The economic effect of coronavirus has largely failed to change the intentions of aspirants to immigrate to Canada. More often than not, prospective immigrants still expect Canada to experience less economic hardship than their own country.
Of the 4,615 people who responded to a recent World Education Services (WES) survey, 38 percent say they are more interested in immigrating to Canada now than before, 57 percent say their interest is not influenced by the pandemic and 5 percent claim they are less interested. Researcher Joan Atlin said she was shocked to see such a small proportion of people who were less interested in immigrating to Canada.
WES conducted the survey from April 15-21, in an effort to understand how COVID-19 affected prospective Canadian immigrants’ intentions. They conducted surveys of its customers, most of whom are on the way to migrating to Canada.
At the time the survey was conducted, all respondents were outside of Canada. Many of the survey participants from the Philippines (64%), China (64%), and Nigeria (58%) have reported that they want to immigration to Canada fast because of the COVID-19 situation. For respondents from Pakistan (58 percent), the UK, there was no major effect on the urge to immigrate to Canada (59%), the United States (57%), India (64%) and France (73%).
Well over half of those surveyed, 52%, do not expect COVID-19 to affect their ability to pay the costs of immigration to Canada; but only 35% expect their ability to pay the costs to be negative.
Most report that they would not be influenced by immigration barriers such as increases in IRCC processing times, reductions in immigration targets, or travel restrictions. The risk of contracting COVID-19 was the biggest hurdle with 36% reporting that they would be less interested in immigrating to Canada, but 42% still reported that it would not have a negative effect on their interest.