Canada's surging cost of living fuels reverse migration, says report

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The dream of making it big in Canada is turning into a battle for survival for many immigrants due to the high cost of living and rental shortages, as rising emigration numbers hint at newcomers being forced to turn their back on a country that they chose to make their adopted home.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has made immigration his main weapon to blunt Canada’s big challenge of an ageing and slowing population, and it has also helped fuel economic growth. That drove Canada’s population up at its fastest clip in more than six decades this year, Statistics Canada said.

 

But now a reversal of that trend is gradually taking hold. In the first six months of 2023 some 42,000 individuals departed Canada, adding to 93,818 people who left in 2022 and 85,927 exits in 2021, official data show.
 

The rate of immigrants leaving Canada hit a two-decade high in 2019, according to a recent report from the Institute for Can­adian Citizenship (ICC), an immi­gration advocacy group. While the num­bers went down during pandemic lockd­owns, data data shows it is again rising. While that is a fraction of the 263,000 who came to the country over the same period, a steady rise in emigration is making some observers wary. Emigration as a percen­tage of Canada’s overall popul­ation touch­ed a high of 0.2 per cent in the mid 1990s, and currently stands at about 0.09 per cent.

Immigrants blame the sky-rocketing housing costs as the biggest reason for their decision to leave. In Canada about 60 per cent of household income would be needed to cover home ownership costs, a figure that rises to about 

98 per cent for Vancouver and 80 per cent for Toronto, RBC said in a September report. reuters

Australia to cut record high migration amid housing crisis

Australia plans to bring record-high levels of migration under control by cracking down on student visas and unskilled migration, as the country struggles with a growing housing crisis which has pushed rents to their highest levels in more than a decade. 

Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil will release the center-left Labor government’s long-awaited Migration Strategy on Monday, aiming to return Australia’s migrant intake back to near pre-pandemic levels by June 2025 at the latest.

New estimates of net overseas migration to be rele­ased later this week will show Australia welcomed more than half a million people in the financial year end­ed June 30, according to the Department of Treasury. That is the highest annual arrivals in the country’s history and at least 100,000 more than was expected in April.

Trend Reversal 

About 60% of household income is needed to cover home ownership costs 

In the first-half of 2023, 42,000 people left Canada

The rate of immigrants hit a two-decade high in 2019