Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB) Technical Report, 2015 - ARCHIVED

The Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB) is a comprehensive source of data that plays a key role in the understanding of the economic behaviour of immigrants. It is the only annual Canadian dataset that allows users to study the characteristics of immigrants to Canada at the time of admission and their economic outcomes and regional (inter-provincial) mobility over a time span of more than 30 years. The IMDB combines administrative files on immigrant admissions and non-permanent resident permits from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) with tax files from the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA). Information is available for immigrant taxfilers admitted since 1980. Tax records for 1982 and subsequent years are available for immigrant taxfilers.

This report will discuss the IMDB data sources, concepts and variables, record linkage, data processing, dissemination, data evaluation and quality indicators, comparability with other immigration datasets, and the analyses possible with the IMDB.