OTTAWA: Canada welcomed 280,636 permanent residents last year, the highest number of immigrants in more than 50 years, the government said on Monday.
The figure is 60 percent higher than the annual number of newcomers to Canada admitted in the 1990s and six percent more than the government had originally planned to allow into the country.
Canada, with only 34.2 million inhabitants spread thinly across the second largest land mass in the world, has always maintained a liberal immigration policy.
The current administration has looked to boost levels even further while also cracking down on illegal immigration following the arrival of two rickety cargo ships carrying illegal migrants over the past year.
"While other Western countries cut back on immigration during the recession, our government kept legal immigration levels high," Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said in a statement.
"Canada's post-recession economy demands a high level of economic immigration to keep our economy strong."
Permanent residents in Canada are granted all of the same privileges as citizens except for a passport and voting rights.
About two thirds of those admitted in 2010 in the permanent resident category were economic migrants and their dependents, Kenney said.
A government survey found that those who already had a job offer when they applied for permanent residency fared best, earning an average of CAN$79,200 (US$80,165) within three years.
Canada also welcomed a high number of temporary residents last year, including 182,322 temporary foreign workers and 96,147 foreign students particularly from China and India, as well as 12,098 refugees.
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