Canada to Accept 1.2 million Immigrants Before 2023

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The Canadian Government has said that it targets receiving 1.2 million immigrants from 2021 to 2023.
The plan is put in place in order to make up for a shortfall caused this year by the coronavirus pandemic.
Canada’s Immigration Minister, Marco Mendicino, told a news conference on Friday that the plan calls for accepting 401,000 new permanent residents in 2021.
It will accept an additional 411,000 in 2022, and 421,000 in 2023.
The proposed acceptance rate, reports said, is equal to about one per cent of Canada’s population.

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“The key to both short-term economic recovery and long-term prosperity is immigration,” Mendicino said Friday.

IN CONTEXT

Canada is one of the top destinations of Nigerians, especially those in the medical fields.
This year, because of closed borders and visa offices, quarantines and few available international flights, only a fraction of Nigerians and other immigrants arrived the country.The new target is about 50,000 per year higher than the previous goal.“As with every other aspect of our lives, the pandemic has affected migration to Canada,” the Canadian minister said on Friday.

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To help make up the shortfall, Mendicino said the government would offer permanent resident status to temporary foreign workers, international students and asylum claimants already in Canada.
He noted that immigrants have been “critical” to Canada’s pandemic response, representing one in four health care workers in hospitals and elderly care homes.
“Whether they’ve been taking care of our most vulnerable, or putting food on our tables, newcomers have played an outsized role in our response to Covid-19,” he said.
Immigrants account for one-third of business owners in Canada.