Immigrants no better off now, StatsCan reports
\nUpdated Tue. Jan. 30 2007 10:05 AM ET<\/p>\n
CTV.ca News Staff<\/p>\n
The financial situation of new immigrants showed no improvement after the turn of the millennium although they have more education and skilled qualifications than a decade ago, Statistics Canada reports.<\/p>\n
The report examines the economic welfare of immigrant families and individuals and assesses their financial situation since 2000, the extent of so-called “chronic” low income, and the impact of changes in education and skill classes on their economic well-being since 1993.<\/p>\n
In 2002, low-income rates among immigrants during their first full year in Canada were 3.5 times higher than those of Canadian-born citizens. Two years later, the low-income rates were 3.2 times higher.<\/p>\n
In this study, low income is defined as family income below 50 per cent of median income of the total population, adjusted for family size. <\/p>\n
Statistics Canada says the low-income rates were higher than at any time during the 1990s, when they were around three times higher than rates for Canadian-born people.<\/p>\n
“The increase in low income was concentrated among immigrants who had just recently entered the country, that is, they had been here only one or two years,” StatsCan says.<\/p>\n
“This suggests they had more problems adjusting over the short-term during the years since 2000.”<\/p>\n
One likely explanation may have been the slump in the technology sector after 2000, Statistics Canada says.<\/p>\n
The proportion of recent immigrants in information technology and engineering occupations rose dramatically over the 1990s.<\/p>\n
In 1993, the immigration-selection system was modified to attract more highly educated newcomers and those in the “skilled” classes.<\/p>\n
As a result, the proportion of new immigrants aged 15 and older with university degrees rose from 17 per cent in 1992 to 45 per cent in 2004. <\/p>\n
Furthermore, the share of newcomers with skilled qualifications increased from 29 per cent to 51 per cent.<\/p>\n
The rapid increase throughout the 1990s in the share of arriving immigrants who were highly-educated and in the skilled economic class might have been expected to lower the chance of entering low-income, and increase the likelihood of leaving. <\/p>\n
“This is because the more highly educated and “economic class” immigrants traditionally did better in the labour market,” the government agency says.<\/p>\n
However, government researchers found the large increase in educated newcomers and a policy shift toward favouring skilled-class immigrants had only small impacts on their income levels.<\/p>\n
“Overall, the large rise in educational attainment of entering immigrants and the shift to the skilled class immigrant had only a very small effect on poverty outcomes as measured by the probability of entry, exit and chronic rates,” Statistics Canada said.<\/p>\n
In addition, the small advantage that the university-educated newcomers had over the high-school educated in the early 1990s had largely disappeared by 2000, as the number of highly educated immigrants rose.<\/p>\n
Data for this study came from a database that combines the Longitudinal Administrative Database (LAD) and the Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB), and allows comparisons of known immigrants and other Canadians.<\/p>\n
As a result, this study created a “comparison group” consisting of the Canadian-born, plus the immigrants who had been in Canada for more than 10 years. <\/p>\n
The report compares results for recent immigrants to those of individuals in the comparison group of the same age. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Immigrants no better off now, StatsCan reports Updated Tue. Jan. 30 2007 10:05 AM ET CTV.ca News Staff The financial situation of new immigrants showe…
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