Toronto –
For the first time in years, Canada plans to drastically reduce the number of immigrants it allows into the country, a notable policy shift for a government seeking to stay in power.
Canada will admit 395,000 new permanent residents in 2025, 380,000 in 2026 and 365,000 in 2027, down from 485,000 in 2024, according to government officials. .
Meanwhile, the number of temporary residents will decrease by about 30,000, reaching about 300,000 in 2025, officials said.
The new targets were first reported by the National Post.
Canada has long prided itself on welcoming newcomers, but the national debate over immigration has shifted in recent years, in part due to soaring housing prices.
Many Canadians have exited the housing market since interest rates started rising two years ago. At the same time, a large influx of immigrants has pushed Canada’s population to record levels, further increasing housing demand and prices.
The issue has become one of the most contentious issues in Canadian politics, with a federal election scheduled for October 2025 at the latest. Opinion polls show that the proportion of people who think Canada has too many immigrants is increasing.
Advocates and local residents say there has been a backlash against newcomers and reports of hate crimes against visible minorities have increased.
Immigration advocates denounced the change. “We are witnessing one of the most egregious rollbacks of immigrant rights in Canadian history,” Saeed Hassan, a spokesperson for the Immigrant Rights Network Secretariat, said in a statement. “Reducing the number of permanent residents is a direct attack on immigrants who are forced into temporary, undocumented, or even exploitative work.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office could not be reached for comment.
The new immigration targets also mark a shift from the pandemic era, when the government eased restrictions on temporary migrants to fill labor shortages. Last year, Canada announced plans to admit 500,000 new permanent residents in 2025 and the same amount in 2026. According to Statistics Canada, as of the second quarter of 2024, there were 2.8 million temporary residents in Canada, including workers and students.
“Canadians want an immigration system that is not out of control,” Immigration Minister Mark Miller told Reuters in an August interview.
Canada’s Liberal government, which is trailing in opinion polls with some MPs seeking to oust its leader, is trying to restrict immigration. Under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Canadian immigration officials are approving fewer visas this year and border officials are turning away more visa holders, data seen by Reuters shows.
The government has pledged to reduce the proportion of temporary residents in the population to 5 percent over three years. In April, it was 6.8%. It also capped the number of international students Canada can accept and tightened regulations on temporary foreign workers under the Temporary Entry Program for Non-Canadians. The program has been criticized for suppressing wages and putting workers at risk of abuse.
(Reporting by Anna Mehler Paperney; Editing by Caroline Stauffer, Bill Berkrot and Lisa Shoemaker)
