The first six months

During their first few years in Canada , immigrants set about the process of integration: adapting and settling into a new environment, and finding housing, employment, health care, and schools for themselves or their children. Newcomers face many challenges as they engage in their settlement and integration activities. These include learning or becoming more fluent in one or both of Canada's official languages; having their previous education and skills accredited and recognized; accessing education and training opportunities.

Newcomers' subjective assessments of how they are integrating and their satisfaction with life in Canada are essential components in understanding the settlement process. While six months may be early to fully understand early settlement experiences it provides a foundation and will serve as a baseline against which outcomes from later waves of the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada (LSIC) can be measured.

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Choosing Canada

The majority of new immigrants (98%) reported Canada as the only country to which they applied to immigrate. Many immigrated for economic reasons. Some came to reunite with their family, while others did not come by choice, but had to leave their homeland as refugees.

The most commonly cited reasons for immigrating to Canada include: to improve the future for their family (30%), to join family or close friends already living in Canada (27%) or for education purposes (11%). By immigration category, the most important reason for choosing Canada differed, although the top reason was one of the three previously mentioned (Table 3.1).

Joining family or close friends was cited as the most important reason for immigrating to Canada for individuals in the family category, while improving the future for their family was the most commonly cited reason for skilled workers. Refugees also cited the importance of joining family and friends but in almost equal numbers, sought to improve the future of their family. Compared to the other newcomers, refugees report in a much greater proportion (20%) reasons related to peace as a key motivating factor for immigrating to Canada.

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Most immigrants had family and/or friends already settled in Canada

Faced with challenges, or simply as a foundation to progress successfully in their new environment, many newcomers choose to settle where they have relatives or friends who may provide settlement assistance and social supports. For newcomers to Canada , just as for Canadians already living here, social support is important. For immigrants, social networks may facilitate the settlement process with tasks such as: finding a house, a job or school, and accessing health services—as well as to longer-term integration issues—like fitting into Canadian society, joining community groups, and feeling a sense of belonging¹. At arrival, the majority of immigrants reported having either friends and/or relatives in Canada (87%), while 13% reported having neither.

Looking at the presence of networks at landing by immigration category (Table 3.2), immigrants in the family category appear to be the 'best connected'. While it is encouraging that so many newcomers had some kind of network in Canada at arrival, it is important to recognize that many economic immigrants and refugees knew no one which may impact their settlement in different ways.

By ethnic origin, immigrants who identified themselves as South or South East Asian reported a predominance of having family in Canada at arrival (36% and 26% respectively) while East Asian were more likely to report a predominance of friends at arrival (44%) compared with South Asians (15%). These results are consistent with the history of immigration that each country has with Canada . For example, recent immigrants have a greater chance of knowing relatives and friends in Canada if they are from countries that have been sending immigrants for longer periods of time.

A higher proportion of people in the younger and oldest age groups reported knowing relatives at landing, while higher proportions of those aged 25 to 34 and 35 to 44 reported knowing friends in Canada when they arrived. Immigrants 15 to 44 years of age were most likely to report having no network at arrival.

When looking at settlement patterns by Census Metropolitan Area (CMA), newcomers who settled in one of the five larger CMAs² were more likely to know only friends in Canada at arrival (on average 35%). Immigrants living in all other locations in Canada were more likely to report knowing relatives only in Canada at landing (40%), and 21% reported knowing both family and friends. The proportion of newcomers who had no network at landing (excluding members of immigrating unit) ranges from 17% of immigrants who settled in Vancouver to 11% for immigrants who settled in Toronto.

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Majority have relatives in the same city

Immigrants are more likely to rely on, or receive support from their social networks if they are living within a close proximity³. Many newcomers choose their destination to have family and/or friends nearby. Table 3.4 shows that the majority of all newcomers with family in Canada (88%) reported that their relatives live in the same city.

Immigrants in the family and refugee category reported the highest proportion of relatives living in the same city (95% and 88% respectively), although 88% of all categories reported such proximity. In terms of the proximity of friends in Canada, skilled workers were more likely to report friends living in the same city (84%), compared with 77% of immigrants in the family category.

Notes

1. J. Goldlust and A.H. Richmond. A Multivariate Model of Immigrant Adaptation, International Migration Review, 1974.

2. For the purpose of this analysis the reference to five most common or larger CMAs refers to the CMAs where the majority of the immigrants settled.

3. B. Wellman and S. Potter. "The Elements of Personal Communities", Networks in the Global Village, published under the direction of Barry Wellman, Boulder, CO, Westview Press, 1999.