Temporary residents
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) sets the conditions that govern who enters and who remains in Canada. Canada's immigration program is governed by the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) and its regulations.
Foreign nationals who enter Canada are classified as either:
Temporary residents
or
Permanent residents
Temporary residents are not considered immigrants; this course does not directly address their mental health needs. The information in the next sub-section on temporary residents is included as part of the overview of the Canadian immigration policy.
The temporary resident category includes:
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International students
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Most refugee claimants (asylum seekers)*
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Temporary foreign workers
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Temporary resident permit holders
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Visitors
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Work permit holders
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There has been a steady increase in the number of temporary residents, which gives them permission to work or study in Canada.
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Between 2000 and 2015, for example, the number of temporary foreign workers more than quadrupled (Community Foundations of Canada, 2017).
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In 2017 they accounted for 2.9% of total employment (Lu & Hou, 2020).
Impact of COVID-19
The contribution of temporary residents to the market was severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic due to travel restrictions, government measures, and fear of virus infection. Business closures and below full-capacity operations led to high layoffs of temporary foreign workers (Statistics Canada, 2020).
Those workers contributed 2.9% of total employment in 2017 in strategic sectors such as agriculture, forestry and fishing, which are sectors heavily impacted by the pandemic.
Temporary Residents in Canada
The graph below shows the trends corresponding to the different categories of temporary residents in Canada.