A new study indicated that authorities in Canada and Quebec underestimated the impact of temporary immigration on housing and public services over the past decade.

The number of temporary residents in Quebec increased by 46 percent last year to reach 528,034, according to a report published by the Quebec Research Institute IDQ on Monday, after compiling data from Statistics Canada.

Quebec had 167,435 holders of temporary work permits in 2023, nearly four times the number in 2015, in addition to 117,745 foreign students—most of whom have the right to work—and asylum seekers.

The increasing immigration numbers have also become a hot issue in Quebec, where the provincial government leader François Legault called on the government to reduce the number of asylum seekers arriving in the province because they do not speak French sufficiently.

Some of the problems surrounding immigration can be traced back to the easing of regulations in 2022, which led to the acceleration of temporary work permit issuance in Quebec, according to economists at IDQ in their report.

For her part, Emna Braham, the executive director of IDQ, said immigration policies are generally well designed, but when governments decided to implement a series of simplifications a few years ago, they failed to anticipate their cumulative impact, and today, there is a surge in temporary immigration and the impression that Quebec has lost control and was not prepared in areas such as housing or public services.

The IDQ study showed that immigration was the sole source of employment growth in Quebec between 2015 and 2023, as many of the baby boom generation retired, with about 272,000 permanent immigrants entering the workforce during this period, in addition to 112,000 temporary residents, while 54,000 Canadian-born workers left the workforce in the province.

Unlike permanent immigration, which is capped at about 50,000 people annually, Quebec has placed no limits on the number of temporary residents. The IDQ study noted that new temporary immigrants accounted for 1.8 percent of Quebec’s population in 2023, less than the Canadian average of 1.9 percent.

The increase in temporary immigration during the past year coincided with the economic slowdown, and the unemployment rate in Quebec rose from 4% to 4.5% in the year ending in January.

Temporary immigrants come to the province through two main channels: the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, which allows employers in Quebec to bring in people to fill vacant jobs, and the International Mobility Program, which combines different mechanisms to welcome temporary residents such as foreign graduates.

With 107,615 permit holders as of last year, the International Mobility Program is the largest source of temporary foreign workers in the province.