Canada’s Top Immigrants Are Leaving Faster Than Ever, Data Reveals

(CANADA) Canada is losing many of the highly skilled immigrants it once counted on to drive growth, with fresh 2025 figures showing that more newcomers are now packing up and leaving the country after only a few years. The trend, known in policy circles as onward migration, is hitting doctors, scientists, senior executives, and other top professionals hardest, raising concerns about the country’s long-term economic strength and its reputation as a top destination for global talent.

Key findings from The Leaky Bucket 2025

New research from the Institute for Canadian Citizenship, published in its “The Leaky Bucket 2025” report, highlights several worrying patterns:

• About one in five immigrants leaves Canada within 25 years of becoming a permanent resident, with departures peaking around the five-year mark.
• The early window (around five years after arrival) is especially worrying because this is when many immigrants should be settling into careers, buying homes, and putting down roots.
• Instead, a rising share are moving on to other countries or returning to their country of origin.

Who is leaving — and how fast?

The report shows that departures are concentrated among highly educated and high-skill groups:

These are precisely the people Canada’s points-based economic immigration system — usually managed through Express Entry — aims to attract. Yet they are now among the most likely to decide Canada does not offer the careers or living standards they expected.

Government strategy vs. reality

The federal government’s economic strategy has relied on bringing in educated workers to offset an aging population and labour shortages. Economic immigrants, selected mainly for skills and work experience, now form a large share of annual permanent resident admissions.

However, The Leaky Bucket 2025 finds that:

• Economic immigrants are more likely to leave than refugees or family-sponsored immigrants.
• Daniel Bernhard, CEO of the Institute for Canadian Citizenship, warned:
  > “The real problem is not how many immigrants arrive, but how many stay. Canada is failing to keep the very people the system claims to prioritize.”

Recent emigration numbers

Recent quarterly figures underline the shift:

• In Q1 2025, 27,086 Canadian citizens and permanent residents left the country, a ~3% rise from Q1 2024.
• Non-permanent residents (many of them international students and temporary foreign workers) saw an even sharper outflow: about 209,400 departed in that quarter, a 54% increase over Q1 2024.

Many of these non-permanent residents hold graduate degrees or advanced skills and had hoped to transition to permanent status; instead, they chose to leave.

Population growth and wealth migration

• Canada’s overall population growth has slowed to its lowest quarterly rate since 2020, despite still-high numbers of new arrivals.
• Loss of top earners and highly trained specialists is particularly concerning because they tend to:
  • create companies,
  • pay higher taxes,
  • support research and development.
• One indicator of this shift: Canada is expected to see a 69% drop in net millionaire inflow in 2025, suggesting high-net-worth newcomers are looking elsewhere.

Why immigrants are departing

Immigrants who leave cite a mix of financial, career, and quality-of-life reasons:

• Stagnant or falling earnings after arrival, even for those with advanced degrees.
• Difficulty getting foreign credentials recognized, leading to years in lower-paid roles or outside their field.
• A perceived “glass ceiling” that restricts promotions and senior roles.
• High housing costs in major cities, rising taxes, and long waits for services.

Healthcare workers exemplify this mismatch: hospitals and clinics warn of shortages, yet many internationally trained professionals face licensing barriers and limited residency spots.

• The Canadian Medical Association has raised alarms that Canada is not using the skills of immigrant physicians and is losing trained people to countries with faster, clearer paths to full practice.
• The association also noted that recent changes in United States 🇺🇸 policy could create an opportunity for Canada to attract more American doctors and scientists — but only if those professionals see a better long-term career track in Canada.

Policy changes and uncertainty

Policy shifts over the last two years have contributed to uncertainty:

• The federal government imposed caps on some international student programs and limits on temporary foreign workers, saying the temporary population had grown too quickly and strained housing and services.
• While many Canadians support tighter controls, some employers and international graduates say the new limits make future planning harder.
• For some would-be permanent residents, the pathway now looks like a gamble, and onward migration becomes the backup plan.

Government response and expert recommendations

Ottawa has begun adjusting course:

• Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada retooled its 2025 Express Entry category-based draws to give more weight to skills in healthcare, STEM, and other priority sectors.
• Official guidance is available via Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, the main reference point for employers and applicants tracking changing selection rules.

Experts, however, say front-door targeting won’t fix the leak. Key recommendations from The Leaky Bucket 2025 include:

• Boost research funding
• Speed up foreign credential recognition
• Consider tax incentives to retain highly skilled workers and attract new ones

Business groups support faster licensing and more support for immigrant entrepreneurs, arguing that long waits and red tape push talent to other countries promising quicker results.

Personal stories and political implications

For many immigrants, the decision to leave is personal. Examples include:

• A scientist with a PhD who arrived in 2019 and later took a research role in Europe, citing better funding and clearer promotion tracks abroad.
• Communities and online forums where people share success stories and exit plans have multiplied.

Politically, onward migration has not yet generated the same intensity of debate as immigration targets, but it is entering discussions in Ottawa and provincial capitals. Opinions differ:

• Some lawmakers say Canada must improve wages, productivity, and housing supply to keep newcomers long-term.
• Others argue that immigration cannot solve deep structural problems alone and call for better data to understand who leaves and why.

For now, the clearest evidence comes from The Leaky Bucket 2025 and recent emigration figures.

Bottom line

Attracting top global talent is no longer enough. With PhD holders, doctors, and technology leaders now leaving in greater numbers, Canada’s promise as a land of opportunity is being tested.

• The choices policymakers make in the coming years — and how employers treat talent already in their offices and labs — will likely determine whether onward migration slows, or whether more of Canada’s most sought-after newcomers decide their future lies elsewhere.