Canada reduces new immigration by 21 percent | Immigration news

Canada announced it will reduce immigration for the first time in years, a major shift in policy for a Liberal government that is trying to turn around its popularity and stay in power.

The Canadian government announced Thursday that from 2025 to 2027, Canada will welcome a total of 1.1 million new permanent residents, a 21 percent decrease from previous years.

The number of temporary residents will also fall by about 30,000 to 300,000 in 2025, Immigration Minister Mark Miller said.

The government said the plan “will halt population growth in the short term to achieve sustainable, well-managed growth in the long term.”

“We didn’t get the right balance.”

The new immigration targets represent a departure from the COVID-19 pandemic era when the government eased restrictions on temporary residents to fill labor shortages.

Last year, Canada planned to bring in 500,000 new permanent residents in 2025 and the same number in 2026. As of the second quarter of 2024, there were 2.8 million temporary residents, including workers and students, in Canada, according to Statistics Canada.

The government statement noted that the country’s post-pandemic needs had evolved after migrants met business requirements to aid economic recovery, with the right blaming them for squeezing housing, infrastructure and social services.

“Today’s announcement is the next step in our plan to address our country’s evolving immigration needs,” Miller said. “While it is clear that our economy needs newcomers, we see the pressures facing our country, and we must adapt our policies accordingly.”

“We didn’t get the balance right,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said of the policy change.

The new plan will bring in 395,000 new permanent residents in 2025, 380,000 in 2026 and 365,000 in 2027, down from 485,000 in 2024.

Trudeau has recently faced pressure to step down amid declining poll numbers and increasing support for the opposition Conservatives.

“Attacks on immigrants”

Canada has long prided itself on welcoming newcomers, but in recent years, the national debate on immigration has shifted partly due to rising housing prices, Reuters news agency reported.

Many Canadians have been shut out of the housing market since interest rates began rising two years ago. At the same time, the increase in immigrants has pushed Canada’s population to record levels, increasing demand for housing and being blamed for rising prices in some quarters.

The issue has become one of the most controversial issues in Canadian politics with the federal election looming no later than October 2025. Public polls have shown that a growing proportion of the population believes Canada has too many immigrants.

Advocates and community members say there has been a backlash against new immigrants and more hate crimes against minorities have been reported.

Immigrant advocates criticized the change.

“We are witnessing one of the most egregious rollbacks of immigrant rights in Canadian history,” Syed Hassan, spokesperson for the Immigrant Rights Network Secretariat, said in a statement. “Reducing the numbers of permanent residents is a direct assault on immigrants, who will be forced to remain temporarily or become undocumented and pushed further into exploitative jobs.”

Canada’s three-year immigration controls are expected to reduce its population by a marginal 0.2% in both 2025 and 2026. Next year, the population is expected to rise again by 0.8%, according to the government.

“These changes will help provinces, territories and stakeholders align their capabilities and allow the population to grow at a sustainable pace as we encourage institutions to do their part in better welcoming new arrivals,” the government said.