By Adiba Hasan

Based on the most recent data available from October 2024, Permanent Residence (PR) admissions have reached 85% of the 2024 immigration target. In contrast, PR admissions by October 2023 had reached 87% of the annual year’s target.

Citizenship Trends

The graph below compares the number of new citizens between January and October across four different years (2020 – 2024). Overall, citizenship numbers in 2021 were low due to processing delays following the Covid-19 pandemic, but the numbers started to rise again and stabilize in late 2021. Between 2021 and 2022, citizenship numbers experienced a notable jump, an impressive 130% increase, indicating a turning point after significant pandemic-related disruptions.

As pandemic impacts started to fade and application backlogs decreased, the percentage change in the number of new citizens also became smaller with only a 0.88% increase between 2022-2023. Since then, there has been a slight increase of 3.64% between 2023-2024.

Table 1: % Change in Citizenship Acqusition

Citizenship Year	% Change
2023 – 2024	3.64
2022 – 2023	0.88
2021 – 2022	130.92
2020 – 2021	23.59
2019 – 2020	-55.69

Immigration Levels Plan Changes

In October 2024, the Government of Canada released the 2025-2027 Immigration Levels Plan, marking a significant shift in the country’s immigration strategy. The plan outlines a significant reduction in permanent resident admissions, with targets set at 395,000 for 2025, followed by further declines to 380,000 in 2026, and 365,000 in 2027.

The graph below illustrates sharp reductions in economic migration (-23%), raising concerns about labour shortages in industries like healthcare and technology. Family reunification (-25%) and refugee admissions (-23%) also face cuts, drawing criticism from advocates about undermining Canada’s values and global commitments.

Share your thoughts

The changes in admissions targets, particularly the reductions in all immigration streams, raise important questions about the values that shape our immigration policies. While the government cites infrastructure and service capacity as reasons for the reductions, the decision has prompted debate about its potential social and economic repercussions.

• Should Canada introduce citizenship target levels to ensure that PR holders are supported and incentivized to obtain Canadian citizenship?
• How much should public opinion influence the government’s immigration levels and policies?

Stay connected with the ICC Immigration Dashboard for ongoing updates and insights. Please share your thoughts and perspectives, and join us in an important discussion on the future of immigration in Canada

Sign up here for more updates from Ideas & Insights at ICC. You can learn more about the ICC here.

Since its inception, Canoo has unlocked Canada for over 789,000 newcomers, providing free admission to museums, galleries, festivals, concerts, and other experiences across the country. For this quarterly Canoo Insights Report, we’re looking at Canoo member growth and engagement in summer 2024.

Canoo Memberships Continue to Increase

Since we published our last Canoo Insights Report in September 2024, Canoo membership has continued to increase. The following graph shows overall Canoo member numbers (adults and accompanying children) and monthly member growth from September to December 2024.

Canoo Member Growth September 1 – November 30, 2024

Canoo Member Growth: 2023 vs. 2024 Peak Season

This edition of the Canoo Insights Report focuses on the summer of 2024, which was the peak season for member activity this year. Let’s start by looking at the growth in Canoo membership (adults + accompanying children) in summer 2023 versus summer 2024.

Compared to the same months in 2023, May 2024 saw a 27% increase in sign-ups, June had a 14% increase, and there was a slight decrease of (-)0.2% in July. With the school year approaching and schedules becoming busier at the end of summer, August and September experienced a dip in Canoo sign-ups. The trend suggests that sign-ups among Canoo members typically align with children’s summer vacation periods.

Canoo Member Growth: Summer 2023 vs. Summer 2024

New Canoo Members by Country of Origin: Summer 2023 vs. Summer 2024

Hidden Gem Venues

This summer, Canoo highlighted four “hidden gem” venues across the country. These venues offer compelling exhibits and family-friendly activities, without the crowds of more popular attractions. The following charts show admission at these hidden gem venues, as well as how often Canoo members visited with children.

New ICC-Deloitte Report and Playbook highlight winning ways for business leaders

NEWS RELEASE

October 8, 2024 – Companies across Canada are less competitive than they could be, and short-changing shareholders by leaving exceptional immigrant talent on the bench.

A new Employer Playbook for recruiting and retaining newcomers to Canada shows Canadian companies several ways they can boost their financial scores with the help of immigrants already in Canada and keen to get in the game. The Playbook is built on the results of a new report, “Talent to win”, which draws from an extensive series of confidential roundtables with employers, government and civil society leaders from across Canada, conducted by the Institute for Canadian Citizenship (ICC) in partnership with Deloitte.

“Imagine if the manager of the Toronto Raptors or Calgary Flames didn’t pick star players because they weren’t Canadian trained? They would be giving rival teams a significant competitive advantage.” said Daniel Bernhard, CEO of the ICC. “If you’re down two goals late in the game, successful coaches get their best players on the ice, no matter where in the world they learned how to play.”

According to a seasoned investor and executive interviewed for the new report, Canada’s business leaders “don’t grasp how so much of the world is beating us.”

About the Playbook for Canadian Business Leaders

The Playbook includes real examples from companies who have seen their bottom lines increase after capitalizing on the underutilized and overlooked immigrant talent pool.

• An Eastern Canadian construction firm got around English language requirements and gained an edge on competitors by putting together crews that all spoke the same foreign language (one crew spoke Ukrainian, another spoke Hindi). They proved to be safer and more productive than average crews, thanks to their ability to work and communicate in the language they speak most naturally and their optimism for being given a chance to contribute more significantly.
• A Western Canadian natural resources company changed a hiring policy that previously required heavy equipment operators to have winter driving experience and found that immigrants who were new to snow drove more carefully and had fewer accidents.

Click here to download the Playbook

About the Report: Talent to win – Employers’ perspectives on immigrant underemployment and the immense upside of solving it

“Talent to win” is a unique collaboration between the ICC and Deloitte, which brought together over 40 leaders from business, government, and civil society to understand the causes of immigrant underemployment and surface creative workarounds that leading employers have enacted to put this immensely underused talent pool to work.

Beyond the reality of systemic discrimination, the roundtable discussions revealed that employers face several challenges, including: lack of ambition in business culture, inadequate onboarding and mentoring practices, blind spots in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) frameworks that don’t take country of origin into account, and a lack of support to navigate Canada’s complex immigration system – especially for small and medium-sized businesses.

Click here to read the full Talent to Win report

About the Institute for Canadian Citizenship (ICC)

Since 2005, ICC’s programs have worked to give every newcomer to Canada the chance to become fully involved in our history, our culture, and our politics. More than 750,000 newcomers have participated in ICC’s Canoo program to discover all that Canada has to offer. The generous support from our donors and partners has enabled this impact.

About Deloitte

Deloitte provides audit and assurance, consulting, financial advisory, risk advisory, tax, and related services to public and private clients spanning multiple industries. Deloitte serves four out of five Fortune Global 500® companies through a globally connected network of member firms in more than 150 countries and territories bringing world-class capabilities, insights, and service to address clients’ most complex business challenges.

Media Contact:

Alan Findlay

alan@curiouspublic.ca

437.882.5997

By Adiba Hasan

The latest operational data from IRCC are now available in the ICC Immigration Dashboard, showing that permanent residence (PR) admissions have reached 63% of Canada’s 2024 target. During the same period in 2023 (January to July), PR admissions had already reached 65%, signalling a slightly slower admission rate in 2024.

In July 2024, 47,770 PRs were admitted, marking a 6.9% increase month-over-month, and a 17% increase year-over-year. In 2024, July had the highest number of PR admissions. Despite reaching this peak in July, overall PR admissions from January to July 2024 have seen a slight decrease of 0.16% (or 485 fewer admissions) compared to the same period in 2023.

Changing Dynamics Across Source Countries

The following chart compares Permanent Resident (PR) admissions from January to July 2024 with the same period in 2023, focusing on source countries with significant percentage increases.

There was a sharp rise in PR admissions from Ukraine, with a staggering 114.7% increase, likely due to the ongoing geopolitical conflict driving more individuals to seek permanent residence in Canada.

Countries with a large francophone population, such as Cameroon (+100.55%), Algeria (+63.79%), and Morocco (+23.88%), have shown increases in Permanent Resident (PR) admissions between January and July 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. This corresponds to the goal of increasing the Francophone community to support French-speaking communities across the country.

In addition to the notable upticks in PR admissions, it’s important to highlight the significant rise in admissions from the Philippines.

With a 23.14% increase, the Philippines remains one of Canada’s key source countries for new immigrants, seeing a growth from 16,765 in 2023 to 20,645 in 2024. 

PR Admissions by Source Country, % Increase

The ICC Immigration Dashboard data from January to July 2024 also reveal significant declines in permanent residence (PR) admissions from other source countries, when compared to the same period in 2023.

Source countries that saw significant declines are Iraq (-25.95%), Jamaica (-22.92%), and Brazil (-22.38%). The United States and the United Kingdom also saw substantial drops of 22.12% and 22.01%, respectively. Countries like Congo, DRC (-20.71%) and South Korea (-18.12%) also experienced double-digit decreases. Traditionally high-immigration source countries like China (-11.33%) and India (-9.65%) witnessed smaller but notable reductions, signalling the changing immigration dynamics, possibly linked to Canada’s evolving immigration policies.

This overall downward trend in PR admissions may reflect tighter immigration policies, global economic shifts, or other external factors affecting migration patterns.

PR Admissions by Source Country, % Decrease

Since its inception, Canoo has unlocked Canada for over 750,000 newcomers, providing free admission to museums, galleries, festivals, concerts, and other experiences across the country. For this quarterly Canoo Insights Report, we’re taking a look at our members and venues in Ottawa to better understand Canoo’s presence in our nation’s capital.

Canoo Memberships Continue to Increase

Since we published our last Canoo Insights Report in June, Canoo membership continued to increase. The following graph shows overall Canoo member growth (adults + children) and monthly member growth from June to August 2024.

Correction note December 3, 2024: The following graph was previously mislabeled as “New Adult Canoo Members” and “Total Adult Canoo Members”. The labels have been updated to reflect that the graph shows both adult members and the children associated with them.

Canoo Member Growth June – August, 2024

Ottawa Canoo Members

Ottawa, Canada’s capital, is a vibrant city with diverse activities for locals and visitors alike. The following graph demonstrates adult Canoo member growth in Ottawa in 2024 so far (January 1 – August 31). The bar chart displays increases in adult Canoo memberships in Ottawa per month in 2024. The line graph displays total adult Canoo members in Ottawa. Canoo membership has grown steadily in Ottawa, reaching nearly 40,000 adult Canoo members by the end of July 2024.

Canoo Member Growth in Ottawa

Ottawa Canoo Member Demographics

Most Popular Ottawa Venues

Ottawa has a wealth of museums and galleries that showcase history, art, and culture from Canada and around the world. Check out the graph below to see some of the most popular Canoo venues in the Ottawa region, based on the number of admissions from January to July 2024.

Ottawa Canoo Venues by Admissions

Out-of-Province Canoo Admissions in Ottawa

In an earlier Canoo Insights Report, we shared how Canoo members use the app to travel across Canada. And as you can see from the graph above, Ottawa has plenty of exciting venues to keep visitors entertained. It’s no wonder so many Canoo members are travelling to this great city! The following graphs show how many Canoo members from each province (outside of Ontario) visited Canoo venues from January to July 2024. The graphs are split into visits from Canoo members located in the east, central, and west regions.

Canoo Visitors from Eastern Canada

Canoo Visitors from Central Canada

Canoo Visitors from Western Canada

By Adiba Hasan

At the midyear point, the ICC Immigration Dashboard reveals that permanent residence (PR) admissions have reached 53% of the 2024 immigration target. In June 2024, Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) admitted 44,540 PRs, reflecting a 5% decrease from May 2024 but a 5% increase compared to June 2023.

Mid-Year Citizenship Trend

Unlike the Immigration Levels Plan, which outlines specific targets for permanent resident (PR) admissions, IRCC does not establish targets for citizenship admissions. This lack of defined citizenship targets creates barriers to tracking and understanding naturalization trends, making it difficult to gauge how many PRs become citizens annually. However, IRCC monitors monthly citizenship approvals, which are reflected in the ICC Immigration Dashboard.

The chart below compares monthly citizenship admissions between January and June 2024 and the same period in 2023. In the first half of 2023, IRCC welcomed 177,920 new citizens. Comparatively, during the same months in 2024, 206,854 individuals were granted Canadian citizenship – 16% more than the number of citizens admitted in 2023.

In 2024, citizenship admissions reached 54% of the total citizenship admissions recorded for the entirety of 2023. This highlights a growing trend in citizenship uptake among eligible permanent residents.

Bill C-71: Shaping the Future of Canadian Citizenship

Bill C-71 proposes a significant amendment to the Citizenship Act by repealing the “first-generation limit” on citizenship by descent. This limit, introduced in 2009, restricts citizenship transmission to only the first generation born abroad to Canadian parents. The repeal could enable thousands of individuals, previously ineligible due to this rule, to claim Canadian citizenship.

By removing this restriction, Bill C-71 could lead to a notable increase in citizenship applications and approvals in the coming years, contributing to the overall trend of rising citizenship numbers observed in 2024.

However, the potential influx of new citizens could strain already stretched resources for processing applications, leading to longer wait times and backlogs. Additionally, it could complicate the management of social services and benefits, as newly recognized citizens may have different needs and expectations from those who have lived in Canada long-term.

What are your thoughts?

• How might the repeal of the first-generation limit under Bill C-71 influence Canada’s long-term population and demographic landscape?
• What strategies should the government implement to manage the potential surge in citizenship applications effectively?

Stay informed about the latest immigration trends with the ICC’s immigration dashboard. Are you interested in following us? Please sign up here for more updates from Ideas & Insights at ICC. You can learn more about the ICC here. 

Continuing its focus on understanding the causes and potential responses to the decline in citizenship uptake, today the Institute for Canadian Citizenship is publishing an in-depth analysis by expert researcher Andrew Griffith of demographic and socioeconomic data from Census 2016 and 2021 of naturalized and non-naturalized immigrants. 

Highlights from the report

1. Citizenship is declining across all major demographic variables

Citizenship rates have declined across all major source countries, education levels, and provinces of residence. Notably, citizenship uptake is lowest among university-educated immigrants, who represent a growing proportion of recent immigrants. Despite higher immigration levels, Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta experienced the largest declines in naturalization.

2. Family class immigrants have the lowest naturalization rates, refugees the highest

Immigrants who arrive under the family category have the lowest naturalization rates in both census periods, but also experienced the largest decline – 17 percent – between the two periods. Naturalization is higher for economic class and refugee immigrants, but these categories also experienced declines of 10 percent and 5 percent respectively across the two periods analyzed.

3. Naturalized citizens generally have higher incomes than non-citizens, non-citizen women lag behind in most labour force measures

Among immigrants with a bachelors degree, median after-tax income of non-citizens is only 43 percent of the median after-tax incomes of citizens across all census periods. The gap in unemployment levels between non-citizen and citizen women increased from less than 1 percent in Census 2016 to 2.3 percent in Census 2021 – a 155 percent increase.

4. Government can act to reverse the trend

Government should expand funding to programs that educate, encourage and prepare immigrants for citizenship, and also adopt a meaningful performance target focused on the naturalization rates of recent immigrants – those who arrived within 5-9 years. It should avoid diminishing the value of citizenship by making it a more visible and celebrated part of the immigration journey.

Since its inception, Canoo has unlocked Canada for over 660,000 newcomers, providing free admission to museums, galleries, festivals, concerts, and other experiences across the country. In this quarterly Canoo Insights Report, we are delighted to share some highlights and accomplishments from the past year.

Canoo Memberships Continue to Increase

In the past few years, the Canoo network has expanded significantly. Canoo now offers members access to over 350 partners, with thousands of experiences available on the app.

With the expansion of the program, Canoo membership experienced dramatic growth. In our Canoo Insights Report: Part 4, published in July 2023, we predicted that 80,030 new members would join Canoo in 2023. We surpassed that number by 68%, with more than 134,000 new members joining Canoo in 2023. In 2024, we expect to receive more than 225,000 new members. This incredible growth demonstrates the appeal of the Canoo program and its vast partner network to newcomers.

Sign-ups per Month

May 2023-May 2024

The following graph demonstrates the number of Canoo sign-ups per month over the past year. Canoo sign-ups typically peak during school holidays, such as July (summer break) and December (winter break). This year, the sign-ups in May 2024 surpassed last year’s May sign-ups and are nearly as high as the peak July 2023 sign-ups.

Peak Month	Number of Sign-ups (Adult + Child)
July 2023	35,245
December 2023	21,917
May 2024	29,754

Year-over-year Change in Canoo Membership

Gender Breakdown of New Canoo Members

(Signed up May 2023 – May 2024)

By Adiba Hasan

In this monthly update, the ICC Immigration Dashboard indicates a drop in PR admissions in 2024 by 16% compared to the same period in 2023. By March 2023, PR admissions had reached 31% of the immigration target levels, with 145,495 new PRs. By comparison, in March 2024 PR admissions hit 25% of the annual immigration target, with 121,610 new PRs.

In 2023, PR admissions declined gradually in the early months of the New Year, with 50,945 admitted in January, 49,670 in February (-1,275), and 44880 in March (-4,790). PR admissions have experienced a more a dramatic decline over the same period in 2024, with 47,745 admitted in January, 39,090 in February (-8,655), and 34,785 in March (-4,305).

PR Admissions by Province

The chart below reflects the impact of the decline in PR admissions across provinces. Overall, most provinces experienced a decrease in PR admissions in 2024 compared to 2023 between January and March. However, with the exception of Newfoundland and Labrador, the Atlantic provinces experienced a slight uptick in PR admissions, with New Brunswick seeing a 35% increase in the PRs admitted compared to the same period in 2023.

The ICC immigration dashboard shows that Manitoba (-36%), Newfoundland and Labrador (-31%), British Columbia (-28%), and Saskatchewan (-24%) saw the sharpest decline in PR admissions. It is worth noting that these provinces are also facing challenges retaining immigrants.

Province Snapshot: New Brunswick

According to a Statistics Canada report, immigrant retention over 5 years has increased in New Brunswick in recent years. With the Canadian government’s commitment to strengthening francophone communities, New Brunswick has been a focal point in establishing initiatives to bolster francophones outside of Quebec as it is Canada’s only officially bilingual province.

In 2023, New Brunswick experienced record population growth with the province admitting “33,000 arrivals from other countries between July 2021 and July 2023”. The province is also experiencing significant economic growth, ending the fiscal year on March 31, 2023 with a budget surplus of $1.01 billion, which some attribute to the arrival of newcomers. As such, the city of Moncton, which houses 21% of the province’s population, has implemented an Urban Growth Strategy that serves as a directive for managing housing and employment plans for the city over the next 25 years.

According to the ICC Immigration Dashboard, New Brunswick welcomed 44,495 new permanent residents since 2018. The diagram below indicates the streams through which immigrants have been admitted, with the Provincial Nominee Program admitting the most PRs in 2022 and 2023.

What do you think?

• Given that Ontario attracts the most number of immigrants, how does adjusting immigration levels on a federal level impact provinces that have a demand for immigrants?
• What else can provinces outside of Ontario do to retain immigrants?

Stay informed about the latest immigration trends with the ICC’s immigration dashboard. Interested in following us? Please sign up here for more updates from Ideas & Insights at ICC. You can learn more about the ICC here. 

Today the ICC is publishing new research exploring immigrants’ perceptions of Canadian citizenship.

Our analysis combines survey and interview data from newcomers participating in the Canoo Access Pass who shared their perspectives on Canadian citizenship and the various factors that influence their views on whether to naturalize.

To read the full report, click here.

While a majority of the permanent residents (PRs) surveyed express positive views on Canadian citizenship and either intend to apply or have already done so, a significant 21% remain uncertain or reluctant to apply. Through in-depth follow-up interviews with 40 respondents, we found the following factors play a role in shaping newcomers’ views on naturalization: