65% of the newcomers in Canada are coming into the country as newcomers through the various immigration programs and pathways. The new immigration plan released by the province of Quebec decided to set the number of immigrants being welcomed into the province in the year 2022 at 52,500. Newcomers in the province are expected to arrive through the economic immigration pathways, which includes the Quebec Experience Program as well as the Quebec Skilled Worker Program.
The plan is in accordance with the target that was established in the public consultation meeting that was held in 2019, a part of the immigration planning for Quebec for the period 2020-2022. The decision is to increase the target from 49,500 to around 52,500 newcomers in the next year, along with an additional 18k admissions to meet the level of admissions that could not be met at the federal level due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This brings the total number of immigrants being welcomed into Quebec in 2022 to 70,000.
The maximum target set at 33,900 represents an economic immigration target of the largest proportions. Under the economic immigration target, the plan is to welcome 28,800 immigrants as skilled foreign nationals and the remaining 4,300 immigrants from business streams that will include investors, self-employed individuals as well as entrepreneurs. 18,600 new PR applicants will be accepted from the other pathways of immigration such as refugees, family reunification, etc.
The Quebec Immigration Department introduced their immigration plan every year which demonstrates the exact number of new immigrants settling there as permanent residents and also shows the provinces that are intended to give admission to newcomers further and the immigration programs by which the immigrants got entry in that particular province.
Quebec is following the immigration agreements which were signed with Canada in 1991. Quebec has set its own norms and targets and it is the only province to have such agreement with the federal government of Canada. Quebec also announced an increase in the number of new immigrants in comparison to the last two years.
This increase in the numbers of new immigrants is due to promises and efforts done by the present ruling party which is the Coalition Avenir Québec which makes efforts to increase the numbers of newcomers by the reduction in admission criteria in 2019. The CAQ reduced 20% admission norms to increase the number of newcomers to Quebec.
The CAQ chose to decrease admission targets because Quebec was already finding it difficult to integrate and franchise new immigrants. Before that, the government of Quebec totally put efforts to integrate and franchise new immigrants. Now the Quebec government is putting efforts to increase the number of immigrants to Quebec and making sure that candidates could complete the admission criteria.
Apart from increasing the target of new admissions to Quebec, many other important steps have been taken by the government of Quebec by which they can help the skilled workers after entering the province. Quebec has also increased the limit of temporary foreign workers who are doing their businesses in some specific areas to increase the economy of Quebec by increasing their workforce by 10 to 20 percent.
