Recently Updates to Canada’s immigration strategy are not stopping all newcomers, as social media posts claim. The policy reduces the number of immigrants entering the country each year, without imposing an all-out break.
“Just in: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced a three-year freeze on accepting immigrants into Canada,” claims one after in a screenshot shared on November 27, 2024 on Facebook.
Other posts on Facebook, Instagram and X repeat the same claim. A TikTok video with more than 400,000 views shows Prime Minister Justin Trudeau making a statement, while one user claims the announcement means there will be a “temporary pause” on immigration.
Screenshot of a Facebook post taken on December 4, 2024
Screenshot from an X-post taken on December 4, 2024
Canadian audience Opinions have changed in recent years, with critics saying population growth has put pressure on resources such as food and raw materials housing.
In response to changes in economic conditions, Trudeau’s ruling Liberal government announced new immigration rules and caps October 24 – but they don’t stop the newcomers.
“There is no immigration freeze in Canada,” Isabelle Dubois, spokeswoman for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), said in a Dec. 4 email.
She said Canada is changing its Immigration Levels Plan (archived here) by lowering the targets for permanent residents from a projected 500,000 accepted applicants for 2025 and 2026 to 395,000 and 380,000, respectively. By 2027, the country plans to accept 365,000 permanent residents.
Canada also said in September it would reduce the number of permits for international students and temporary foreigners employees.
Trudeau explained the changes in a video shared on his social channels on November 17 (archived here, here and here).
“We made some mistakes,” he says in the clip, a soundbite cited in the misleading social media posts.
The Prime Minister also says that Canada accepted a large number of immigrants address shortages in the labor market after the pandemic, but that the government is reducing the number of new arrivals to allow the country’s economy to keep up with the growing population.
Read more of AFP’s reporting on disinformation in Canada here.
