Canada province introduces cap on PR; Indians to be most affected

The recent legislative step by the government of Canada's French-speaking Quebec province r to limit the number of international students in the province has received considerable media coverage. However, another significant development in Quebec’s immigration policy has gone largely unreported, says a report by the Canadian publication Dominion Review.

This week, Quebec’s Minister of Immigration Jean François Roberge issued a ministerial decree limiting the degree to which any one country of origin can become over-represented in permanent residency (PR) allocations. Permanent residency invitations to foreign workers from a single country will be limited to 25% of the total number of invitations sent. This policy will apply to the PRTQ (the “regular programme for skilled workers”) and will remain active until next October when the decision to continue or modify it will be made.

The cap is expected to affect Indians the most. Indians make up a third of PR status holders in Quebec. 

`Reduction in diversity of origin'

The reasoning behind this per-country cap is to combat what the ministerial decree describes as a “significant reduction in the diversity of origin” of permanent residency requests from foreign nationals in Quebec this year. Placing a ceiling on the number of permanent residency invitations to foreigners from any one country will “strengthen the diversity of origin” of newcomers.

The trend that Quebec is reacting to is by no means limited to French Canada and is in fact very pronounced nationwide. In 2021, no fewer than 32% of new permanent residents came from India alone. This percentage dwarfed the next countries of origin on the list for that year: China accounted for 8% of new permanent residents, and the Philippines for just 4%.

The concept of national quotas, or per-country caps, has a long precedent in the history of North American immigration policy. In the U.S., only 7% of employment-based green cards can be issued to individuals from a single country.

While opponents of this American policy complain that it results in huge backlogs for applicants from countries like India and China, this means the policy is working precisely as intended. A per-country cap is typically meant to prevent a situation in which newcomers from one or a handful of very populous countries are vastly over-represented in the immigration system, which can lead to social problems such as the formation of single-origin ethnic enclaves in which assimilation is low or non-existent.

A national trend in Canada

Quebec’s imposition of a per-country cap in its PRTQ stream is just the latest in a long line of new immigration restrictions in the province, including the recent bill to limit international student numbers, the dramatic ramping up of French language requirements for economic immigrants, and Premier Legault’s six-month freeze on new low-wage foreign workers in Montreal. Quebec is continuing its long history of charting a different path on immigration – one that limits numbers, rejects multi-culturalism and emphasises assimilation to the host’s language and culture.