Canada limits the number of immigrants it will receive in 2026 to 500,000

O Canadian Immigration Minister Marc Miller admitted that the massive arrival of immigrants in recent years has caused problems across the country.

“What Canadians and economists tell us is that we have to study the microeconomic impacts of immigration”, he declared at a press conference, in which he revealed the Canadian Government’s objectives with regard to immigration.

The decision to limit immigrant arrivals from 2026 represents a change in policy that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has advocated until now.

In 2022, Canada authorized 431,645 immigrants to enter the country. This year, the country will receive 465 thousand immigrants. In 2024 the number will rise to 485 thousand and a year later it will reach 500 thousand. But, in 2026, the number of new immigrants per year will be frozen at half a million people.

Miller noted that limiting the country’s immigration target will help maintain the pace of economic and population growth, “while also moderating its impact on critical systems such as infrastructure and housing.”

In 2015, when Trudeau came to power, Canada received fewer than 300,000 immigrants.

In 2022, thanks to the arrival of immigrants, the Canadian population registered a record of one million people.

Canada is currently the G7 country with the highest population growth, 2.7% per year. It is the highest level since 1957, when the post-war birth and immigration boom put the rate at 3.3%.

The Canadian executive has defended its policy of constant increases in immigration to maintain economic growth. Today’s announcement is the first time that Ottawa has acknowledged that the high number of people the country welcomes each year is also causing problems.

A recent study noted that Canada needs to create around 5.8 million homes to meet market needs.

Population growth and housing shortages have resulted in sharp increases in home prices.

While, in 2015, the average price of a house in the country was 413 thousand Canadian dollars (around 282 thousand euros), at the end of 2021 the value had doubled to 811.7 thousand Canadian dollars.

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