As part of Port Coquitlam Heritage Society's Journey's and Connections exhibit, Tima Kurdi speaks about her experience having immigrated from Syria in 1992. Tima's nephew became known the world over as "the boy on the beach" when his family's failed attempt to flee Syria ended in tragedy. Tima talks about her experiences when she first arrived in Canada as about her subsequent return trips to Syria.

Canada now welcomes over 300,000 new permanent residents through immigration every year. More than one in three newcomers chose to settle in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). The GTA welcomed more immigrants (118,000 newcomers) than the four Atlantic provinces, Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Canada’s three territories combined.

Vancouver was the second leading city as it welcomed 40,000 immigrants, followed by Montreal (35,000) and Calgary (nearly 20,000). Canada’s four largest cities (Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and Calgary) together welcomed 62 per cent of all newcomers to the country, down slightly from their 64 per cent share in 2018. The decline is due to Quebec’s decision to reduce its immigration levels as Montreal’s intake fell by nearly 10,000 newcomers last year.

Canada could welcome up to 360,000 immigrants in 2020 According to its 2019-2021 Immigration Levels Plan, the federal government is targeting an additional 341,000 newcomer arrivals in 2020. Since this target was met last year, Canada may exceed it again this year. In fact, the plan gives Canada the flexibility to welcome up to 360,000 newcomers in 2020. We will have more clarity when Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino tables the federal government’s 2020-2022 Immigration Levels Plan in the near future—potentially within the coming month. India remains the main source country of newcomers to Canada. The approximately 86,000 Indians who became permanent residents in 2019 accounted for 25 per cent of all newcomers to Canada. China was a distant second accounting for 9 per cent of newcomers, followed by the Philippines which accounted for 8 per cent of new immigrants. Nigeria, the United States of America, Pakistan, Syria, Eritrea, South Korea and Iran rounded out the top 10 source countries.

Operation Syrian Refugees was Canada’s response to the humanitarian crisis in Syria. Over the span of 100 days, beginning in November 2015, Canadians from coast to coast to coast, private sponsors, non-governmental organizations and provincial, territorial, municipal governments and international partners worked together to welcome more than 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of February 2016.