropped to 184,500.
Canadian official data shows that immigrants account for almost 100% of Canada’s labor force growth. About 75% of Canada's population growth comes from immigrants, mainly economic immigrants. In 2011, immigrants accounted for 20.7% of the Canadian population. Officials expect this proportion to rise to 30% by 2036.
