(Quebec) The Legault government sets its immigration threshold for the next two years at 50,000 new arrivals, not counting foreign students who will be able to obtain their permanent residence through the graduate component of the Quebec Experience Program (PEQ). ).
Last spring, Quebec created a surprise by presenting two scenarios as part of the consultations to set the number of permanent immigrants that Quebec will welcome by 2027.
The first proposal favored by the government raised the threshold to 60,000 within four years, in addition to graduates applying for the PEQ. This would have increased the number of permanent immigrants to nearly 70,000 per year in 2027. The second scenario maintained the threshold at 50,000, as the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) had promised during the electoral campaign.
On Wednesday, Immigration Minister Christine Fréchette presented the 2024 and 2025 multi-year immigration guidelines at the Salon Bleu. She now proposes to maintain the threshold at 50,000, but to this number is added the PEQ graduate component. The final number of permanent immigrants could therefore approach nearly 60,000 per year over the next two years.
For the years 2026 and 2027, Quebec remains silent and no longer indicates the immigration thresholds that they foresee.
Immigration composition
From the threshold of 50,000 permanent immigrants for the next two years, the CAQ government predicts that Quebec will welcome 30,650 new arrivals in 2024 and 31,500 in 2025. For the category of business people, 1,250 admissions are planned in 2024 and 450 in 2025. Family reunifications will remain at 10,400 admissions per year.
“For refugees and people in similar situations, the admission levels will be 7,200 per year, including 3,650 for refugees selected abroad and 3,550 for refugees recognized on site,” specifies Quebec.
Furthermore, the Legault government estimates that “the portion of immigrants knowing French at the time of their admission will increase from 67% to 68%” from 2024 to 2025.
“Among principal applicants in economic immigration programs, this proportion will increase from 89% in 2024 to 93% in 2025. These proportions do not, however, take into account the admissions of people selected in the “Québec Graduates” component of the Immigration Program. the Quebec experience,” we write.