COVID-19 Immigration Effects – April 2022 update

My latest monthly update.

April 2022 is the two-year first full month comparison. As a result, the changes are particularly dramatic given the full impact of travel restrictions such as the shut-down of citizenship, the virtual shutdown of visas and the impact on permanent resident arrivals and Temporary Foreign Workers.

The number of Permanent Residents admissions declined slightly in April, as did the number of TR2PR transitions, the latter continuing a trend since December 2021, suggesting that the “transition pool” may be drying up.

Temporary foreign workers, both IMP and the TFWP also increased, the former returning to pre-pandemic levels, the latter showing both the seasonal increase in agriculture workers as well an increase compared to pre-pandemic levels for workers with a LMIA, suggesting an impact of labour shortages.

The number of students continues to increase, well beyond pre-pandemic levels. Students from India comprise more than 40 percent of all study permits. This reflects in part that many of these students, particularly at private colleges, using study as an immigration pathway. Unfortunately, IRCC data for post-secondary studies is not broken down by type of institution.

While citizenship dipped in April compared to March, it is too soon to tell whether this is a blip or a sign of operational difficulties.

The number of Ukrainians arriving in Canada, mainly under the Canada-Ukraine authorization for emergency travel continued to increase, more than tripling from March to almost 68,000.

Covid-19 Immigration Effects – Key Slides – April 2022.pdf from Andrew Griffith