10 Countries That Send the Most Immigrants to Canada

Published on January 23, 2017 at 8:20 am by Khadija Muhammad in Lists

In 2011 (unfortunately the latest available data on the subject), 20.6 percent of Canada’s population consisted of foreign-born people, so we sought to find out where these immigrants come from and thus created a list of the 10 countries that send the most immigrants to Canada.

A total of 271,660 people immigrated to Canada in 2015, a steady increase from the previous year, and the nation does not intend to stop here. As per its immigration targets for 2016, Canada intended to absorb 280,000 to 305,000 people in the year 2016. The actual statistics for this year are not yet available, but it is highly probable that the targets were met. In fact, Canada may even have gone over and above these numbers.

10 Countries That Send the Most Immigrants to Canada

So why exactly does this nation allow people from various countries all over the world to build homes within its boundaries? As the Times of India so aptly puts it: Canada needs immigrants as much as immigrants need Canada. The truth is that The True North is very sparsely populated. For the second largest country in the world by area, it has a population of merely 36 million (approximate figure). Because people dying and the fact that its population is aging, Canada is relying heavily on its immigrant population to push the country further down the path of economic advancement.

Another consequence of the large immigration figures into Canada is that it has turned into quite a multi-ethnic land. While some states of the world worry about the dilution of their culture by the arrival of foreign people, Canada is different in this regard. It does not mind that innumerable ethnicities are residing within it as long as skilled labor is finding its way into the country and becoming a reason for its economic growth. This is extremely good news for immigrants, who continue to file into the nation any way they possibly can. In fact moving to Canada from the US is especially easy, as evident in our article – How to Move to Canada with No Money: Requirements For US Citizens.

The US is obviously not the only source of newcomers. To find out more, we referred to The Canadian Magazine of Immigration that compiled the latest figures on the source countries of foreigners who entered the country in 2015 and formulated the following list of countries that send the most immigrants to Canada:

10. Nigeria

Number of immigrants who landed in Canada in 2015: 4,131

More and more Nigerians continue to follow their fellow countrymen into Canada in search for improved employment opportunities that they cannot seem to find in Africa. Furthermore, many relatives of people who have already immigrated also desire to move closer to their families, adding to the bulk of actual and prospective immigrants.

9. The United Kingdom and its Colonies

Number of immigrants in 2015: 5,446

The United Kingdom is one of the only countries on our list, the total immigrants of which have decreased from 2001 to 2011. A decrease of 11 percent has occurred in the total number of immigrants from the UK to Canada whereas the yearly group of incomers has decreased from 8,719 in 2010 to the number we see today.

8. France

Number of immigrants in 2015: 5,802

We are continuing our list of countries that send the most immigrants to Canada with France that sends a total of four to five thousand immigrants to Canada every year. In 2012, a record number of 6,271 people landed in Canada, while the second highest number of French immigrants was in 2015.

7. USA

Number of immigrants in 2015: 7,519

Canada’s neighbor and the world’s most powerful economy, the United States of America also plays a role in increasing the number of foreigners that reside in The True North. The figure may even increase in 2016, what with so many Americans unhappy with the result of the latest presidential election.

6. Syria

Number of immigrants in 2015: 9,848

The condition of the Syrian civil war has displaced thousands of people and only some have been lucky enough to be able to make their homes in a country as peaceful as Canada. Most of these 9,848 people, 73 percent of them to be exact, entered Canada in the fourth quarter of the year. Maybe Syria’s condition worsened at that time, but we have no way of being sure what the reason for this sudden surge was.

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5. Pakistan

Number of immigrants in 2015: 11,320

Immigration from Pakistan to Canada has remained quite steady through the years. In the ten years from 2006 to 2015, a total of 97,977 people permanently moved from Pakistan to Canada.

4. Iran

Number of immigrants in 2015: 11,665

The metropolitan area of Canada that is the most heavily populated of the country, the Greater Toronto Area, is also home to around 60,000 Iranians. This figure represents more than 60 percent of the total Iranian-Canadian population.

3. China

Number of immigrants in 2015: 19,512

At number three on our list of countries that send the most immigrants to Canada we have China that was not only the third biggest source of immigrants in 2015 but was also the biggest contributor of international students in the country. In fact, the number of Chinese students residing in Canada increased by 886 percent from 2000 to 2015!

2. India

Number of immigrants in 2015: 39,495

India broke its record in 2015 as the above figure is the highest ever in the years counting from 2006 to 2015. Thousands of Indians are granted permanent Canadian visas every year, and it seems that the stream of people entering Canada from this South-east Asian country will not dwindle soon.

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1. Philippines

Number of immigrants in 2015: 50,816

In the past eleven years, Philippines, India, and China have remained the top three among the countries that send the most immigrants to Canada. Even so, there is still a huge margin between the number of immigrants that came from India in 2015 and the ones that originated from the Philippines. The 50,816 figure is the largest in the history of Filipino immigration to Canada.