Pandemic forces immigrants to leave Canada
So can the country achieve its immigration goals in 2021?
According to an analysis of Statistics Canada's Labour Force Survey, the number of permanent residents who have been in Canada for less than five years will drop by 4% from 1,060,000 to 1,019,000 by the end of 2020.
Although during the previous 10 years their number increased on average by 3% annually.
The data shows that the number of permanent residents who have been in Canada for 5 to 10 years has also fallen from 1,170,000 in 2019 to 1,146,000 in 2020.
"In fact, it's not uncommon for immigrants to return home in times of recession," says Robert Falconer, a researcher at the University of Calgary's School of Public Policy. — For example, if they've lost their jobs, they may return to their family, not pay rent and perhaps find a temporary part-time job."
The researcher also noted that the number of new immigrants dropped by about 3 per cent from 2008 to 2009 during the financial crisis and the recession that followed. He added that many of those who left last year may not return unless the economy recovers quickly: "The longer they stay in their countries, the less chance they have of coming back to Canada.
A Statistics Canada study released in August found that in the early months of the pandemic, newly arrived immigrants were more likely to lose their jobs than workers of Canadian origin. This was mainly because most of them were employed in the service sector, which was the hardest hit.
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