Citizenship and Immigration Canada Releases 2009 Levels

Citizenship and Immigration Canada announced today that the department intends to maintain current levels by seeking to admit between 240,000 and 265,000 new immigrants in the 2009 calendar year. Minister Kenney, appointed to the role only recently, noted that other nations such as the UK and Australia are discussing decreased their targeted levels, and that these figures represent some of the highest for Canada in the past 15 years.

The 2009 levels target up to 156,000 Canadian permanent residents in the economic categories and up to 71,000 in the family reunification categories. The humanitarian represents the remaining 37,400 candidates.