Canada plans to receive 1.2 million immigrants between 2021 and 2023

Canada wants to increase the number of immigrants to it during the next three years to compensate for the decline in the number of immigrants during 2020 due to the Covid-19 epidemic, according to the Minister of Immigration.

The Canadian Minister of Immigration, Marco Mendesino, stated that his country intends to receive more than 1.2 million immigrants between 2021 and 2023, an increase of about 200 thousand immigrants from the number that was determined before the epidemic crisis.

He added in a press conference that in 2020 Canada will receive only a small part of the 341,000 immigrants it was expecting to arrive, due to the new Corona virus, which caused the closure of borders and the suspension of international flights for a long time.

The situation is expected to return to normal in 2021, according to the announced immigration plan, which is mainly based on economic growth, as well as on family reunification and receiving refugees.

To compensate for the decline in the number of immigrants in 2020, the government plans to grant permanent residency to temporary workers, asylum seekers and foreign students who are in Canada.

"The new arrivals played an important role in our handling of Covid-19," Mendicino said, praising especially the asylum seekers who worked in the first line in retirement homes affected by the epidemic during the spring.

"Immigrants are of vital importance in our health system, and they represent a factor of four in hospitals and retirement homes," he added.

He revealed that one-third of Canadian business owners are immigrants.

Immigration accounted for 80 percent of 2019’s demographic growth in Canada, which has a population of 38 million.

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