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The number of foreign workers in Canada on temporary permits is equivalent to 18.5 percent of the country’s private sector workforce, according to newly released figures from Canada’s immigration department.
The department counted 3,049,277 non-permanent residents in Canada as of Jan. 1, including more than 129,000 with expired work permits, according to a briefing note first covered by Blacklock’s Reporter. The figure represents 18.5 percent of the private sector workforce, which totalled 16.4 million workers, including self-employed Canadians in January, according to the Labour Force Survey released by Statistics Canada.
“While temporary residents enrich Canada’s economy and social fabric, we have committed to reducing temporary immigration growth to better align the needs of our labour market, housing supply and community capacity,” said the May 1 briefing note.
In 2024, Ottawa announced it was reducing the number of temporary residents from 6.5 percent of Canada’s population to 5 percent over the next three years. The government also said it would further limit the number of international students entering Canada in 2025 by reducing the target number of new study permits issued from 485,000 to 437,000.
As of Jan. 1, 2025, Canada’s non-permanent resident population included 1.4 million work permit holders, 1.4 million study permit holders, 347,000 work and study permit holders, and 163,000 family members of permit holders who do not have a permit themselves.
Additionally, Canada has 129,000 asylum claimants who do not have a work or study permit, as well as 17,000 asylum claimants with a work and study permit, and over 2,000 asylum claimants with a study permit only.
The immigration department has estimated the population of foreigners in Canada illegally, including students, visitors and migrant workers whose permits have expired, may be up to 500,000.
“There are no accurate figures representing the number or composition of undocumented immigrants residing in Canada,” said the 2024 briefing note “Undocumented Migrants.”
The document noted that the majority of undocumented migrants in Canada did not unlawfully enter or get smuggled into Canada, but had fallen “out-of-status” when they could not meet the eligibility criteria for existing immigration programs after lawfully coming to Canada.
Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner raised the issue in the House of Commons on June 9, asking how the government is ensuring that asylum seekers with expired permits are leaving the country.
Immigration Minister Lena Diab said during debate that refugee claimants with expired permits are expected to leave. “We have rules in this country, and we expect people to follow those rules,” she said, adding that the Canada Border Services Agency is in charge of enforcing the rules.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford recently said the province would be issuing its own work permits to help asylum seekers find work, telling reporters on July 23 that the federal government’s delay in issuing permits amid backlogs was costing Ontario “an absolute fortune.”
The immigration department said the work permit processing time for asylum seekers averages 45 days. Immigration Canada and the Canada Border Services Agency processed over 171,000 asylum claimants in 2024, with the vast majority of those being processed in Ontario and Quebec.
