Canada has had a relatively very proactive approach to welcoming immigrants – skilled, through a points system, and many refugees. I posted here and here in 2024 about Canada trimming back its immigration.  Thanks to Rupa Banerjee for helping me to understand what’s happened.

Permanent Immigration: Canada lowered its annual permanent resident targets from 500,000 to 395,000 in 2025, to 380,000 in 2026 and 365,000 in 2027.  At 500,000, that was equivalent to 1.25% of the population – contrast that with the prevailing rate in the U.S. (1 million) which is 0.3%. Evern at 365,000 the rate remains much higher than the U.S.

57% of Canadians now believe that too many newcomers aren’t adopting “Canadian values” (up 9 points from 2023). 43% think a lot of refugee claims aren’t legitimate (up 7 points). Rupa told me that even among racial minorities and first-generation immigrants, concerns about immigration levels are increasing.

The Canadian government mentioned demand for housing and social services as factors in reducing the volume.  Still it is quite high.

American migration to Canada has been very little – on average in the neighborhood of 10,000 a year. In the past few weeks Yale professors Timothy Snyder, Marci Shore, and Jason Stanley announced they will relocate to the University of Toronto due to the political climate in the U.S. Canada’s point system will screen out many would-be applicants.