demographics
YOU DON’T HAVE TO GO HOME, BUT YOU CAN’T STUDY HERE
International student inflows have become a lightning rod for criticisms of Canada’s immigration policy, but they aren’t the only incoming temporary residents having a significant impact on this country’s demography.
Like most developed nations, Canada has a low birth rate and almost all of our population growth comes from international migration. That said, Canada is unlike every other nation on earth in terms of its rate of population growth through international migration. And what’s more, most of that migration comes in the form of temporary migrants. There are three types of temporary permits issued by the Canadian government: study permits, temporary foreign workers, and the international mobility program (STUDY, TFWP, IMP). Previously, none of them had explicit targets the way the federal government has for permanent residents. The first type on that list has made plenty of headlines of late, with an estimated 1 million international students currently residing in Canada. On January 22, 2024 the government announced a new cap going forward on the number of study permits issued to 364,000 annually. While this is a substantial decline from 2023’s 705,305 permits (-48%), it essentially takes us back to 2018/2019 levels. While this is no doubt a major reduction in the number of newcomers entering the country in the coming year, it’s not the whole picture with respect to temporary migration.
Canada issued a whopping 1.7 million temporary permits in 2023, including 1.2 million to the international mobility program and temporary foreign workers. We should note that a permit issued doesn’t necessarily translate into a newcomer entering the country, permits are also issued for renewals, or people changing status like a student moving into the workforce. Still, this number of permits is not only an all-time high, it’s 42% higher than 2022 which was the previous record-high. In fact, if Canada were to issue the same number of worker permits in 2024 as in 2023, and then issue the new 364,000 capped study permits, the sum would equate to more than 1.3 million, which would be higher than every year prior to 2023. So while the new policy has taken a measurable step towards reducing the number of international students coming to Canada, don’t expect the new policy to slow down population growth too much, as many more workers are still coming to join our labour force.
32
rennie.com
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online