Last updated: 2026-10-19

Immigration in Canada, Australia, the Gulf states and Japan in 2026

Canada's 2026-2028 plan cuts temporary resident arrivals to 385,000 in 2026 while holding permanent admissions near 380,000 a year. Australia's net overseas migration fell to 292,100 in the year to March 2026. Migrants are 74.0% of the UAE population, and Japan counted 4,125,395 foreign residents at the end of 2025, the first time above 4 million.

These four cases show different models: managed permanent immigration with temporary-resident caps (Canada, Australia), a migrant-majority labour system (the Gulf) and a late, rapid rise in foreign workers (Japan). Figures are national statistics unless a source is marked secondary.

Key figures

What has Canada done to cut immigration?

Canada trimmed permanent admissions slightly and cut temporary arrivals sharply. The 2026-2028 Levels Plan sets permanent resident admissions at 380,000 a year and temporary resident arrivals at 385,000 for 2026 and 370,000 for 2027 and 2028. It also provides one-time transitions for about 115,000 protected persons and up to 33,000 work-permit holders.

The stated goal is to bring temporary residents below 5% of the population by the end of 2027, per a law-firm summary. Temporary arrivals were 673,650 in 2025 in the same summary, and the 2025 permanent target in the earlier plan was 395,000 (secondary).

Why the government acted is not covered by the sources reviewed: secondary reports link the cuts to strains on housing and services, but the government's own rationale was not retrieved, and party positions were not researched.

How many immigrants live in Canada and how fast is the population growing?

Canada has a foreign-born share of 22.2% on the UN DESA measure, or 8.8 million people. The 2021 Census counted more than 8.3 million immigrants, 23.0%, the highest share in the G7 and a record.

On 1 July 2026 Canada's population was 41,798,407, up 0.2% on the quarter. Non-permanent residents numbered 2,779,774, down 0.7%, and immigrant admissions in the second quarter were 99,148, down 4.2% on a year earlier.

The non-permanent resident share peaked at about 7.2% in October 2024 and was about 6.7% in July 2026, based on this site's calculation from Statistics Canada counts.

Population data have been revised. Press reports said Canada's population fell in several quarters around 2025-26, and the September 2026 release revised non-permanent resident estimates up by roughly 240,000 (immigration-news summary). Earlier "decline" reports refer to partly superseded releases. An annual net migration figure for Canada was not retrieved.

What is Australia's net overseas migration?

Net overseas migration was 292,100 in the year to 31 March 2026, with population at 27,921,150 (growth of 1.4%). It was 429,000 in 2023-24. The Centre for Population's 2025 statement projected 310,000 for 2024-25 and 260,000 for 2025-26, quoted from search results because the PDF could not be parsed, and attributed the decline to fewer temporary arrivals, especially students and visitors.

Australia's overseas-born population was 8.8 million, or 32.0%, at 30 June 2025, up from 31.5% in 2024. India (971,020) is now the largest birthplace group, marginally ahead of England (970,950), followed by China (731,540) and New Zealand (637,680). UN DESA's figure is lower, at 8.1 million (30.4%), because of method and date.

Does Australia cap international students and permanent migration?

Australia sets a planning level for international students, which the government says is not a cap. The National Planning Level was 295,000 for 2026, 25,000 above 2025, and was held at 295,000 for 2027. The government says it is a planning level, not a cap, although some media call it a cap.

The permanent Migration Program for 2026-27 is 185,000 places, unchanged, about 71% in the skill stream. That figure comes from a migration-adviser source and was not confirmed against the Department of Home Affairs.

Political positions on migration in Australia were not researched in this section.

Which Gulf states have the highest migrant shares?

Qatar (76.7%) and the UAE (74.0%) have the highest migrant shares among the Gulf states, on UN DESA data. The table gives the UN DESA 2024 shares.

Source: UN DESA 2024. Saudi Arabia is the third-largest destination country globally.

The Gulf Labour Markets and Migration programme (GLMM) estimates higher foreign shares for 2022: 87% of the UAE population and 88% of Qatar's, with nationals a majority only in Oman (60%) and Saudi Arabia (58%). The sources differ because UN DESA uses a migrant-stock method while GLMM estimates foreign nationals, and the UAE and Qatar do not publish nationality splits.

GLMM estimates that about 31 million foreign nationals lived in the six Gulf states in 2022, almost 55% of 56 million people. The six host 10.1% of the world's migrants. Foreign numbers fell in 2017-18 and 2020-21 and rose 7% in 2021-22.

UN DESA notes that women are only 22% to 33% of migrants in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE and Kuwait, reflecting male labour migration.

Gulf labour-system reforms, including changes to the kafala sponsorship system, are covered in Migration Policy Institute analysis, which this page has not reviewed.

How many foreign workers does Japan have?

Japan's labour ministry counted 2,571,037 foreign workers in October 2025, up 11.7% and 4.1% of those employed. Healthcare and welfare was the largest sector at 25.6%, per press summaries.

The Immigration Services Agency counted 4,125,395 foreign residents at the end of 2025, up 9.5%. That is about 3.3% of the population, by this site's calculation assuming roughly 124 million residents. The largest groups were China (930,428), Vietnam (681,100) and South Korea (407,341), and Specified Skilled Worker holders reached 390,296.

UN DESA's 2024 estimate is lower: 3.4 million migrants, 2.8%. South Korea, for comparison, had 1.8 million migrants (3.5%), up from 1.2% in 2010.

How is Japan tightening foreign-national policy?

In January 2026 the Takaichi government issued a framework titled "Comprehensive Measures for Accepting Foreign Nationals and Orderly Coexistence", per commentary. It is considering a cap, with a basic policy due by March. The cap is under consideration, not decided.

From 1 October 2026, permanent residency requires above-average income, conversational Japanese, pension-contribution benchmarks and a fee rising from 10,000 to 200,000 yen.

In the July 2025 upper house election, Sanseito won 14 seats and about 12.55% of the proportional vote on a campaign for tighter controls, and the LDP-Komeito coalition lost its majority in that chamber (Wikipedia, secondary).

What are the arguments about Japan, Canada and Australia?

Each country faces a trade-off that supporters and critics describe differently.

Arguments that immigration meets labour and demographic needs

• Japan's foreign workers are 4.1% of the employed and a quarter of the healthcare and welfare workforce, per press summaries of ministry data.
• UN projections say immigration is the main driver of population growth in 52 countries through 2054, including Australia and Canada, per the UN World Population Prospects.
• Population has already peaked in 63 countries, including Japan, per the same source.

Arguments for limits or caution

• Canada's cuts are framed around temporary resident levels and, per secondary reports, housing and service strain; see the Fragomen summary.
• Observers cited by nippon.com say Japan's policy debate avoids the core question of labour and permanent residency, and the government is weighing a cap.
• The UN notes that population change has several drivers, including falling mortality, and lists encouraging return migration and decent work at home as options for origin countries (UN).

Fiscal-impact work, such as from Australia's Productivity Commission, is not part of the sources behind this page, so it does not weigh costs and benefits.

How do these countries compare with each other?

On the UN DESA measure, Australia (30.4%) is close to Switzerland (31.1%) and New Zealand (28.2%), Canada is at 22.2%, the UAE and Qatar exceed 70%, and Japan is below 3%. The country comparison page tables these figures alongside 11 other countries.

How do Canada and Australia compare?

Both countries run managed permanent programmes and have moved to limit temporary residents since 2024. The table sets out the main measures from the sources above.

The two flow figures are not comparable. Canada's is gross permanent admissions in one quarter, and Australia's is net overseas migration (arrivals minus departures) over twelve months.

What happened to Canada's targets from 2025 to 2028?

Canada's plan lowered temporary arrivals far more than permanent admissions.

The 2026 temporary target is about 43% below the 2025 level, by this site's calculation from the figures above. Permanent admissions were trimmed by about 4% from the earlier 2025 plan.

Why do UN DESA and Gulf-specific sources differ?

They measure different things. UN DESA counts people living outside their country of birth, which for the Gulf yields the figures in the migrant-share table above. The GLMM programme estimates the number of foreign citizens in each country, using national statistics and its own adjustments.

The Saudi and Omani GLMM rows are derived by subtracting the stated national share from 100% and are shown for comparison only. The Saudi 2022 census split was not re-checked.

What are the key dates for Japan's foreign-national policy?

The sources reviewed give this sequence.

What is not covered on this page?

Some topics were not verified and are left out instead of being filled from memory.

• Canadian and Australian party positions and the reasons governments gave for their cuts.
• Fiscal-impact studies for Canada, Australia and Japan.
• Saudi Arabia's census nationality split and the detail of Gulf kafala reforms.
• Annual net migration for Canada and Japan.
• Whether Australia's 185,000 permanent places match the Department of Home Affairs figure.

Related pages

• World migration overview
• Immigration by country: 15-country comparison
• Immigration in the United Kingdom
• Immigration in Europe
• United States immigration
• France immigration
• Somali communities
• Frequently asked questions