Canadian immigration - changing priorities

Recently released statistics show us changing trends in the immigrants and refugees Canada is admitting.

Over the last six years – 2005-2010 – the total number of new permanent residents has gone up. There were 277,575 in 2010, up 10% over the number in 2005 (252,182).

Within this total, there has been a major shift towards immigrants in the economic class, at the expense of Family Class immigrants and refugees.

Even though overall there are more immigrants, there were fewer refugees and family members in 2010 than in 2005. Refugees are down by 31%, Family Class is down by 12%. (There was an increase in the numbers accepted on humanitarian or public policy grounds.)

By 2010, Family Class represented only 22% of total immigration (down from 28% in 2005), while refugees were at 9% (down from 14% in 2005).

Within the Family Class, there has been a decrease in absolute numbers admitted in both sub-categories:

• "Spouses, Partners, Children and Others" have gone down from 52,118 to 45,785.
• Parents and grandparents have gone down from 17,492 to 15,285.

Within the refugee class, the numbers of Privately Sponsored Refugees have gone up (by 56%!), while Government-Assisted Refugees have remained the same. Meanwhile, refugees landed in Canada and their dependants abroad have gone down dramatically (-51%), resulting in an overall decrease in the numbers of refugees offered a new home in Canada.

The statistics, drawn from CIC's Quarterly Administrative Data Release for 4th quarter of 2010, are available in the attached file.