The United Kingdom and Australia have announced plans to limit immigration by half, while Canada’s population growth hits unprecedented levels. Stats Canada released data on population growth in the third quarter, highlighting the sharp increase in the growth, 430,635 people, was 96% fueled by immigration. The Canadian Liberal/NDP coalition government has a target of bringing in 465,000 immigrants in 2024 and 500,000 in 2025. .In 2023 the UK allowed 672,000 new immigrants and Australia 510,000. On December 4, the UK decided on a plan to slash immigration by 300,000, to be implemented in the spring of 2024 and on December 11 Australia announced an immigration reform strategy which will cut intake down to 255,000. The UK decided to raise its salary requirements for sponsored skilled workers by 48% to CA$65,000, excluding health care workers and will limit qualifying occupations, international students and spousal immigration. UK home secretary James Cleverly said immigration “is far too high and needs to come down.”“People are understandably worried about housing, GP appointments, school places and access to other public services when they can see their communities growing quickly in numbers,” he said, per the Toronto Star. The Australian government will implement measures to allow immigration based on demand for specific skills, raise standards for international studies and prevent overseas students from prolonging their stay once studies are completed. Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil told Sky News current immigration levels “are not sustainable. They are too high.”“It's very important that we maintain social licence to continue to run a migration system. It's essential to our safety, our prosperity as a country,” she said. Canadian Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre told True North on Monday immigration numbers should be linked to homebuilding numbers, pointing out fewer homes were built in 2022 than in 1972, when the population was 22 million. “We have to build something in the neighbourhood of 450,000 to 500,000 homes a year just to maintain the current level of affordability at today’s immigration rates. We’re building less than half of that,” he said..On December 15 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters immigration should be at a pace cities and “even rural regions can absorb,” while putting the onus on academic institutions admitting masses of international students “to build and ensure” housing for them. “Immigration is a source of opportunity, of growth, of economic advantage for Canada,” he said. “But it’s also important to make sure we’re doing it responsibly and at a pace that our cities, our municipalities, even our rural regions can absorb.” Trudeau said his government is “constantly looking at some of the challenges that have been faced,” one of them being colleges and universities admitting unsustainable numbers of international students, and has provided solutions, citing the Liberal’s announcement earlier in December. “The immigration minister (Marc Miller) announced the federal government is “going to make sure that institutions that are welcoming more and more international students actually plan to create and build and ensure places where they’re going to be able to stay,” Trudeau said. “So that everyone is working together on a coherent, cohesive plan to make sure that we’re both growing our economy and making sure that everyone can have a safe place to live, while we grow that economy and grow great jobs.”
