Question Period Note: Temporary resident admissions

Temporary foreign worker and international student admissions over the past five years, from 2019 to 2023.

• Temporary residents enrich Canada’s economic, social and cultural fabric. However, we are seeing record numbers of temporary residents in Canada.
• As a result, we need to ensure the number of temporary residents entering the country is at a sustainable level while upholding our humanitarian commitments and supporting the priorities of our labour market.
• On March 21, 2024, I announced that IRCC will be exploring ways to further decrease the temporary resident population in Canada over the next three years to continue stabilizing our immigration system.
• The specific target will be finalized in the fall following consultations with provincial and territorial counterparts as part of Canada’s annual levels planning.

Responsive
• We have already made efforts to address temporary resident volumes in some lines of business. For example, we established a cap on most study permit applications.
• We also announced reforms for the International Student Program and International Mobility Program, including:
o clarifying that graduates of public-private college partnership programs aren’t eligible for post-graduation work permits; and
o restricting open work permits for spouses of international students to only spouses of students in master’s, doctoral and other professional degree-granting programs.
• This follows the announcement I made on November 1, 2023 addressing the goal of recalibrating temporary residence admissions to Canada to a more sustainable level.

Responsive (TFW volumes)
• Over the past five years, the increase in the number of work permit holders reflects the government’s comprehensive and agile response to evolving and unprecedented domestic and international events.

• With many time-limited work permit measures having expired or expiring soon, we will see some natural reductions in Temporary Foreign Worker volumes.

• My Department continues to pay close attention to temporary resident admissions and is actively working to realign flows of foreign workers.

Responsive (Temporary resident volumes and housing pressures)
• Immigrants are not the causes of Canada’s housing and homelessness challenges. Infrastructure demand has outpaced investments for several decades.

• Nevertheless, we are assessing options that balance Canada’s continued need for immigration while addressing our current infrastructure and housing challenges.

Temporary Foreign Workers (TFWs)

• Work permits may be issued under two programs. Either the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), which requires a labour market impact assessment (LMIA) to determine that no Canadians or permanent residents are available and qualified to perform the work, or under the International Mobility Program (IMP), which is designed to support social, cultural and economic benefits to Canada, or reciprocal opportunities for Canadians abroad.

• Under the TFWP, jointly administered with Employment and Social Development Canada, all work permits are employer-specific, which means that the TFW is only allowed to work for the employer stated on their work permit. Agricultural work permit holders continue to make up a majority of the TFWP.

• Work permits issued under the IMP, solely led by IRCC, can be either employer-specific or open, which means that the foreign national can work for any employer, in any occupation with few exceptions.

• Employers tend to rely heavily on TFWs to meet workforce demands:
o in some industries experiencing difficulties attracting Canadians or permanent residents (e.g. agriculture);
o when overall market conditions are tight (e.g. low unemployment, high job vacancy rate); and/or
o in certain niche, fast-moving sectors.

TFW volumes:
• Over the past five years, the number of work permit holders who were in Canada primarily for work purposes has increased in both worker programs:
o The number of foreign nationals under the TFWP has grown 88%, from 98,025 in 2019 to 184,485 in 2023.
o Over the same period, the number of foreign nationals with IMP work permits has grown 137%, from 323,495 in 2019 to 767,695 in 2023.
o Under the IMP specifically, 89% of TFWs held open work permits in 2023 and 11% had employer-specific work permits.

• Growth in IMP volumes is mainly tied to open work permit categories, which, in turn, is driven by broader Government of Canada commitments, such as:
o the Government of Canada International Education Strategy: resulting in downstream increases in the use of the Post-Graduation Work Permit Program (154% increase from 95,720 in 2019 to 243,295 in 2023);
o family reunification: increased demand for open work permits by spouses of international students and skilled workers, coupled with the 2023 measures to expand eligibility to spouses of more workers as well as dependents (172% increase from 63,100 in 2019 to 171,440 in 2023);
o whole-of-government response to global crises: implementing immigration measures such as public policies to support events such as the war in Ukraine, political unrest in Hong Kong, and the conflicts in Iran (559% increase from 28,285 in 2021 to 186,280 in 2023).

Expected Volume Reductions:
• A number of facilitative work permit measures have expired recently, such as the temporary public policies to allow for the issuance of open work permits to:
o eligible foreign nationals whose Post-Graduation Work Permit Program work permit had expired or was about to expire during the COVID-19 pandemic; and,
o Ukrainians under the Canada-Ukraine Authorization of Emergency Travel (CUAET), as part of the Government of Canada’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

• Other public policies are due to expire in the near future, such as the Hong Kong Open Work Permit (OWP) measure, which provides for open work permits to be issued to eligible residents of Hong Kong, due to China’s adoption of a controversial national security law. This expires on February 7, 2025.

• With the exception of CUAET, the expiry of these facilitative measures is generally expected to reduce TFW admissions.
o Over 1.1 million CUAET applications were received, but as of March 23, 2024, only around 286,000 Ukrainians and their family members have arrived in Canada.
o Overseas intake for the CUAET ended on July 15, 2023, and those with a visa under CUAET have until March 31, 2024, to travel to Canada under the special measures to be eligible for various supports offered under the measures.

• IRCC is actively exploring options to proactively manage work permit volumes so that Canada’s worker programs continue to meet current and emerging needs.

International students – study permit applications

• The number of study permit holders has increased by 71% since 2019, from 400,590 to 684,385 in 2023, which has put the integrity of the international student system at risk.

• In Canada, education is a provincial/territorial responsibility. Provinces and territories designate learning institutions (DLI) to host international students, and DLIs accept as many international students as they choose. IRCC expects DLIs to only accept the number of students they can provide proper services for, including assistance in finding adequate housing.

• To ensure students are well supported while in Canada, the government has moved forward with measures to manage the number of international students in Canada by establishing an intake cap on most study permit applications to stabilize new growth for a period of two years.

• The national cap aims to deliver no growth in the number of international students by taking into account the number of study permits that expire in 2024. The spaces under the cap will be allocated to each province and territory and these study permit applications will require a provincial attestation letter from a province or territory. Jurisdictions are expected to establish a process for issuing attestation letters to students by no later than March 31, 2024.

• The cap will be in place for two years, and the number of new study permit applications that will be accepted in 2025 will be re-assessed at the end of this year.

• The Government of Canada is continuing to work closely with provinces and territories, designated learning institutions and national education stakeholders on developing a sustainable path forward for international students. This will include finalizing a recognized institution framework, determining long-term sustainable levels of international students and ensuring post-secondary institutions are able to provide adequate levels of support for students, including housing.

Aligning immigration with housing and infrastructure planning

• The government has been criticized for increased admissions of non-permanent residents like foreign workers and international students, at a time when Canada’s housing and infrastructure is strained.

• IRCC recognizes that there is a need to ensure that communities have the capacity to welcome and support newcomers; at the same time, immigration can be part of the solution to addressing these pressures by adding workers in critical sectors, such as construction.

• The department has publicly committed to broadening its whole-of-government approach to immigration growth, and this includes better management of temporary resident volumes.

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