As you know, we love to bring you the latest breaking news in matters of Canada immigration. Immigration to Canada is a dynamic field – especially with regards to the ever popular Express Entry program. Updates are constantly being released. When it comes to Canada immigration, Express Entry updates have to be the most important ones, as this is the system which drives most of Canada’s legal economic immigration. Economic immigration streams account for 60% of Canada’s total immigration, with continuous gradual growth. This article brings you the latest news about Canada’s latest economic immigration plans.
What is economic immigration?
We haven’t used the term “economic immigration” in this blog so far, so here’s a quick definition. In the case of Canada immigration there are many different programs and streams – family streams, humanitarian streams, asylum streams.
Economic immigration is made of the aptly named streams aimed at promoting and enhancing Canada’s economy. These include most of the streams connected to the Express Entry system, the Provincial Nominee programs and the Federal High Skilled programs.
Economic Immigration Goals 2018
If you haven’t read our previous articles about Express Entry, here’s what you need to know before we begin: The Express Entry program is in fact a kind of meta-program. It accepts immigration streams from several programs, among which are the Skilled immigration programs and the Provincial Nominee programs. The PNPs (Provincial Nominee Programs), as well as the high-killed economic immigration programs are firmly linked with the Canada Immigration Express Entry system.
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Canada Immigration Goals
The goals of the Express Entry programs as well as the PNPs – as they were determined in 2017 – have expanded significantly this year in order to stay in pace with Canada’s immigration needs. In the next 3 years, these programs are tasked with bringing 160,100 new permanent residents. This is according to the new Canada Immigration levels plan, which was released at the start of November. This new plan demonstrates a 23% increase from their 2018 goal.
Express Entry Goals for 2018-2021
This means that this section of the Canada immigration Express Entry program – linked to streams from the Provincial Nominee programs and the three high-skilled immigration programs – will total a 44% share of the total of 1.3 million permanent residents which Canada plans on welcoming between now and 2021.
For those of you who haven’t read previous articles – Express Entry candidates are ranked based on several Human Capital resources. This score determines where their ranking among the other candidates. You can read more about it in our article about Express Entry. The PNP streams which are connected to the Express Entry system can select and nominate a set number of candidates, adding 600 points to the candidate’s total Human Capital score, thus effectively securing the candidate’s Permanent residence invitation.
Federal High Skilled and PNP Immigration Goals for 2018-2021
Canada’s Federal High Skilled immigration programs and the PNPs are going to take up a massive part of of Canada’s immigration. As you can see in the graph below, the projected plans put these programs at nearly 50% of all immigration to Canada. And just a small reminder: all immigration includes ALL immigration to Canada. Not just economic immigration. OK? Is that clear now? We like visual aides, so here’s one to help us:
High Skilled immigration programs & PNP goals VS total Canada immigration goals
High Skilled immigration programs & PNP goals
As you can see from this data, the Federal High-Skilled programs are due to have an 18.5% increase by 2021 – from 74,900 admissions this year to 88,800 in 2021.
Within these long term immigration targets, a closer one is the 6,500 admission increase slated for 2019.
As for this year’s target of 74,900 admissions, current data shows that a little over 56,000 people were approved by the end of August. This leaves Canada with 4 months to reach its goal for this immigration program.
PNP
The Provincial Nominee Programs will continue on their growth trajectory, as they have in the previous years. By the end of 2018, Canada’s Provincial Nominee Programs are tasked with bringing in 55,000 new Canadians, with a projected growth of 29% by 2021.
In 2019 the PNPs will grow by 5,000 new admissions, in 2020 the current goal stands at 67,800, and in 2021 Canada’s goal ambitiously climbs to 71,300.
This year’s target stands at 55,000 invitations via the various PNPs, with 45,595 admitted by the end of August, leaving Canada 4 months to invite only 10,000 more people.
An annual report filed by the IRCC shows that 34% of all economic immigration to Canada chose areas outside of the large cities. This is a massive increase from just 10% in 1997. The report shows an exponential growth of the PNPs since Canada instituted them in 1996. It also credits these programs for this increase in settlement outside the major cities. We believe the partnership between the PNPs and the Express Entry immigration system was a strong catalyst for further expansion and success of all these immigration programs.
After all these boring charts, you can finally click to tweet 👇
Other Immigration Programs
We did say we weren’t going to mention them, but we do have some information to give you, so why not?
So what about the other Immigration programs that Canada has running at the same time? These other programs have been an important part of the Canada immigration system. With the success levels of the PNPs and the Skilled Worker programs, and the high popularity of the Express Entry program, the other programs are on a “slow burner”. The next 3 years should see a steady stream of a little over 30,000 new Canadians per year via other immigration programs. Little to no growth is projected for them. Only family based programs are seeing a little growth, as Canada prides itself on reuniting families and bringing people together.
One program’s future goals that were missing from the latest reports is the economic program for immigration to Quebec. The IRCC attributed this absence to the recent elections in Quebec, leaving its projected goals to be determined.
Based on this data, it has become clear that the principal role in the Canada immigration field already goes primarily to the Express Entry program, followed closely by the PNPs, and will continue to head in this direction. We here at ItsCanadaTime would predict that other programs will gradually fade to the background Express Entry and the PNPs expand and eventually become the entirety of Canada’s economic immigration stream.
So, what do you think? Are you ready to start your immigration process? You know where to click…
