June 2024
Spotlight on data and research
Foreign workers in Canada: Differences in the transition to permanent residency across work permit programs
Five years after getting their first work permit, 34% of temporary foreign workers (TFWs) from 2011 to 2015 transitioned into permanent residency (PR). This is an increase from 27% of TFWs in the 2006 to 2010 cohort transitioning to PR. This article examines the recent changes in the transition to PR across work permit programs and immigration pathways for individuals who have made the transition.
Transition rates have increased or remained high for most work permit programs, but they have stayed low or decreased among certain others. For example, the five-year transition rates to PR increased from 69% in the 2006-to-2010 cohort to 73% in the 2011-to-2015 cohort for the Post-Graduation Work Permit Program, but stayed around 10% for agriculture programs. PR was achieved mostly due to pathways such as the Provincial Nominee Program and the Canadian Economic Class.
Insights
Retention and recruitment of young skilled minority official language speakers in Canadian provinces
Retaining minority official language speakers in communities can help strengthen cultural identity and economic vitality. This study looks at the number of young postsecondary graduates who either moved away from (skill loss) or moved into (skill gain) a province as a share of all young postsecondary graduates who grew up in that province. The differences in these two shares are termed "net skill losses" or "net skill gains".
New Brunswick had a net skill loss of 1 in 5 (or -19% of) young French speakers who grew up in the province, obtained postsecondary education between 2010 and 2017 (either in New Brunswick or elsewhere), and were followed two years after graduation. Only two other provinces reported net skill losses with regards to their minority official language speaking youth population—Quebec (-9% of its initial skilled English-speaking youth population) and Manitoba (-6% of its initial skilled French-speaking youth population). Alberta was the largest net gainer of young skilled minority official language speakers (70%).
New businesses since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, new businesses that opened in 2020 were smaller and fewer in number compared with previous years. This article examines how new businesses that entered after the beginning of the pandemic, and could not qualify for COVID-19 support programs, fared compared with previous entry cohorts. The findings show that these businesses carried less debt, had more liquidity, were more profitable and were more productive in their year of entry compared with businesses that opened before the pandemic. These characteristics allowed them to survive at a higher rate in their first years and catch up in employment size to previous cohorts.
For example, the rate of business entry was 13.3% in 2020, compared with an average of 16.0% in all previous years from 2015 to 2019. But by 2021 and 2022, the entry rate recovered to 15.1% and 15.0%, respectively. In 2020, the average employment size of entrants dipped to 1.8 employees, from 2.1 before the pandemic. However, this average employment size rebounded to 2.1 in 2021 and 2022.
An update on the profile of children with affirmative responses to the 2021 Census questions on difficulties with activities of daily living
The 2021 Census included questions on difficulties with activities of daily living to identify Canadians likely to have a disability. Little is known about the suitability of these questions for children. This article found that the proportion of children aged 0 to 14 likely to have a disability was 16.3% in 2021, an increase of almost 3 percentage points from 2016 (13.5%). This increase was largely due to increases in learning, remembering, or concentrating as well as emotional, psychological or mental health conditions. Future research is required to compare the activities of daily living questions with other instruments to determine their usefulness to identify children likely to have disabilities.
Research articles
Homeowner-renter dwelling, neighbourhood and life satisfaction gaps
Overall, individuals who own their primary residence are more satisfied with their dwelling, neighbourhood and life than those who rent. However, this study found that this higher satisfaction is largely because of the differences in living situations and circumstances between owners and renters as opposed to ownership.
Renters typically live in dwellings with fewer bedrooms than owners and are around twice as likely to encounter issues such as mould, mildew or pests, three times as likely to report poor indoor air quality, and less likely to be satisfied with their soundproofing, temperature control, and safety and security. Compared to those individuals who own their primary residence, renters are also more likely to report neighbourhood issues like vandalism, graffiti or other damage, drug use or dealing, and attacks motivated by race, ethnicity or religion, and are more likely to be in the bottom 20% of the family income distribution.
When comparing owners and renters who live in similar neighbourhoods or types of housing or have similar household characteristics (e.g., their income), differences in satisfaction narrow or disappear.
Socioeconomic profile of working-age immigrants in same-sex couples in Canada from 2000 to 2020
The number of working-age immigrants in a same-sex couple increased from 900 in 2000 to 20,470 by 2020 representing 0.61% and 0.73% of all couples for females and males, respectively, with the share living in areas outside of Toronto, Vancouver and Montréal increasing over the years. This study offers new insights on the sociodemographic and economic characteristics of immigrants in same-sex couples aged 25 to 64 who landed between the years 1980 and 2020.
Male and female immigrants in same-sex couples were generally more likely to be employed than immigrants in opposite-sex couples. This difference was larger for females than males (a gap of 17 vs. 7 percentage points in 2020). Female working-age immigrants in same-sex couples also earned more than their counterparts in opposite-sex couples between 2000 and 2020. While a similar pattern was observed for males after 2011, once controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, male immigrants in same-sex couples earned less than their counterparts in opposite-sex couples.
Related publications
Analytical Studies Branch Research Paper Series
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