On October 24th, Canada, as a large immigration country, announced to adjust its immigration policy, significantly reducing the number of immigrants, trying to suspend its population growth in the short term and achieve long-term, orderly and sustainable growth. Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau said it was a pragmatic move to temporarily limit immigration.

In the next two years, the number of permanent residents received will decrease by 225,000

China News Agency reported that Trudeau and Canadian Minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship Miller announced the immigration plan for the next 3 years in Ottawa on the same day. Canadian officials said that immigration is crucial to the country's economic growth, but this "transitional" policy adjustment can reduce the pressure on housing, infrastructure and social services.

Compared with the plan level of last year, the Canadian government has lowered the permanent resident intake target. Specifically, in 2025, the number of permanent residents admitted will be reduced from 500,000 to 395,000; In 2026, the absorption target of permanent residents was reduced from 500,000 to 380,000; In 2027, the target was set at 365,000 people.

This means that compared with the plan of last year, the number of permanent residents received by the Canadian government in the next two years will decrease by 225,000.

French immigrants will continue to be accepted

It is worth noting that the Canadian government has set a limit target for temporary residents, especially international students and foreign workers, in the annual immigration plan for the first time, that is to reduce the number of temporary residents from about 7% of the total Canadian population to 5% by the end of 2026. Previously, the Canadian government announced measures in March and September this year to raise the threshold for international students and foreign workers to limit the number. Short term visitors or seasonal workers are not within the limit.

According to the Canadian government's plan, in 2025, more than 40% of the new permanent residents will come from temporary residents with the status of international students and foreign workers who are already in Canada; Nearly 24% will be allocated to family migrants. By 2027, more than 62% of the new permanent residents will be allocated to the category of economic migrants, especially in the fields of medical care and trade.

In addition, Canada will continue to receive more French speaking immigrants. Outside Quebec, the proportion of French immigrants in the overall new permanent residents will gradually increase from 8.5% in 2025 to 10% in 2027.

In July this year, the Canadian authorities urged 5,853 immigrants to return, a record high in nearly 5 years

The Canadian government has greatly absorbed temporary residents such as overseas students and foreign workers in recent years, Xinhua reported, in order to boost economic growth and make up for the labor gap. However, critics believe that this immigration policy has brought pressure on social services such as housing, employment and medical care in Canada, leading to an increase in anti immigrant speech and attacks in the society.

According to the research conducted by the Canadian Environmental Research Institute on the issue of immigration, nearly 60% of Canadians now agree that there are too many immigrants. It is the first time since 1,998 that a significant majority of the people hold a negative view on immigration, which is quite different from the positive views of the past 25 years.

In the past half year, Canadian immigration and border officials have refused a large number of temporary resident visas (visitor visas).

According to CTV News, citing data from the Border Service Agency (CBSA), in the first 7 months of this year, nearly 4,000 foreign tourists were refused entry by Canadian immigration offices every month, an increase of more than 20% over the same period last year.

In July alone, the Canadian authorities advised 5,853 foreign immigrants, including students, workers and tourists, setting a monthly record for the past 5 years. The Ministry of immigration approved about 1,100,000 temporary visas in the first 7 months of this year, compared with nearly 1.3 million in the same period last year.

Immigrants are referred to as "scapegoats" of the Trudeau government

The Canadian federal election will be held at the latest in October next year, and the ruling Liberal Party is lagging behind in a number of polls. To boost the support rate, the Canadian government has recently introduced a number of immigration restrictions.

According to Agence France-Presse, on September 18th this year, Canada announced that it would further reduce the number of international students' study permits and tighten the conditions for foreign workers to obtain temporary work permits in view of the tight employment market and housing supply caused by a large number of immigrants.

China News Agency reported that Trudeau said it was a pragmatic move to temporarily limit immigration, which is in line with the current economic needs. In response to the media, Miller said that all the current social ills cannot be attributed to immigrants.

The Canadian government believes that the plan will help maintain economic growth, accelerate the growth of per capita GDP, improve the housing affordability and reduce the unemployment rate.

According to Canadian official estimates, the 3 year immigration absorption plan can make the total population of Canada slightly decrease by 0.2% in 2025 and 2,026, and restore the growth of 0.8% in 2027. It is estimated that by the end of 2027, the housing supply gap in the country could be reduced by about 670,000 sets.

The total population of Canada exceeded 41 million in April this year. In 2023, nearly 98% of the country's population growth came from immigrants, of which 60% were temporary residents. The country's unemployment rate in September was 6.5%, and the indicator has generally risen since April last year. According to the Statistics Bureau, one of the reasons is that the population growth is faster than the employment growth.

The main opposition party of the Canadian Congress and some immigrant groups and chamber of Commerce organizations criticized or expressed disappointment at the Canadian government's move to restrict immigration, believing that the Trudeau government failed to fundamentally solve the problem of economy and people's livelihood, making immigrants a "scapegoat.".