Income and mobility of immigrants, 2012
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Released: 2015-01-12
The employment income of immigrant taxfilers varies by the category under which they were admitted to Canada. In 2012, the median employment income of all immigrant taxfilers was $31,000. It was $42,000 for those admitted under the economic class (principal applicants), while those admitted as the spouses and dependents of economic class immigrants earned $26,000.
Chart 1
Median employment income of immigrant taxfilers by immigrant admission category¹, Canada, tax year 2012
The employment income of immigrant taxfilers also varied according to the number of years since their landing. In 2012, the median employment income was $20,000 for immigrants who had landed 1 year before, $25,000 for those who had been in Canada for 5 years and $31,000 for those who have been in Canada for 10 years.
In every province, the retention rate of immigrants varied by the number of years since landing. In 2012, except for three Atlantic provinces (Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador), more than 80% of immigrants who had landed 1 year before filed taxes in their province of landing. However, the retention rate of immigrants in their province of landing was less than 70% after 15 years in every province except Ontario and British Columbia.
Note to readers
The Longitudinal Immigration Database provides information on immigrant economic outcomes. It was created to respond to the need for detailed and reliable data on the outcome and impact of immigration policy levers. It allows the analysis of different categories of immigrants over a period long enough to assess the impact of immigrant characteristics upon landing, such as education and knowledge of French or English, to their settlement outcome.
The database combines an Administrative Landing File with the T1 Family File through exact matching record linkage techniques. The overall linkage rate is approximately 87%. The population includes immigrants who landed between 1980 and 2012 and who filed taxes at least once between 1982 and 2012.
This release analyses income on the basis of medians of employment income. The median is the level of income at which half of the immigrant taxfilers have higher income and half have lower. Mean income and other income types (self-employment income, investment income, employment insurance benefits and social welfare benefits) are provided in CANSIM tables. All income estimates are expressed in 2012 constant dollars to factor in inflation and enable comparisons across time in real terms.
Data at the provincial level will be released in February 2015.
For a more detailed description of immigrant admission categories, consult the Help centre page of the Citizenship and Immigration Canada website.
Contact information
For more information, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca).
To enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Athanase Barayandema (613-404-9212; athanase.barayandema@statcan.gc.ca), Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division.
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