Canada has announced an increase in the number of refugees that can be sponsored by the designated organizations under Canada’s Private Sponsorship of Refugees (PSR) Program.
The PSR Program officially began in 1978 and marked the first time Canadians were able to get involved in the resettlement of refugees. Between 1979 and 2020, more than 350,000 refugees came to Canada through the program.
Key to the program’s success are over 130 organizations, known as sponsorship agreement holders (SAHs), who sponsor refugees year after year. SAHs sign agreements with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to sponsor a certain number of refugees each year for resettlement to Canada. Sponsors provide income and settlement support to refugee families for the sponsorship period, which is typically 12 months. This support includes ongoing monthly costs for basic necessities (such as housing, food and public transportation, furniture and clothing) and social and emotional support.
As the program continues to grow, so too has the number of these community organizations who want to support refugees. SAHs across Canada (excluding Quebec) has steadily grown over the past 5 years—from 114 in January 2019 to 138 in January 2023.
In recognition of this growth, Sean Fraser, Minister of Immigration announced that the number of refugees that SAHs can sponsor is increasing to 13,500 in 2023. This represents a 10-fold increase from when the cap was introduced in 2012, or an increase of 12,150 spaces available to SAHs.
The additional cap spaces will allow new SAHs to get their operations off the ground, while helping experienced organizations continue to grow. These organizations manage all aspects of the sponsorship process, from identifying refugees and submitting applications to providing critical support to sponsored newcomers.
“The PSR Program complements Canada’s other 2 resettlement programs: the Government-Assisted Refugee Program (GAR) and the Blended Visa Office-Referred (BVOR) Program. Together, they help Canada welcome more refugees each year than the Government of Canada could resettle alone and are one of the many ways Canada is working to achieve its goal of welcoming over 83,500 privately sponsored refugees by 2025,” said Fraser.
