Canada increases target to 432,000 immigrants in 2022, to welcome 1.3 million over next three years

Canada announced an ambitious plan to welcome more than 1.3 million immigrants over the next three years to support its post-pandemic growth.

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government aims to add more than 431,000 permanent residents this year, 447,000 in 2023 and 451,000 in 2024, according to the 2022-24 Immigration Levels Plan released on Monday. Figures for this year and 2023 have been revised higher from earlier targets of 411,000 and 421,000, respectively.


Indians are the biggest nationality gaining permanent residency in Canada, accounting for about 40% of the total number. In 2020, over 27,000 Indians gained entry to Canada, with over 50,000 being invited to apply for permanent resident.

“Immigration has helped shape Canada into the country it is today,” Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said in a statement. “We are focused on economic recovery, and immigration is the key to getting there.”

In 2022, some 56 per cent of new immigrants will arrive under economic class pathways such as Express Entry, the Provincial Nominee Program, and the Temporary to Permanent Residence (TR2PR) stream that was available in 2021, according to reports.

The Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) will be the main admissions program for economic class immigrants with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) looking to land 83,500 newcomers via the PNP in 2022. IRCC has cut Express Entry admissions in half for this year but aims to return to normal Express Entry admissions levels by 2024 when it targets the arrival of 111,5000 Express Entry immigrants then.

This announcement was the first Immigration Levels Plan since October 2020.

Immigration had been one of the main drivers of Canada’s economy, and accounts for almost all of the nation’s employment growth. Last year, Canada welcomed more than 405,000 newcomers, the largest single-year increase in its history.

Under the plan, overall admissions will amount to 1.14% of the Canadian population by 2024, and nearly 60% of newcomers will qualify as economic immigrants, selected on the basis of their skills and work experience.