Canada Remains Top Choice Among Prospective Immigrants During Pandemic - Survey

 logo

Cyril Zachariah
Updated on Feb 08, 2022 05:47 PM IST

Canada continues to show its dominance of being a top destination for immigration as shown in a recent survey conducted by World Education Services. The organisation has been conducting the same survey for two years since the pandemic hit, analysing the effects of the pandemic on immigration plans to Canada.

Canada Remains Top Choice Among Prospective Immigrants During Pandemic - Survey

Canada remains a top sport among prospective immigrants even after a hectic two years of the pandemic wreaking havoc across the globe. This statement is backed by a new survey conducted by the World Education Services (WES), a designated provider of the Education Credential Assessments (ECA) in Canada.

According to the report, WES surveyed 13,000 prospective immigrants to better understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their immigration plans. Furthermore, WES repeated the survey in August 2021 to analyse the impact of the pandemic on the motivation of prospective immigrants immigrating to Canada.

According to the data collected, the WES report highlighted no decrease since 2020, in the response of people immigrating to Canada. In fact, 52% of the respondents stated that the pandemic would have no impact on their plans, meanwhile 93% of the respondents stated having no impact or actually becoming more interested in immigrating.

Also Read: Canada Records more than 47,000 Immigrants in November 2021

The 2021 survey also revealed a drop in negative feelings and a rise in positive feelings in terms of immigrating to the country. The 2021 survey saw a drop in the number of respondents feeling a negative impact on job availability in Canada, with 33%, meanwhile, 45% of the respondents in the 2020 survey thought similarly. Additionally, 35% of the 2021 survey respondents expected a positive impact on job availability, while only 27% of the 2020 respondents felt similarly.

According to the survey, the ability of Canadas health care system and the government in managing the pandemic and offering care to COVID-19 affected patients was among the major reasons for them being interested in immigrating to Canada.

The two surveys also revealed a drop in the number of respondents who felt that the pandemic would put a dent in their immigration plans, from 35% in 2020 to 21% in 2021. Meanwhile, 22% of the respondents chose Canada as their top destination, compared to the 13% in 2020.

The survey further highlighted the respondents interests in choosing Canada as their immigration destination, even if there were challenging personal or economic factors evolving. Between the two surveys, 74% in 2021 compared to the 69% in 2020, stated either no impact or increased interest in applying for permanent residency in Canada even during an economic recession.

Moreover, when questioned about job prospects in Canada compared to their home country, 77% felt COVID-19 would not result in any impact, or instead have a positive impact on jobs in their sectors/fields than their home countries, compared to the 69% in the previous year.

However, while there were many who felt positive about immigrating to Canada, there were some who responded otherwise. Among the people considering delaying their immigration to Canada, travel restrictions, a substantial rise in the number of IRCC processing times and a drop in job opportunities in their respective fields in Canada, were the top 3 reasons.

In 2020, Canada had been looking towards welcoming 341,000 immigrants, predominantly in the economics class prior to the pandemic. However, with travel restrictions, the new immigrant numbers amounted to 184,000 for 2020.

The pandemic has negatively impacted several aspects of immigration and international travel, which also includes IRCCs backlog of 1.8 million applicants, which further slowed down the processing times. However, all is not so negative, with the economy of the country showing improvement in 2021 as well as a rise in job vacancies, with around 1 million jobs currently available.

Also Read: Flying from India to Canada in 2022? Know About Travel and Vaccination Requirements

For the 2021 year, Canada sets its eyes on reaching 401,000 new immigrants and met the objective mostly by transferring immigrants in Canada to permanent residency. As for 2022, the Canadian government is set to announce the new Immigration Levels Plan 2022-2024 by 14th February 2022.

The plan is set to outline the number of new immigrants that may be welcomed in the country this year along with the different categories. As per reports, Canada expects to welcome 411,000 new immigrants, around 60% of whom will arrive within the economic class.

Source: cicnews.com

Planning to Study in Canada? Heres How You Can do it Easily!

You can share this post!

Related Articles

Aug 18, 2023 04:28 PM IST

How to Apply for Masters in USA?

Aug 03, 2023 01:18 PM IST

Documents Required for TOEFL

Our Study Abroad Offerings

Related Institutes

Planning to study abroad?

Interested in Studying Overseas?

Connect with us and kickstart your learning journey for a rewarding experience!

By proceeding ahead you expressly agree to the CollegeDekhoAbroad Terms of Use & Privacy Policy.