Thank you for your question.
Before answer it, I'd like to thank you for the questions you've asked at previous meetings of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration concerning international students and for the time you've devoted to that. I've made some changes, and I thank you for supporting those efforts.
The rate at which applications from North African students are accepted has risen from 27% to 41%. That's good news, and we must continue our efforts to increase the acceptance rate for North African students as well as students from central Africa, western Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. We're still taking measures to that end and building relations with the home countries. We send them information on our programs, which fosters ties between those countries and Canada's institutions.
It's essential that we continue making efforts to raise the 4.4% target. It's hard to get this year's figure because the final result will depend on the decisions that families make whether to travel to Canada. Whatever the case may be, we have the capacity to process the applications and to meet that target, but it's difficult for the department to determine whether a family will arrive in December or January.
We have a target for 2023. I'm convinced that our government can welcome 4.4% francophone immigrants in 2023. We are very close to that percentage this year.