Canada lures immigrants and opens the door to citizenship

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government is trying a new approach to mitigate the economic damage caused by the dramatic drop in immigration: to persuade foreigners already in the country to stay.

And Canada last week announced plans to make it easier for the more than one million students, workers and temporary asylum seekers now living in the country to become permanent residents, with the door open for them to obtain citizenship.

In an interview on Monday, Canadian Immigration Minister Marco Mendesino said that this is the logical way forward to compensate for the decline in foreigners moving to Canada during the coronavirus pandemic.

"For those who are already in Canada here on a temporary basis, we have to see if there is a way to accelerate their path to becoming Canadian," Mendicino told Bloomberg News.

The decline in immigration is another blow to the Canadian economy, which has relied heavily on foreigners to drive workforce growth and demand, especially in major cities.

In Toronto, for example, the decrease in the number of new arrivals has already caused a downturn in the city’s apartment market.