As per the new research of Statistics Canada, the immigration landscape of Canada has been altered greatly since the introduction of the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP).  

An Overview: How PNP changed Canada’s immigration landscape 

Canada launched the PNP program in all provinces between 1998 and 2009 except for Quebec and the Yukon. It’s an immigration Program that was launched with the aim of extending economic immigration outside the major Canadian cities and meeting the labor market needs of every province as well as territory. 

Every province and territory is in charge of designing and managing its own Provincial Nomination Program. For applicants, there are various streams to which they can apply. Although the streams differ greatly between the territories and the provinces, some of the primary sorts are the entrepreneur stream, international student streams, workers with job offers, and workers without job offers.  

Since its launch, PNP has been growing continuously, which led to nearly 68,000 provincial nominees in 2019 in Canada. The PNP was the most significant selection program for economic immigration that year which made up almost 35 % of all new immigrants in Canada. This percentage was much higher compared to 1% in 2000.  

Every year, a new immigration-level plan is published by the Department of IRCC, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, that it uses to regulate its functions.  

Canada seeks to admit 465,000 new PRs to the country in 2023, and this target will increase to 500,000 in 2025. In immigration-level plans, the targets for PRs under the provincial nomination program are significantly higher, exceeding the targets of Canada’s main economic pathway, i.e., Express Entry. IRCC intends to admit 117,500 Permanent Residents (PRs) via the PNP in 2025. 

The Spread of Economic Immigrants in Canada 

Since its inception, PNP changed Canada’s immigration landscape. The Statistics Canada research revealed that with the expansion of the PNP, the decentralization of economic immigration happened concurrently. This means that as the PNP became more expansive, the economic immigration in Canada became less centralized.  

From 2000 to 2019, the provincial distribution of new economic immigrants changed dramatically when there were almost no provincial nominees.  

For instance, during that period, the percentage of immigrants with a desire to settle in Ontario, particularly in Toronto, decreased from 61% to 42%. Similarly, this percentage for British Columbia dropped from 17% to 15%. Contrarily, the prairie provinces, including Manitoba and Saskatchewan, witnessed a rise in the percentage of immigrants, from almost zero to 7%. Also, Alberta, along with the Atlantic provinces, encountered a growth in percentage, which collectively increased from 1% to 7 %. 

Evolving features of provincial candidates 

Since its launch, PNP has evolved, and the characteristics of the candidates selected through it have also changed significantly.  

The most noteworthy change was the increased preference for economic immigrants with prior Canadian earnings. This implies the temporary foreign workers who worked in Canada.  

The percentage of PNP candidates aged between 20 and 54 who were also temporary foreign workers previously grew from 6% in 2002 to 61% in 2019, which further increased to 72% in 2021. 

According to the study, immigrants with previous Canadian work experience are proven to drive improved labor market results in the short and well as long term than immigrants without Canadian work experience. 

In addition, the number of PNP immigrants with previous Canadian study experience also increased significantly. About 38% of the new PNP immigrants in 2019 had pre-immigration Canadian study experience, which was higher than 7% in 2010. 

Another feature that changed was the candidate’s age. Among provincial applicants, the immigration age has declined in the past. 

The proportion of immigrants aged between 20 to 29 increased from 24 % in 2005 to 38% in 2019. The research shows that younger immigrants outperform their older counterparts in terms of economic success, especially in the long term. 

The proportion of applicants without spouses and dependent children increased as the proportion of immigrants aged in their 20s grew.  

Furthermore, among the PNP candidates, the official language proficiency also changed drastically. For instance, in 2005, only one-fifth of the total PNP immigrants did not speak English or French.  

Later, in 2019 the number of candidates who don’t speak English or French fell to nearly zero. This is because, nowadays, most PNP programs necessitate candidates to know English or French at some level.  

From 2005 to 2019, the share of immigrants with a mother tongue other than French or English and who speak English or French as their second language increased from 64% to 91%. 

Lastly, significant changes are also recorded in the source countries of economic immigrants. Generally, economic immigrants from across the world travel to Canada, and no single country or region dominates the others. However, this trend is shifting. Notably, about 70% of new provincial immigrants came from mainly three Asian regions in 2019, including Southern Asia, Eastern Asia, and Southeast Asia. 

What’s ahead with PNP 

Since the foundation of the Provincial Nomination Program, there has been a considerable decentralization of new economic immigrants. Also, notable changes in the features of new provincial candidates have been recorded. These changes are majorly in a way that promotes economic outcomes.  

The persistent expansion of the PNP can potentially accelerate the trend of more significant regional decentralization of immigration. This is meant to respond to the demographic and labor market challenges in a better way which are encountered in different Canadian regions. 

According to the study, the numbers, patterns of settlements, and attributes of provincial candidates fluctuate throughout time, influencing their labor and demographic responsibilities.