Immigration to Canada: Trends, Policies and Sources

Hook: a country built by arrivals

Indigenous peoples have lived on these lands since time immemorial. Everyone else in Canada is an immigrant or descended from immigrants, whether their family arrived 300 years ago or last month. In 2023, Canada admitted 471,771 permanent immigrants (Statistics Canada). How did we get here, and who decides who comes?

Waves of immigration

• 1600s to 1700s: settlers from France to New France.
• 1780s: Loyalists from the new United States, including Black Loyalists. Haudenosaunee allies of the British also resettled, for example along the Grand River.
• 1840s: large numbers of Irish people fleeing famine.
• 1896 to 1914: a huge campaign to settle the Prairies brought people from Britain, the United States and Central and Eastern Europe (for example Ukrainians). More than 400,000 immigrants arrived in 1913 alone.
• After 1945: displaced people and immigrants from postwar Europe (Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Greece and others).
• Since the 1970s: most immigrants have come from Asia, plus growing numbers from Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America and the Middle East. In 2021, 62.0% of recent immigrants were born in Asia, including the Middle East.

Policies that excluded people

For much of its history, Canada's immigration laws discriminated by race and nationality.

• The Chinese head tax (from 1885) charged only Chinese immigrants a fee, raised to $500 in 1903. The Chinese Immigration Act of 1923 banned almost all Chinese immigration until 1947. Canada apologized in 2006.
• In 1914, the Komagata Maru, carrying 376 passengers from India (most were Sikh), was kept in Vancouver harbour for two months and forced to leave. Canada apologized in the House of Commons in 2016.
• In 1939, Canada refused to accept the passengers of the MS St. Louis, more than 900 Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany. The ship had to return to Europe, where many of its passengers were later killed in the Holocaust. Canada apologized in 2018.

New regulations in 1962 removed most racial barriers, and in 1967 the points system began scoring applicants on education, language, work experience and other factors instead of race or nationality. The Immigration Act of 1976 recognized refugees as a separate class, and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), in force since 2002, is today's main law. Studying these events helps explain why Canada's population changed so much after the 1960s.

Who comes today: the categories

1. Economic class (the largest): skilled workers through Express Entry, people chosen by provinces through Provincial Nominee Programs (such as the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program), business immigrants, and caregivers. In 2021, 56.3% of recent immigrants were admitted as economic immigrants. Quebec selects its own economic immigrants under an agreement with Ottawa.
2. Family class: spouses, children, parents and grandparents sponsored by relatives in Canada.
3. Refugees and protected persons: people resettled from abroad (by the government or by private sponsors such as community and faith groups) and people granted asylum after arriving. From 2016 to 2021, 218,430 refugees became permanent residents and were still living in Canada at census time, including 60,795 born in Syria.
4. Temporary residents are not immigrants, but many later apply to stay: international students, temporary foreign workers and asylum claimants.

The federal Immigration Levels Plan for 2026 to 2028 sets 380,000 permanent residents in each year, with temporary-resident arrivals lowered to 385,000 in 2026 and 370,000 in 2027 and 2028. It aims to reduce non-permanent residents to less than 5% of the population by the end of 2027, and to raise French-speaking immigrants outside Quebec to 10.5% of admissions by 2028 (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada).

Where immigrants settle

Immigrants still settle mostly in big cities, but more are choosing mid-sized cities, smaller towns and rural areas. Between 2016 and 2021, the share of recent immigrants grew in places like Ottawa–Gatineau (3.1% to 4.4%) and Kitchener–Cambridge–Waterloo (1.2% to 2.1%). Programs like the Atlantic Immigration Program and rural pilot programs encourage newcomers to settle in smaller communities that need workers. The territories received 2,175 new immigrants (0.2% of the total) from 2016 to 2021. (Statistics Canada, 2021 Census.)