Some interesting stats on immigration

According to The Monitor, a statistical publication by the Citizenship and Immigration Canada, United States was ranked number one country sending foreign workers to Canada (2nd table below). In terms of Permanent Residents, however, China is the undisputed king, followed by India, Philippines and Pakistan (all four sending more than ten thousand new immigrants each.)

Immigration to Canada by Top Source Countries
(upto 3rd Quarter 2005)

Foreign Worker Flows to Canada by Top Ten Source Countries
(upto 3rd Quarter 2005)

From The Monitor

Updates:

30 July 2006

Canada no longer very attractive to Business Class Immigrants

According to this story in The Star, Business (or investor) immigrants are no longer queueing up for immigrating to Canada. The story cites various reasons, but most importantly, it is the ridiculously slow application processing times per application – up to five years (plus imposing some of the highest tax rates in the world, I’m sure.)

It also mentions that the booming economies of China, India and Russia are now encouraging people loaded with dough to shelve immigration plans for Canada.

Business immigration brings billions of dollars to Canada – as if landed immigrants, or permanent residents did not already – but that’s not the point. The thing is, Business immigration requires an applicant to start up a business, thus also increasing the chances of creating more employment, which in return may well benefit the new immigrants and permanent residents after all, so it is beneficial either ways, I think.