Source: Statistics Canada. Table 98-10-0650-01 Overqualification (based on skill level C and D) by visible minority, selected sociodemographic characteristics and the census year: Canada, geographical regions of Canada, provinces and territories and census metropolitan areas with parts
Immigrants’ skills and talents are being underutilized in the London area, especially for visible minorities, new figures analyzed by the LMLIP’s Fact Sharing Work Group show.
According to data from Statistics Canada’s overqualification rate, 30 per cent of racialized immigrants aged 25-54 with a bachelor’s degree or higher were working jobs that required only a high school diploma in 2021.
That’s an increase of four per cent over the same figures collected during the 2016 census.
A point of concern is the fact London’s overqualification rate is higher than the national average, which CBC News in 2022 reported as being 25 per cent.
The “mismatch” extends to high-demand sectors — like health care — which have been under tremendous strain since the COVID-19 pandemic, StatsCan said at the time, CBC reported.
“The agency found just 36.5 per cent of immigrants trained abroad in registered nursing were working in that field (or in a closely related occupation), for instance, and 41.1 per cent with foreign medical degrees were working as physicians,” CBC reported.
Source: Statistics Canada. Table 98-10-0650-01 Overqualification (based on skill level C and D) by visible minority, selected sociodemographic characteristics and the census year: Canada, geographical regions of Canada, provinces and territories and census metropolitan areas with parts DOI: https://doi.org/10.25318/9810065001-eng
Equally worrisome is the difference that exists between racialized and white immigrants and even the Canadian-born racialized population.
For instance, the overqualification rate for white immigrants was about 17 per cent in both 2016 and 2021, the data shows.
That’s much closer than the rate for non-immigrants, which hovered around 15 per cent in 2016 and 13.5 per cent in 2021.
While in general terms immigrants are more likely to be over-qualified than the Canadian-born populations, the rate also varied among different immigrant groups.
The Filipino community, for example, had the highest overqualification rate at 53 per cent.
By contrast, the lowest rates were for immigrants from Korea (22 per cent), Japan (20 per cent), and China (17 per cent).
Also important to note is that while the overqualification rate for the Canadian-born population is lower than for immigrants, the rates also differ by racialized population, with Black and West Asian populations having rates sitting at 22 per cent. Filipino, Arab and Korean populations have the next highest overqualification rates, sitting just above the 14 per cent recorded for white Canadian born.
To access the full Matter of Facts report, and other entries in the series, visit our All Are Welcome Here website.
The federal government released this week its budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year, with a big emphasis on housing construction and affordability, the economy and improving the country’s labour force productivity.
While immigration was not one of the key topics of the upcoming fiscal plan, the new budget will still have an impact on the immigration system and newcomers. Here are two key areas to keep an eye on:
Housing and total migration
The federal government has already taken steps to reduce the number of temporary immigrants, capping study permits while also keeping immigration targets for permanent residents unchanged for the next couple of years at 500,000 for 2025 and 2026.
The government’s plan to reduce temporary migration by five per cent will result in an overall decrease in immigration of about 600,000 people compared to current levels.
“Under the 2024-2026 Immigration Levels Plan, the government has carefully moderated the intake of new permanent residents, moving towards a long-term approach that seeks to strike a balance between meeting the economic imperatives and enhancing the ability of communities to effectively welcome and integrate immigrants,” the document reads.
Though the move to set these immigration targets was announced in November 2023, the budget linked these changes to housing as part of the new budget.
Though the government reaffirms its commitment to immigration and highlights its benefits for the county, it also said it will be “aligning migration to with housing capacity,” which in turn will potentially lead to more affordable homes and better capacity to serve newcomers.
“Immigration enriches Canada’s society, our culture, and our economy, but the combination of temporary and permanent immigration experienced last year put strains on Canada’s ability to properly welcome and integrate newcomers into Canadian society,” the budget reads.
“Normalizing permanent and temporary immigration levels is critical to ensuring that newcomers have the opportunities and social supports they need to succeed when coming to Canada. Further, these changes will ensure that newcomers, and all Canadians, have an affordable place to call home.” Improving foreign credential recognitions
In a move that recognizes the economic importance of immigrants and the depth of talent newcomers bring, the federal government is pledging to spend an additional $50 million on the Foreign Credential Recognition Program on top of the $115 already announced in the 2022 budget.
Professionals in two main sectors stand to benefit from the additional investment: health care and the skilled trades, with the new money being evenly divided. The additional investment aims to reduce barriers for immigrants to contribute to the country’s economy and align their skills with in-demand jobs.
“Similar to a recent agreement between federal, provincial and territorial health ministers to recognize foreign credentials for health care professionals, the federal government is calling on provinces and territories to expedite the removal of their barriers to foreign credential recognition,” the budget document states.
Finding a new place to live in can be an overwhelming process, especially when moving to a new country or community.
To make the process easier, the LMLIP has put together a list of tips and useful information to help newcomers and all immigrants to London find their new home.
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
London is a growing city with diverse neighbourhoods that offer different options to meet different lifestyles. It’s important to familiarize yourself with the area where you are planning to live and make sure it suits all your needs.
For instance, not all newcomers arrive in Canada with the means of buying a vehicle right away. If that’s the case, it’s important to ensure there are transit options available near your potential new home to make your commute to work or school easier.
Also keep in mind that in Ontario, the vast majority of leases are signed for a one-year term that turns into a month-to-month lease after the first year. If you move into a new home but later discover it doesn’t meet your needs, it may be difficult to move out until the one-year lease is completed.
YOUR BUDGET
Rent prices in London have been rising in the past few years. According to Rentals.ca, a website used by landlords to advertise their units, the average asking price for an available one-bedroom apartment in London is about $1,800, with two-bedroom units renting for about $2,200.
Make sure to ask your landlord what’s included in your rent. Some apartment units include utilities (electricity, water or gas) while others require tenants to pay for those services and additional amenities, such as parking, on top of the rent. Landlords also require tenants to secure renter’s insurance. Before moving in, you will also be asked to pay for the first and last month’s rent upfront. In Ontario, it’s illegal for landlords to ask you to pay for several months of rent at once.
According to the Human Rights Legal Support Centre: “A landlord should not refuse to rent to you because you have no previous Canadian landlord references or credit history. An absence of credit and landlord references is not the same as bad credit and bad landlord references. If you have a bad rental history, a landlord can ask you to have a co-signer or someone to ‘guarantee’ your rent. However, a landlord cannot require this just because you are a refugee or a recent immigrant.”
RENT-CONTROLLED APARTMENTS
It’s important for you to find an apartment that is protected under rent control legislation in Ontario. This ensures your landlord can only increase your rent annually by the rental increase guidelines set by the province, which usually range between one and three per cent.
Units rented for the first time after Nov. 15, 2018, are not protected by rent control; this gives landlords the power to increase rents once per year by any amount they choose. In some cases, tenants living in non-rent-controlled units have seen their rents rise by as much as 20 per cent.
BEWARE OF SCAMS
As London’s population has grown significantly in the past few years, the city’s rental market has become very competitive, with many apartment buildings having waiting lists of people looking for apartments.
Unfortunately, scammers and bad actors have taken advantage of the tight market conditions to take advantage of people desperate to find a new home. New immigrants can be easy targets for scammers because of their limited knowledge of their new community or how renting in Canada works.
To protect yourself, limit your search for units to reputable and trusted resources such as rental websites or listings made by property management companies.
Always visit in person the apartment you want to rent and be wary of landlords who are unwilling to show you the property in person or require you to make a deposit in advance for you to visit the unit. Also, be careful of landlords who claim to be outside of the country, ask for cash or unusual payment methods such as Bitcoins, and rental units that are priced way below market rents.
“One common scam is that someone shows you or sends you pictures of a unit and accepts money as a deposit, but they are not the landlord or the owner of that property,” said Claude Boiron in an interview with Scotiabank. “Another common scam involves renting out a place to multiple people.”
KNOW YOUR RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
To find more tips and familiarize yourself with the renting process in London, check out this video created by the LMLIP and its partners, which is also available in Spanish, Arabic and French.
The London area is doing a remarkable job at retaining immigrants in their communities, new data analyzed by the LMLIP’s Fact Sharing work group show.
According to figures released by Statistics Canada, about 73 per cent of immigrants who arrived in 2019 in the London metropolitan area – an area that also includes Strathroy, St. Thomas and portions of Middlesex and Elgin counties – were still living here in 2021.
London’s retention rate was higher than other similarly-sized communities in Ontario, including Windsor (72.6 per cent), Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge (71.7 per cent), Hamilton (68.3 per cent) and Guelph (60.7 per cent). Toronto, however, had a higher retention rate at 78.7 per cent.
While London’s retention rate may seem similar to those of other cities in the province, London also experienced the smallest drop in its retention rate when looking at the percentage of immigrants who arrived in 2015 but were still living in the same city in 2017.
For instance, London’s retention rate in 2017 was 73.3 per cent. It went down to 73 per cent.
By contrast, Toronto’s retention rate in 2017 was 84.9 per cent compared to 2021’s 78.7 per cent. Windsor also experienced a big drop in this figure, going to 72.6 per cent from 79.5 per cent while Hamilton dropped from 71.7 per cent to the current 68.3 per cent.
Several factors may be influencing immigrants’ desire to stay in London, including a more affordable cost of living when compared to communities closer to the Greater Toronto Area and an economy that is expected to add thousands of jobs in the coming years.
“When considering newcomer retention, we know newcomers are more likely to stay where there are current and future employment opportunities,” said Christine Wilton, director of workforce development with the London Economic Development Corporation.
“We are fortunate to have a diverse and balanced economy in London, with employment opportunities across a variety of sectors, providing newcomers with the opportunity to find a career here in London that matches their skills.”
Wilton noted that attracting and retaining immigrants in London will be critical for the region’s economic future, adding the number of people born in Canada and active in the London CMA workforce already declined from 2016 to 2021 as more people exited the workforce than joined. By contrast, the number of immigrants and non-permanent residents in the workforce increased by nearly 20,000, a 39 per cent growth rate, allowing the region’s overall workforce to grow by seven per cent over the same period.
“We recently partnered with the Smart Prosperity Institute and Fanshawe College to produce employment prospect reports in the key sectors of manufacturing, health, technology and construction. The London economic region is projected to need over 40,000 workers over the next eight years to replace retiring workers and to keep pace with projected levels of employment growth, just in these key sectors,” she said.
“Our domestic supply of talent will be insufficient to fill these job openings, meaning more immigrant talent will be needed.”
London’s positive trends mirror that of the province as a whole, which ranked first in Canada with a retention rate of 93.1 per cent for immigrants who arrived in Canada in 2016, according to a news report by Global News.
The London area’s three-year retention rate also varied slightly when looking at the admission category of immigrants.
For instance, refugees were more likely to stay in London after arriving, with a retention rate in 2021 for those who arrived in 2019 of 84 per cent.
Immigrants sponsored by family members also stayed in the region at high rates, with the area’s retention rate for the same period sitting at 78.7 per cent.
The smaller retention rate came for economic immigrants at 57.6 per cent.
The reasons why the retention rates vary between immigration cohorts in London are similar to what is seen across provinces.
“If someone is moving to Canada to be with their children, grandchildren or spouse, they are more likely to stay in that same province. But economic migrants look for job opportunities, cultural communities and good education opportunities for their children,” Manan Gupta, an immigration consultant based in Brampton, Ont., said in Global’s news report.
“Despite the high cost of living and high property prices, provinces like Ontario and B.C. have been able to provide good jobs and settlement services to newcomers.”
You can read or download our latest Matter of Facts sheet right here.
The official launch of a humanitarian pathway for people impacted by the conflict in Sudan; new visa requirements for Mexican citizens; and two pilot projects to boost Francophone immigration and immigration to rural communities.
Those are among the new initiatives announced by Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) in recent weeks. If you missed any of those announcements, don’t worry! The LMLIP is here to bring you up to speed with everything you need to know.
Humanitarian Pathway for people affected by the conflict in Sudan
IRCC has begun accepting applications for a new family-based, humanitarian pathway that will allow Sudanese and non-Sudanese nationals affected by the war in the Northeast African country to immigrate to Canada.
Initially announced in late December, the program comes in response to the violent clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan, which the United Nations Refugee Agency says has resulted in the displacement of nearly eight million people, including internally displaced people, asylum seekers and refugees.
To be able to apply for the program, applicants must be “a child of any age, grandchild, parent, grandparent, or sibling of a Canadian citizen or permanent resident who is living in Canada,” IRCC says. Applicants also had to be living in Sudan when the conflict began on April 15, 2023, and have a family member in Canada who would agree to support them and help them build their new life in the country.
“The ongoing conflict in Sudan, as well as the humanitarian situation on the ground, remains deeply concerning,” Marc Miller, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, said of the program on Dec. 28.
“Canada will continue to help those in need and uphold our humanitarian traditions as a country. This humanitarian pathway will help reunite loved ones and save lives. We recognize the resilience of the Sudanese people, and are grateful for their continued contributions to their communities and our country.”
As part of the program, which officially launched on Feb. 27, the government of Canada will receive 3,250 applications. For more information, you can visit IRCC’s website here.
New travel requirements for Mexican citizens
The Canadian government has started implementing new visa requirements for Mexican citizens wanting to travel to Canada and who are doing so by air.
As part of the new changes, which came into effect Feb. 29, Mexican nationals who hold a valid US non-immigrant visa or have held a Canadian visa over the past 10 years will be able to apply for an electronic travel authorization (eTA) to enter the country.
Those who don’t meet those conditions will now need to apply for a Canadian visitor visa.
IRCC says the new requirements come as a result of “an increase in asylum claims made by Mexican citizens that are refused, withdrawn or abandoned.”
According to the government, asylum claims from Mexican citizens accounted for 17 per cent of all claims made in 2023. However, about 60 per cent of those claims were either rejected by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, or withdrawn or abandoned by the applicant at a time “when Canada’s asylum system, housing and social services were already under significant pressure.”
“Canada and Mexico have maintained a deep, positive and constructive diplomatic partnership over the past 80 years. We have worked to ensure North America is the world’s most competitive economic region and maintain strong bilateral, regional and multilateral cooperation,” IRCC said in a news release. This is “an important step to preserve mobility for hundreds of thousands of Mexican citizens, while also ensuring the sound management of our immigration and asylum systems.”
The Canadian government said the application process for Mexican citizens seeking a work or study permit in Canada will remain the same, meaning Mexican citizens will continue to have access to several labour pathways, including the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and the International Mobility Program.
“Mexico is an important partner to Canada. We will continue to welcome Mexican temporary workers, students, visitors and immigrants who bring diverse skills and important contributions to our economy and communities,” Miller said in a statement. “We strive for balance between the movement of people between our two great countries, and the need to relieve pressure on our immigration system so we can provide protection to those who need it the most.”
Government aims to boost rural and Francophone minority communities
The Rural Community Immigration and the Francophone Community Immigration pilot projects are the two latest programs designed by the Canadian government to support rural and Francophone minority communities.
The two pilot projects build on the success of the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot (RNIP), which the government says has been successful “in connecting businesses and employers in remote communities with the skilled newcomers they need to thrive.”
“Rural and northern communities face unique economic and demographic challenges. However, through the RNIP, rural communities have been able to attract and retain skilled workers that they’ve needed for years to ensure their economic growth,” Miller said.
“That is why we will make RNIP a permanent program, and why we are introducing these two new pilot programs. We’ll continue to work closely with these communities, as we work to connect businesses with the skilled workers they need to thrive.”
The Rural Community Immigration pilot will offer a pathway to permanent residence for newcomers who can help overcome critical labour job shortages and want to live long-term in these smaller communities, the government said.
Similarly, the Francophone Community Immigration pilot will focus on increasing the number of French-speaking newcomers settling in Francophone minority communities outside of Quebec.
Applications for both programs will open in the spring.
From left to right: Waseem Shahatto, Ban’s son-in-law; Hanein Madlol, Ghadeir Madlol, Ban Abood, Mustafah Madlol, and Yusar Madlol; Absent was son Muntdr, who was recently accepted at University of California, Berkeley.
When Ban Abood arrived in Canada in 2008, following the death of her husband and escaping the devastation caused by the war in Iraq, she made a decision that her five children say made them the adults they are today.
A chemist by training, Ban didn’t seek to validate her education and credentials here in Canada. Instead, she decided to focus on raising her children, working multiple part-time jobs at the same time, but always ensuring they had all the support they needed in their new life in Canada, they say.
“In all of our stories, you will hear that our mom sat us down, and made sure that we got our work done,” said Mustfah Madlol, 22, who is now in dental school.
“She made sure that we were always trying to do our best because if we didn’t, then everything that she had done was for nothing. She put in a lot of time, a lot of effort, and we have to make sure that it was for a good reason.”
Abood is humble in her assessment. She says everything that’s been achieved by her children, all of whom are pursuing careers or working in the healthcare sector, has been because of their own work.
But they are quick to disagree.
Hanein Madlol, who arrived in London when she was only 12, is now a pharmacist. She vividly remembers the struggles she experienced during her first years in Canada, and how difficult school was for her at the beginning because she didn’t speak the language.
“It was honestly very hard,” she said. “I was super excited to be here, but when I went to school it was difficult because I didn’t know any English. I remember coming back home, and my mom would help me translate my entire homework to Arabic, memorize it in Arabic and then back to English.
“All the degrees that I hold even though they only have my name on them, are really a testament to all the hard work that she put into me,” she added.
It was an opinion echoed by Yusar Madlol, 20, the youngest of Ban’s daughters.
My mom “did a lot to make sure I didn’t see the hardships we were going through,” said Yusar, who is pursuing her degree in Medical Science at Western University. “Even though she was working several part-time jobs, she would still make sure that I learned my multiplication tables.
“She inspired me to work hard, seeing what she went through; it’s not easy to raise one kid, let alone five by yourself in a new country.”
Today Ban works as a settlement worker for the London Cross Cultural Learner Centre. But for many years she couldn’t count on the security that a full-time position offered.
Instead, after earning a degree from Western University and becoming a fitness instructor, she had to juggle multiple jobs, some of which were only casual in nature or part-time.
But her dedication to her family and hard work have served as an inspiration to her children, said Ghadeir Madlol, who is also in dental school.
Ghadeir said being the best possible version of themselves and finding ways to give back to the community is “the littlest thing we can do,” adding that their own experiences have also been a big motivation for them to pursue careers in healthcare.
“We grew up in Iraq; we experienced the war and our dad died because of lack of healthcare there,” she said. “So we all saw the big impact of not having access to care, so when we came here we all sort of chose a career path that would allow us to help people and fill the voids that exist today.”
London’s immigrant population is making contributions to all key sectors of the region’s economy, new figures analyzed by the LMLIP’s Fact Sharing work group show.
According to the group’s findings, taken from figures released by Statistics Canada, 10 industry sectors in the London Census Metropolitan Area employ about 86 per cent of immigrants between the ages of 25 and 54, what’s considered people’s prime working years.
The largest number of immigrants, close to 6,400 people, or 18 per cent of this segment of the local population, work in the health care and social assistance sector, one that since the COVID-19 pandemic has been facing large labour shortages.
Manufacturing takes second place, with a little more than 5,100 immigrants, or 14 per cent, working in this sector.
Educational services at nine per cent, or 3,090 immigrants, close the Top 3, closely followed by educational services (nine per cent) and retail and professional, scientific and technical services both at eight per cent.
For the most part, the percentage distribution of immigrant employment is largely like that of non-immigrants differing only by around one per cent in many sectors. However, as discovered in our Matter of Fact 18, the income for racialized populations is lower than that of the white population.
The pattern of employment for newcomers has also changed slightly in the past few decades.
For instance, while 10 per cent of immigrants worked in construction between 1980 and 1990, that figure has dropped to six per cent for those who arrived between 2016 and 2019.
On the other hand, the number of immigrants working in the Professional, Scientific and Technical sector, which includes professions such as engineering, veterinary and law, has grown to 10 per cent in 2019 from only six per cent in the 1980s.
Economists agree immigration will remain a critical aspect of the economic growth of the country.
In a recent report, RBC noted Canada’s aging population is one of the biggest challenges the country is facing, noting “roughly a quarter of workers in the manufacturing, utilities, business, finance, and administration, and trades and transportation industries will reach retirement age in the next decade.”
“As our population ages, pressure will only intensify to replace retiring workers,” the report reads. “Indeed, roughly 4.3 million baby boomers are set to reach retirement age by 2033. Canada’s population will not naturally grow fast enough to fill these gaps and in the absence of immigration, a shortfall of at least 400,000 workers will open up.”
To read all findings, check this and other Matter of Facts here.
A large number of London’s Muslim community dealing with mental health issues is not seeking help to address them, according to a new survey by the Muslim Wellness Network.
According to the study, about 20 per cent of respondents reported suffering from anxiety. An additional 18 per cent said they dealt with high stress, while 12 per cent reported suffering from depression and technology addiction. More than 650 Muslim households representing about 3,400 people participated in the survey, supported by other community groups in London’s Muslim community.
However, 73 per cent of households who reported dealing with a mental health issue also said they didn’t seek help for those conditions, according to the results of the survey, completed as a way to gauge the needs and challenges faced by London’s Muslim community and find solutions to address them.
“We’re always kind of playing catch up, not being able to provide services in advance or be ready in advance for a lot of the crises that emerge inside the Muslim community,” said Sarah Elgazzar, one of the researchers behind the survey. And part of is that “it’s very difficult to plan if you don’t have a proper evaluation in place or can properly assess needs.”
One possible explanation for the findings is that the reported cases may have been acute episodes of mental health issues rather than chronic conditions, Elgazzar said.
“It could be that they didn’t think that the problems were serious enough or that they had the means and the resilience to deal with it themselves,” she said.
Barriers to access, including cost or services that are not attuned to Muslims’ value system, could also be playing a factor, she added.
A 2021 study completed at King’s University College, for instance, showed a lack of understanding of cultural differences is a major barrier to London Muslims seeking help for substance abuse among what are considered “mainstream service providers.”
“Many of the services across the board don’t truly understand the context of Muslim people’s lives and I think it’s important to draw attention to that,” Siham Elkassem, who led the study, said in a 2021 interview with the London Free Press. “It’s a theme that came up quite a bit.”
Elkassem, a Muslim, said existing efforts such as 12-step drug and alcohol treatment programs have a marked Christian focus that doesn’t connect with Muslims.
Fears of discrimination, including Islamophobia, are also barriers, issues that should guide service providers to find ways to better connect with Muslims and other racialized communities, Elkassem said.
Though the 73 per cent figure may seem large, Elgazzar said she in fact was pleasantly surprised to see one in four people actually sought support considering seeking help remains taboo in many immigrant communities.
“That’s one in four who said, ‘You know what? I actually need to reach out to someone . . . I can’t do this alone, I really do need help,’” she said. “That for me was a positive sign that we are moving in the right direction.”
You can find other results included in the survey here.
The Canadian government has officially launched a new temporary visa program that will initially allow up to 1,000 Palestinians with family members in Canada to escape the violence in the Gaza Strip.
The new temporary resident pathway came into effect on Tuesday, Jan. 9, and will offer “a temporary safe haven for Palestinians directly affected by the crisis in Gaza,” the government said.
It comes in response to the “humanitarian catastrophe” taking place in Gaza following Hamas’s attacks against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
“The situation on the ground in Gaza is challenging and volatile,” Marc Miller, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, said in a statement. “These new measures provide a humanitarian pathway to safety and recognize the importance of keeping families together given the ongoing crisis. We will continue to monitor the situation in Gaza very closely as it evolves and adapt our response accordingly.”
To qualify for the program, Palestinians must be living in Gaza, be related to a Canadian citizen or permanent resident who lives or intends to live in Canada, and be supported in Canada by such a relative for a period of one year.
Family members can be spouses and common-law partners, children and grandchildren, siblings and parents and grandparents.
Applications will remain open until Jan. 9, 2025, or when 1,000 temporary resident visa applications have been received and accepted for processing, Ottawa said.
However, Miller also said this week the figure was not set in stone.
“It is conventional for a number of these programs to have an internal number that is established,” the minister said in an interview on CTV News’ Power Play. “This was one that we thought at the outset — in the context of something being done in a relatively short period of time understanding that it’s a war zone in Gaza — was something to manage flow, understand what the numbers are, and then you know remain flexible on the fly if we do see numbers that exceed that.”
According to CTV News, the program will cost $100 per applicant, or $500 for one family unit, regardless of size.
Today, we opened the temporary residence route for extended family members of Canadian citizens and permanent residents fleeing the war in Gaza. We will continue to monitor the situation closely and adapt our response as the situation evolves. https://t.co/dMgdCIBZlG
— Marc Miller ᐅᑭᒫᐃᐧᐅᓃᐸᐄᐧᐤᐃᔨᐣ (@MarcMillerVM) January 9, 2024
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has also created a dedicated phone line for inquiries about these special measures at 613-321-4243. You can find more information about requirements and how to apply here.
The new program is one of several measures the government has taken to support people impacted by the Israel-Hamas War.
Back in December, the government also announced it was removing fees for study or open work permits for family members of Canadian citizens or permanent residents who had left Israel and the Palestinian Territories since the start of the conflict as well as for those Israelis and Palestinians already in Canada who feel unsafe returning to the region.
It’s the third special humanitarian program launched in recent months by the federal government.
In November, Ottawa began accepting applications that would allow up to 11,000 migrants from Colombia, Venezuela and Haiti to gain permanent residency in the country. Last month it created a similar program for Sudanese people with relatives in Canada in response to the armed conflict that started last year in the African country. Details about that program can be found here.
Source: IRCC Temporary Residents, August 31, 2023 Data. Data request tracking number: CR-23-0581.
India is the country with the largest number of international students in London, figures from Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada and analyzed by LMLIP’s Fact-Sharing work group show.
In total, 5,855 international students from India had a study permit, representing 37 per cent of the more than 16,000 students from 85 countries who chose the Forest City as their city of destination for their post-secondary education.
Indian students were followed by those coming from China, which at 2,145 students represented 13 per cent of the total international student population, while 1,810 students from the Philippines, or 11 per cent, rounded the Top 3 for London.
As was to be expected, Western University and Fanshawe College were the two institutions that attracted the vast majority of international students.
According to data made public by Western University, for instance, the university’s student body was about 40,000 people for the 2023-24 school year. Of those, about 6,000 are international students.
On its part, Fanshawe attracted about 6,500 students, according to data from the college.
The data analyzed by the LMLIP work group represent the most accurate picture of the international student population to date in London, which has seen the total number of student permit holders rise steadily in the past two decades.
While only 415 international students were reported in London in 1995, according to the IRCC data, that number has grown to 16,105 in 2022.
London’s growth mirrors that seen across the country, which in 2011 welcomed about 240,000 international students. That number has since risen to 900,000 in 2023, according to a report by The Toronto Star.
The only recent decline locally came in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic led to a drop in international students with only 7,770 obtaining permits that year.
The overall increase and attraction of international students has resulted in billions of dollars in economic spinoffs for the Canadian economy.
According to the Canadian government, international students contribute about $22.3 billion to the nation’s economy each year.
In Ontario alone, they also accounted for 30 per cent of college enrolment in 2021 but 68 per cent of tuition paid, according to The Star.
More importantly, international students represent an important pool of talent for an economy that continues to struggle with labour shortages and thousands of unfilled positions.
londonmiddlesexlipblog.wordpress.com 