Canada is on track to achieve its target of welcoming 401,000 new immigrants in 2021.

Canada is on track to achieve its target of welcoming 401,000 new immigrants in 2021.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) released new data showing that 23,375 people obtained permanent residence in February. IRCC data previously showed that Canada welcomed nearly 25,000 immigrants in January. All told, Canada has already welcomed 48,000 new permanent residents so far this year. By way of comparison, Canada welcomed 50,600 new immigrants in the first two months of last year.

Next month’s IRCC data release is likely to show that Canada has welcomed more new immigrants by the end of March 2021 than during the same period in 2020. The reason is that Canada’s immigration system has stabilized whereas immigration declined dramatically last March due to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

The pandemic resulted in Canada falling way short of its goal to welcome 341,000 immigrants in 2020. Instead, it welcomed just 184,370 immigrants last year. To help alleviate this shortfall, Canada’s immigration minister Marco Mendicino announced the most ambitious immigration plan in the country’s history in October. The country is aiming to welcome 401,000 new permanent residents in 2021, which would tie the record achieved in 1913.

Immigration to Canada was booming prior to the pandemic with the country welcoming between 25,000 and 35,000 new immigrants per month.

Canada’s newcomer flows were disrupted once the country imposed travel restrictions on March 18, 2020 to contain the spread of COVID-19. This resulted in what may have been the weakest month for Canadian immigration since the Second World War when Canada welcomed just 4,000 newcomers in April 2020. Immigration picked up in the following months but was not able to surpass 20,000 arrivals in a month until this January.