Recently, Canada declared its new immigration Levels Plan, which outlines its target for the upcoming three years, i.e., 2024-2026. According to it, Canada aims for more Francophones.

Canada’s immigration department, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), hopes to admit around 31,500 new permanent residents (PRs) in 2025 who are proficient in the French Language. This target is even higher for 2026, in which it aims to accept 36,000 French-skilled permanent residents (PRs). 

Canada’s immigration levels plan, released by IRCC annually, provides guidance for how many new PRs the country is aiming to admit during the following three years. 

The plan divides the targets for permanent residency by Canada’s three general classes, i.e., family, economic, and refugee/humanitarian.

In particular, this year’s immigration plan anticipates that Canada will maintain a stable level of new PRs in 2025 and 2026. The overall immigration target remains at 500,000 new PR in each of 2025 and 2026.

Canada’s overall admissions objective is predicted to stabilize. Despite this fact, a closer study reveals that one immigration category is anticipated to experience increased admissions. As outlined in the plan, this growth is predicted to occur over the last two years.

Canada Aims for More Francophones: Category Expecting Increased Admissions 

From the new immigration plan, it’s clear that IRCC is seeking to admit more French-speaking immigrants for permanent residence outside Quebec in 2026. Compared to 2025, the target is expected to rise by 4,500. 

Here, the distinction regarding admissions of immigrants outside Quebec is crucial because it emphasizes that Quebec has its distinct immigration rules, programs, and policies than the rest of Canada. 

This is significant as, in the latest immigration plan, the French-speaking category is the only category where the specified target increases in the last two years of the plan, i.e., 2025 and 2026. 

At the same time, as the overall target for 2025 and 2026 remains constant, except for this one category, the targets for all others are likely to remain consistent during the time period.

One admission category where the admission target is expected to fall between 2025 and 2026 is the ‘Economic Pilots’ category.

This includes three immigration pathways that are as follows:

• Agri-Food Pilot
• Economic Mobility Pathways Project
• Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot

In particular, the admissions target for this category in 2025 is 14,750, which is anticipated to fall in 2026 to 13,750.

Why might IRCC want to increase Francophone PR Admissions Outside Quebec?

Canada aims for more Francophone PR admissions as per its latest immigration plan. The reasons for this can be found in the recent strategic report of Canada. It is called “An Immigration System for Canada’s Future.”

The Canadian department and IRCC jointly released this report. It outlines the results and plans related to Canada’s new strategy for Canadian immigration. This report was made public after months of discussions with various stakeholders. 

In this report, IRCC has discussed several goals, including the expansion of Francophone minority communities, especially outside of Quebec.

IRCC stated that part of Canada’s strategy is designed to aid the department’s goal to ‘develop a more detailed and collaborative growth plan’ for the country’s immigration. This initiative includes actions like this one that help support communities.

IRCC specifically highlights its emphasis on expanding French-speaking immigration. This focus is a part of analyzing opportunities to enhance regional immigration as well as assist welcoming communities across Canada.

More specifically, IRCC has stated that the department will take the following actions to achieve this objective:

• Introduce a new Francophone Immigration Policy. This aims to restore and increase the demographic presence of Francophone minority communities throughout Canada.
• Enhance efforts in promoting and selecting French-speaking PRs
• Provide support for the settlement and integration of French-speaking immigrants within Francophone minority communities.
• Establish ambitious yet achievable targets to increase Francophone PR admissions continuously.

Overall, the expected expansion of the immigration admission target for the French-speaking category for permanent residence is aligned with Canada’s aim of increasing and supporting Francophone immigration throughout the country.

IRCC’s Progress in Boosting Francophone Immigration in Canada

During National Francophone Immigration Week this year, in November, Canada’s Immigration Minister Marc Miller underlined the value of Francophone immigration for Canada.

At the same time, he also appreciated the outstanding contribution of French proficient immigrants to Canada’s demographic, cultural, and economic diversity.

Canada also unveiled its Action Plan for Official Languages 2023-2028 this year in April. The plan discusses ways Canada’s immigration department is receiving funding to assist the growth of official languages in this nation. 

Also, IRCC has stated that the department plans to spend $18.5 million on francophone immigration as a part of this plan. Specifically, it will spent on promoting and developing internal and external recruitment support. 

This includes the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and the Americas.

In addition to this, the department stated that it has allocated $50 million to enhance the francophone integration pathway. This aims to streamline settlement and integration processes for new immigrants to Canada. Additionally, to enhance the capacity of Francophone minority communities to welcome them.

More Initiatives for Francophone Immigration

These upcoming initiatives are set to complement ongoing efforts aimed at boosting francophone immigration nationwide. This includes enhancing how these newcomers engage with the Express Entry application system. This encompasses both regular Express entry draws as well as new category-based selection draws.

Notably, Express Entry candidates who are highly proficient in the French language are rewarded with additional CRS scores. In a standard draw, this improves their probability of obtaining an Invitation to Apply or ITA for Canadian permanent residence.

Furthermore, one of the six new categories in IRCC’s new category-based draws is reserved especially for candidates with French language proficiency. This means that candidates who are able to communicate in French are eligible to receive an ITA under Express Entry in a special draw and in a standard Express Entry draw that considers the CRS score of candidates.

Canada’s immigration department has been effective in expanding immigration to Francophone minority communities throughout the country outside of Quebec through the efforts mentioned above.

This includes inviting more than 16,300 new immigrants to Canada. The goal is to meet their decided francophone immigration target of settling 4.4% of French-speaking immigrants outside Quebec. Canada aims for more Francophones; this objective is strongly supported by all these initiatives.