Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada

This report provides profiles of the labour market experience of newcomers to Canada's major Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs) and the provinces or regions. The information is based on the second wave of the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada (LSIC). Some results of the second wave of the LSIC were officially released on October 13, 2005. ¹

The LSIC was designed to study how new immigrants adjust over time to living in Canada. During the first wave of the survey, about 12,000 immigrants representing 164,200 people aged 15 and over were interviewed between April 2001 and May 2002, about six months after their arrival.

During the second wave of the LSIC, about 9,300 immigrants from the first wave representing 160,800 people were interviewed again in 2003, two years after their arrival. These were individuals who remained in Canada for two years and whom Statistics Canada was able to locate.

This report contains a series of local profiles of immigrants’ experience in the labour market. The employment experience of newcomers is reported separately for the major CMAs and provinces or regions. The settlement destinations were selected on the basis of the share of newcomers in these areas at the time of the second interview. The aim is to provide a regional perspective on the labour market experience of newcomers in specific areas to better understand the employment situation of immigrants in specific geographic areas. Thus, the analysis may appear to be repetitive in areas where labour market conditions are similar.

It should also be noted that the estimates of employment characteristics are based on newcomers’ place of residence after two years in Canada. Thus, some earlier reference points at which certain employment characteristics occurred were not necessarily associated with the same place of residence at the time of their second interview. However, most newcomers resided in the same province or CMA at the time of the two interviews, indicating a low level of inter-provincial or inter-CMA migration.

Since the focus of the report is on the labour market integration of new immigrants, the analysis is limited to immigrants who were in the prime working-age group of 25 to 44 years, representing 106,600 people. Immigrants who were aged 15 to 24 or aged 45 or older were excluded in order to remove the effects of students, late labour market entrants and retirees from the analysis.

Newcomers’ labour market integration is examined over the first two years in Canada, broadly defined as the 24 to 28 months between landing and the time of the second interview.

Immigration categories

Canada’s immigration policy has been guided by three broad objectives: to foster a strong viable economy in all regions of Canada, to reunite families, and to fulfill the country’s international obligations and humanitarian tradition with respect to refugees.

These objectives are reflected through the three main immigration categories under which people are admitted to Canada as permanent residents: economic immigrants, family-class immigrants and refugees.

People admitted through the economic category include principal applicants (or skilled PAs) and accompanying spouse or dependents of skilled workers, business immigrants and provincial/territorial nominees. Skilled worker principal applicants are selected based on a number of criteria including their education, language ability and employment skills. These immigrants are deemed to be more likely to succeed in the labour force and contribute to the Canadian economy. Spouse and dependent children of skilled worker principal applicants are admitted without an evaluation of their skills.

Nationally, the largest share of immigrants aged 25 to 44 in the LSIC (76%) were admitted under the skilled worker category — 47% as principal applicants and 29% as accompanying spouse or dependents. Family class immigrants accounted for 15% of immigrants aged 25 to 44 in the LSIC, while refugees accounted for 5%. The remaining 5% ² was mainly comprised of business class immigrants and provincial nominees.