Analytical Studies: Methods and References
Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB) Technical Report, 2021

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Acknowledgements

The initial publication of the IMDB Technical Report was co-authored by Rose Evra and Elena Prokopenko.

We would like to mention the special contribution of the following people: Laetitia Martin of the Diversity and Sociocultural Statistics (DSS), who wrote sections 3.3.1 to 3.3.3 of this report; Tristan Cayn, Stephanie Cheng,  Allan Dawe, Ian Marrs, Eric Mongrain, and Michelle Ouyang, members of the Administrative Data team, who produced the IMDB and contributed to the content of several sections of the report.

The IMDB is the result of a partnership between Statistics Canada, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), and the provinces. IRCC has been funding the IMDB since the beginning, and has been continuously collaborating with Statistics Canada to expand the content of the IMDB as well as contributing to the development of new analytical tools.

On the provincial side, the following departments have been part of the consortium funding the IMDB:

Department of Advanced Education, Skills and Labour (Newfoundland and Labrador)
Island Investment Development Inc (Prince Edward Island)
Nova Scotia Office of Immigration (Nova Scotia)
Population Growth Division (New Brunswick)
Ministère de l’Immigration, de la Francisation et de l’Intégration (Québec)
Ontario Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development
Manitoba Labour and Immigration
Ministry of Immigration and Career Training (Saskatchewan)
Alberta Labour
Labour Market Information Office (British Columbia)

These provincial partners were also part of consultations to redesign the IMDB and its analytical tools.

Many thanks to the following people for reviewing the report prior to its publication: Margareta Dovgal, Benoît St-Jean, Winnie Chan, Hélène Maheux, Scott McLeish and Tiana Major (Statistics Canada); Yoko Yoshida (Department of Sociology, Western University); Michael Haan (Canada Research Chair in Migration and Ethnic Studies and the Department of Sociology of Western University); and Ian Clara (Manitoba Research Data Centre).

Abstract

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 35 years.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) administrative records contain exhaustive information about immigrants who were admitted to Canada since 1952 and non-permanent residents who have been issued temporary resident permits since 1980. 

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.

Key words: Administrative Data, Immigration, IMDB, longitudinal data, non-permanent residents, taxfilers

Glossary of terms

Following are the description of acronyms that will be used several times in the report.

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