China News Service, Toronto, December 24 (Reporter Yu Ruidong) The Canadian government announced that it has absorbed more than 401,000 new permanent residents in 2021 in accordance with its annual target, and set a new historical record for the number of new immigrants received each year.

　　Canadian Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Fraser said on the 23rd that in the face of the new crown epidemic, achieving this goal is particularly important.

The Canadian immigration department processed a record-breaking 500,000 applications in 2021.

To this end, Canadian officials have increased resources, adopted new technologies, and transferred more processes to the Internet.

Data map: Street view of Toronto, Canada.

Photo by China News Agency reporter Yu Ruidong

　　The Canadian federal government announced in October 2020 that it has raised its goal to absorb more than 1.23 million permanent residents in the next three years, thereby continuing to receive immigrants at a rate of about 1% of the Canadian population.

This move aims to fill the gap and ensure that Canada has a sufficient workforce and maintains its competitiveness on the world stage.

　　Specifically, the country plans to absorb 401,000 new permanent residents in 2021, 411,000 in 2022, and 421,000 in 2023.

　　However, the new crown epidemic has caused a serious backlog of immigration applications received by Canadian officials.

Official data show that as of late October this year, the number of pending immigration applications was approximately 1.792 million.

Since July, the backlog of applications has increased by nearly 350,000.

The Canadian federal government promised in the new version of the fiscal budget report released in mid-December that it will invest 85 million Canadian dollars to reduce the backlog of Canada’s immigration system and speed up the process of naturalization and family reunification.

　　In 2019, before the epidemic, Canada had absorbed more than 341,000 new immigrants.

In 2020, under the impact of the epidemic, the number of immigrants accepted by the country dropped to 184,500.

　　Canadian official statistics show that immigrants account for almost 100% of Canadian labor force growth.

Approximately 75% of Canada’s population growth comes from immigrants, mainly economic immigrants.

In 2011, immigrants accounted for 20.7% of the Canadian population.

Officially, this proportion will rise to 30% by 2036.