Surge in number of temporary foreign workers admitted to Canada this year

Canada has seen a surprise spike in foreign workers admitted to the country this year despite Ottawa’s reduced temporary resident targets, after three successive quarters of decline.

 

While it’s too early to say if the quarterly growth will continue, experts say it calls into question whether the federal government can cut the proportion of temporary residents in the overall population from slightly above seven per cent to under five per cent by 2027, as pledged by Prime Minister Mark Carney to make the growth “sustainable.”

 

“How can you bring down the number?” asked Prof. Marshia Akbar, director of the BMO Newcomer Workforce Integration Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University. “It would be difficult.”

 

According to the latest immigration data, 176,805 work permits took effect under the international mobility program — which covers the majority of temporary foreign workers — between January and March this year, up by 10 per cent from 160,235 in the last quarter.

 

It bucked the downward trends since the first three months of 2024, when a record 230,405 work permits became effective from January to March. The number continued to trend down to 180,930 and 163,450 in the second and third quarters last year, respectively.

 

In response to a public outcry over surging population growth that has contributed to the housing affordability crisis and strained government services, Ottawa has reduced its annual intake of permanent residents by 21 per cent to 395,000 this year, 380,000 in 2026 and 365,000 in 2027.

It also vowed to slash the temporary resident population in Canada, including international students and foreign workers, by 445,901 this year and 445,662 in 2026, while increasing it modestly by 17,439 in 2027, by tightening the eligibility of study and work permits.

 

The Immigration Department said the volume of temporary foreign workers fluctuates over time, depending on program requirements, processing times and inventories, and labour market conditions.

 

“We are continuing to monitor the effectiveness of our temporary resident reduction measures to help stay on track,” it told the Star in an email.

 

Experts said the recent spike could be the combined results of the Immigration Department’s recent processing delays and delayed impact of some of the work permit policy changes made in the latter part of last year.

 

“Some of these changes that were announced in the fall had transition periods for it, so you had a couple of weeks in some cases where people could still apply,” said Montreal-based immigration lawyer Christine Beltempo, who specializes in business immigration.

 

“There was definitely, at least we felt it, a big rush to submit a lot of applications before the changes came into place. And again, once you were in the queue, your application had to be processed.”

 

The rules of work permits for spouses of international students and foreign workers, for instance, were announced last year, but only took effect on Jan. 21, noted Toronto immigration lawyer Lou Janssen Dangzalan.

 

Spouses and common-law partners used to be eligible for an open work permit even if the permit holders only had a college diploma or apprenticeship training of less than two years, or more than six months of on-the-job training.

 

Now, Dangzalan said, it’s limited to spouses and partners of international students in master’s programs that are 16 months or longer, doctoral programs or select professional studies; foreign workers must be employed in high-skill occupations or jobs in line with labour shortages and government priorities to get their other half a work permit.

 

“A lot of people rushed to make sure they were covered by the old rules,” he said. “I know for a fact that we rushed about three or four applications from our end.”

 

Akbar of the TMU said the bulk of the work permit growth in the latest quarter did not come from occupations explicitly categorized by officials as higher- or lower-skilled positions, but in the “other occupations” category, which jumped by 18,680 in the three months.

 

Last May, then employment minister Randy Boissonnault tightened the rules of labour market impact assessments in approving employers’ requests to bring in temporary foreign workers under the so-called closed work permit scheme that ties work permit holders to their sponsored employers.

 

But Akbar said the international mobility program is more “broad and opaque” because most applicants are not subject to labour market assessments by Service Canada and are off the public radar.

“People talk about the LMIA and it’s under scrutiny, whereas the (international mobility program) is less controversial and visible … to still bring in migrant workers,” she said.

 

Akbar said it’s too early to say if the work permit surge will continue, but Ottawa’s five per cent temporary resident reduction target may not be feasible without further structural changes to how open work permits and education-to-work pathways are administered.

 

To meet the five per cent permanent resident target, Dangzalan said the key requires more than restricting work permit eligibility or capping application intake, but ensuring those who are in Canada will leave when they run out of legal status.

 

He said immigration processing times have generally grown significantly for most immigration applicants inside Canada, compared to those applying from outside the country, and ”my sense is they’re trying to encourage people to leave Canada, to process from outside” because wait times overseas can be shorter.

 

Immigration officials said it will take time to see the results of some of the temporary resident reduction measures, including the recent changes to work permits for spouses of workers and students in January and eligibility for post-graduation work permit rules in November.

 

 

 

 

 

This article was first reported by The Star