The economic impact of immigration to Canada is dominated by two conflicting narratives: higher immigration levels increase GDP but decrease GDP per capita or living standards for the resident population and lead to diseconomies of scale in terms of overcrowding of hospitals, schools and recreational facilities, deteriorating environment, increase in cost of services, and an increase in cost of housing. A commonly supported argument is that impact of immigration on GDP is not an effective metric for immigration. Another narrative regarding immigration is the replacement of the aging workforce. However, some economists note that increasing immigration rates is not an entirely effective strategy to counter it. Increased immigration numbers and the resulting surge in housing prices significantly contributed to the rise of inflation in 2021 to an 18-year high, while the immigration caps introduced in 2025 have been linked to increasing housing affordability through a positive drop in average asking monthly rents, ranging from 2 to 8 percent in several major cities.
Canada is one of the top Western countries in terms of per capita immigrant acceptance. The per capita immigration rate to Canada has been relatively constant since the 1950s. However, in the first and second decades of the 21st century, there was a steady increase in the education and skill level of immigrants to Canada. This was due to the focus on higher average productivity-based applicants, resulting in immigrants to Canada being, on average, better educated than Canadians. This trend was enhanced for income redistribution in the third decade of the 21st century by opening low-skilled immigrant pathways with minimal immigration score requirements to reach a target of 400,000 immigrants annually. This has cemented a new narrative on immigration: immigration is to fill low-skilled jobs and alleviate competitive labor market pressures faced by businesses that use cheap labor. Starting in 2022, the Trudeau government has set immigration targets influenced by the Century Initiative's lobbying. Over a million immigrants were targeted in 2022, followed by 465,000 immigrants in 2023, 485,000 immigrants in 2024, and a projection of 500,000 immigrants in 2025. Across Canada, people have been asking the government to match affordable housing to the set immigration levels, while the government annually welcomes 500,000 new permanent residents, and more than 800,000 foreign nationals into the country on study visas, as asylum seekers, and on temporary work visas. A Canadian journalist highlighted the poor preparedness for receiving immigrants in swathes, pointing to Canada's historic need for a "servant class" and "cheap labor" for the bourgeoisie and the owning class. Furthermore, the journalist observed that Canada's failure to address or neutralize the social and professional barriers for immigrants suggests it is not as welcoming as it purports to be. This policy of inaction silently perpetuates the creation of a servant class within the country's diverse mosaic. As a part of the process, by default, the government systematically forces a majority of immigrants into vulnerable positions and economic disenfranchisement.
