BREAKING: Large decrease in arrivals of temporary residents in Canada

This cumulatively has yielded a total decrease of 214,520 fewer new student and worker arrivals over this period, demonstrating that measures taken by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to curb inflows of temporary residents have had a substantial impact.

Changing proportions of new arrivals

The newest data from the immigration department also indicates that there has been a marked decrease in the proportion of new arrivals that are study permit holders since the start of 2025.

While the degree to which study permit and work permit holders dominate the monthly share of new arrivals to Canada tends to fluctuate, IRCC’s data shows a consistent shift towards most new arrivals being work permit holders (averaging 80% between February and June 2025), with study permit holders seeing a sharp decrease in their share of new arrivals.

Slower rates of intake

Canada’s rate of intake for both study permit holders and work permit holders has also decreased significantly. The following table breaks down the average number of new monthly arrivals among both study permit and work permit holders between January and June of 2024, as compared to the same period in 2025:

How IRCC counts arrivals

IRCC counts new arrivals based on the number of people issued a study permit or work permit in a given month. If a person is issued both in the same month, they are counted only under the study permit group.

Some groups are not included in the arrival data:

• Asylum claimants – claims are not part of planned immigration levels;
• Permit extensions – these individuals are already in Canada, so they are not new arrivals;
• Seasonal agricultural workers – short-term workers tied to rural labour shortages, usually housed by employers; and
• Short-term TFWP workers (≤270 days) – contracts that begin and end within the same calendar year, often in industries like tourism or construction.

Current populations

IRCC’s most recent data also shows interesting changes to the population of international students and foreign workers already in Canada.

From January 2024 (the implementation of Canada’s first study permit cap) to June of 2025, the number of foreign nationals in Canada who hold only a study permit has decreased by 133,325.

Over this same time period, the number of foreign nationals who only held a work permit has increased by 262,262 permit holders.

This increase has occurred despite multiple reforms to Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) processing, wage thresholds under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), and new field of study requirements for some international graduates pursuing a Post-Graduation Work Permit through the International Mobility Program (IMP).

Lastly, IRCC notes only a slight decrease of 32,014 dual permit holders among the number of foreign nationals who hold both a work permit and a study permit in Canada, over the same time period.

Between these three distinct populations, IRCC data actually shows an increase of 137,851 foreign nationals in the overall number of temporary residents in Canada, between January 2024 and June 2025.