Canada to open doors to 305,000 newcomers in 2016
Canada will welcome up to 305,000 newcomers in 2016 — up slightly from last year’s levels.
And while the difference is only about 21,000 newcomers, what’s significant in this year’s plan is the breakdown. More emphasis is being placed on family reunification and refugees — with the refugee stream seeing the biggest increase.
In addition to the 25,000 refugees from Syria the government committed to resettling in Canada by the end of February, Ottawa has tripled the number of privately sponsored refugees to18,000 spaces. In previous years that number was set at about 6,000. In total, Ottawa plans to welcome about 55,800 refugees this year.
The increases in the refugee stream will include more Syrian refugees who’ve fled the war-torn country in the worst humanitarian crisis since the Second World War. They will also allow “Canada to welcome higher numbers of refugees from other parts of the world with refugee populations such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Colombia and Eri- trea,” said the department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship.
At the heart of this year’s plan is Canada’s shared conviction and tradition of being a “compassionate, open, generous and welcoming country,” Immigration Minister John McCallum said at a news conference in Brampton Tuesday.
This plan “outlines a significant shift in immigration policy toward reuniting more families, building our economy and upholding Canada’s humanitarian tradition to resettle refugees and offer protection to those in need,” he said.
“This is a notable increase from the annual planning range that has been in place in recent years,” said McCallum. “It is the highest number of projected immigrant admissions put forth by the government of Canada in modern times.”
“Our plan will improve processing times and our backlogs will go down in our different immigration categories, including those for spouses, partners and children and parents and grandparents because we will be able to welcome more people to Canada.”