Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has said over 71,459 Nigerians obtained Canadian citizenship between 2005 and 2024.
IRCC is a department of the government of Canada responsible for matters relating to immigration to the North American country, refugees, and Canadian citizenship.
This is just as a report by MPOWER says that students from Africa have consistently gotten lower study permit acceptance rates compared to their global contemporaries in Canada. In fact, the report shows that North African students encounter the highest visa acceptance rates while students from Central and Western regions of Africa encounter the lowest.
The figures of new immigrants, released by IRCC places Nigeria in the 10th position on the list of new Canadian citizens by country of birth.
The data released by the immigration office showed that while new Canadians come from at least 196 countries and territories, the top 10 places account for nearly half of all new citizens.
IRCC said the data highlighted the diversity of Canada’s new citizen population.
The IRCC data revealed India as the leading source of new Canadians since 2005, with 536,279 individuals obtaining citizenship.
The Philippines follows closely behind with 395,694 new citizens, and China takes third place with 292,325.
Beyond these top three, a diverse range of countries contribute significantly to Canada’s growing citizen population.
Pakistan comes in fourth with 180,999 new citizens, followed by Iran (130,998), the United States (99,652), the United Kingdom (98,837), Syria (72,706), South Korea (71,939), and Nigeria with 71,459 new citizens rounding out the top 10.
In November 2023, Canada announced a new immigration-level plan for skilled workers, caregivers, families, and other classes.
In a statement released by the citizenship and immigration Canada (CIC), the North American country will target the admission of 485,000 new immigrants.
“In 2025 and 2026, Canada will look to welcome 500,000 new immigrants in each year,” CIC added.
The Canadian government said the immigration plans will be for economic, family, refugee, and humanitarian classes.
Meanwhile, the MPOWER report titled “Access Denied: Unveiling Disparities in Study Permit Approvals for African Students in Canada” reveals that despite the reputation of Canada as a preferred study destination, African students encountered major acceptance barrier between 2018 and 2023 as they had an average acceptance rate of less than 50%, while students from other regions consistently had acceptance rates of over 75%.
While talking about the disparities in acceptance rate, Sasha Ramani, Head of Canada and Corporate Strategy at MPOWER, said: “The disparities identified not only deprive bright minds of opportunities but also deprive Canada of tens of thousands of talented individuals and billions of dollars in economic contributions.”
An excerpt from the report read: “Over the six-year period from 2018 to 2023, African students systematically received study permit approvals at rates substantially lower than their classmates from other countries (27% for African students versus 74% for students from other nations on average over the six-year period).
“This difference persisted when comparing across educational levels and controlling for non-SDS study permit applications.
“In addition, students from Francophone African nations were accepted at even lower rates when compared with students from non-francophone African nations (22% versus 29% on average over the six-year period).
Over the years, visa acceptance rates for African students have been a highly contentious issue. In 2023, the US rejected a record number of visas due to delays and difficulties.
According to the report, students from Central Africa encountered the worst in 2023, with study permit acceptance rates of less than 30% for both undergraduate and postgraduate levels while other regions ranged from 40-50%.
North Africa had the highest acceptance rates, though still below those of students from other continents.
West Africa, including major sending countries like Nigeria, had the second-lowest undergraduate acceptance rates at around 30% and the third-highest postgraduate acceptance rates at around 45%.