They say French targets and student backlogs are hurting Canada’s ability to attract the top talent
For many Canadian employers, the main barrier to hiring and retaining global talent is no longer the competition for skills – it is a domestic immigration system that, in the words of two leading immigration lawyers, is increasingly driven by social objectives and an overwhelmed stream of international students that collide with business needs. Vancouver-based lawyer Steven Meurrens says Francophone immigration targets have become “by far the most dominant issue” in his practice, while Toronto lawyer Evan Green points to international student policy and missing pathways for executives and entrepreneurs as part of the same structural problem.
Meurrens, a partner at Larlee Rosenberg in Vancouver, says the federal government’s Francophone immigration targets sit at the centre of this tension. Ottawa has committed to increasing the proportion of French-speaking permanent residents outside Quebec, a goal that has been steadily raised in recent years and is now tied to a 12 per cent target by 2029. In January 2026, the federal government announced it had already exceeded its 2025 Francophone target and would, starting in 2026, reserve 5,000 additional federal selection spaces for provinces and territories to designate French‑speaking newcomers outside Quebec, further entrenching those priorities in the economic stream. In Meurrens’ view, that objective has been “pigeonholed into economic immigration” and is crowding out employers’ ability to retain needed workers.
Francophone priority, shrinking room for others
Under Express Entry and related programs, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has been running category-based draws that heavily favour French-speaking applicants. According to Meurrens, the government has effectively “run out of Francophone people inside Canada who are foreign nationals,” yet continues to chase its numeric targets.
“To meet their targets, they are inviting…more people now from outside Canada who speak French than people inside Canada in Canadian experience rounds,” he says. The result, he argues, is that access to federal economic immigration has “greatly diminished,” and permanent residence scores have climbed for candidates who do not speak French.
Green, senior partner at Green and Spiegel in Toronto, agrees that this requirement is unduly skewing who the government lets into the country. “I can't bring in a CEO, but if I've got a French-speaking bar manager, no problem. That's what's going on right now. It's a mess.” In practice, he says, French-language ability can outweigh factors that businesses typically consider central to productivity and long-term growth.
A recent IRCC news release underscored how central Francophone goals have become: the department announced that it exceeded its Francophone immigration target for 2025, with French-speaking immigrants representing a record share of permanent resident admissions outside Quebec and plans to push that share higher in the coming years. For employers who depend on federal economic programs, the success on paper is being felt as pressure in their hiring strategies.
From a business perspective, the implications are direct. “Everyone, from schools to mining companies to tech companies, everyone’s struggling to retain employees just because the points are so high,” Meurrens says. For employers in British Columbia – a province with one of the lowest proportions of Francophones – the impact is especially acute.
The advice Meurrens recently gave to a Vancouver technology company looking to recruit a specialist from abroad was simple: make French a priority. “Target people who speak French…because it will be much easier both to get them a work permit and to retain them,” he said. For those who do not, he warns employers that “it will be difficult and unpredictable” to secure permanent residence.
International students and business pathways in limbo
Green sees a broader crisis rooted in the explosive growth of international students. After governments capped domestic tuition but encouraged institutions to recruit abroad, foreign student numbers surged to well over half a million per year.
For years, schools marketed Canadian education with the implicit promise of permanent residence on the back end. “Typically, you needed about a year of Canadian skilled work, and you qualified for immigration,” Green says. “Well, not when there’s a half a million candidates a year.” Many graduates now face expiring post-graduation work permits without a realistic pathway to stay.
The human impact of that shift has started to surface in business stories. CTV News recently reported, for example, on a Gen Z pair who built a multimillion‑dollar startup in Canada before moving it to the United States, citing Canada’s immigration rules among the reasons for the move.
In Green’s view, the fallout extends well beyond students. Under today’s points-driven system, a 45-year-old CEO may have “virtually no path to immigration,” even with a proven labour market impact assessment. At the same time, the federal government has effectively closed the start-up visa, leaving “no pathway for entrepreneurs to come to Canada right now,” he says.
Business risk for employers and advisors
These gaps, Green argues, undermine Canada’s competitiveness at a moment when other jurisdictions are courting global talent and designing “best and brightest” programs for star researchers, business leaders, athletes and artists. Canada has no equivalent, he says, even as demand rises from highly skilled people looking to leave the United States and elsewhere.
For employers, the combined effects of Francophone prioritization, student backlogs, and narrowed business pathways pose a growing risk to workforce planning. Companies can still bring in foreign nationals on temporary status, Green says, but the lack of clear permanent-residence options is a deterrent.
