The government's plan for 2012 emphasizes the three objectives of economic growth, family reunification and meeting of long-standing commitment for protection of refugees and persons in need of humanitarian assistance.
The target figure for immigration for 2012 will remain about 250,000 immigrants including principal applicants and their dependants. Roughly 60 percent of the 250,000 individuals will be under the economic class which includes skilled workers, business class, provincially-selected applicants as well as those with Canadian experience. The balance of the immigrants will be composed of 25 percent from the family class and about 15 percent refugees and humanitarian and compassionate cases. The following table reveals the breakdown for the 2012 targets:
The Federal government continues to place greater responsibility on the various provincial governments to select and "nominate" potential skilled workers and business candidates. The Quebec immigration program has been in existence for well over 25 years whereby Quebec has been allowed the selection of its own immigrants. With a scope narrower than Quebec, all of the other Provinces have now entered into agreements with the Federal government and have established their own Provincial Nominee Programs (PNP). As the table reveals, about 25% of the economic immigrants selected will be through the Provincial Nominee Programs.
Once the provinces have selected their own candidates, the Federal government will simply approve the selection after clearing the applicants for medical and security issues. The Federal government has cautiously reduced the approved intake of Federally-accepted candidates and thereby will allow the provinces to expand their individual programs.
In addition, the Federal government will be focusing more on those candidates who have arranged employment already in place with a Canadian employer or who have had previous Canadian work experience or who have studied in Canada. The government will be encouraging foreign nationals to obtain Canadian degrees and will allow them the opportunity of gaining work experience before granting them permanent residence. All in all, such a method will ensure generally a younger demographic of immigrant who will have acclimatized and acculturated to the Canadian experience before becoming a permanent resident.
The Federal government will continue to address the labour market demand for foreign workers and is expected to approve about 200,000 temporary foreign workers. Many of these will include those selected under International Exchange Agreements which allow youth to travel and work internationally.
In addition, Canada will most likely issue about 90,000 student permits to foreign nationals to enter Canadian educational institutions. This group will form a greater and greater part of a potential pool of permanent residents over the years.
2012 will be the sixth consecutive year where the government of Canada has maintained such high levels of immigration.