IRCC Deputy Minister Transition Binder 2026 - Immigrant Outcomes

Context

This product provides insight on immigrants’ economic and social outcomes, including trends and areas for improvement. It also provides some highlighted statistics on immigrants and the housing market.

Impacts of Immigration on Canada

Demographic

• Immigration represents nearly 100% of population growth in Canada. It is essential for increasing Canada’s working age population (aged 15 to 64 years old). Without immigration, Canada's population is projected to decrease over the next 20 years as the population ages. Nonetheless, immigration alone is not a long-term solution to population aging in Canada.

Economic

• Immigrants make a larger contribution to the supply of highly skilled workers in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) than their Canadian-born counterparts, promoting productivity and innovation in Canada.
  • Although immigrants account for 23% of the Canadian population, approximately 50% of all STEM degree holders in Canada are immigrants.
• Immigration has fueled entrepreneurship and consequently, job creation in Canada.
  • Immigrants are more likely to be business owners than the Canadian-born population, particularly among longer-term immigrants, men of prime working age (those aged 35 to 54 years), and from English-speaking countries and Western Europe.
  • Economic immigrants are more likely to own firms in knowledge-based industries, while refugees and family class immigrants tend to own firms in traditional industries.

Fiscal

• Immigrants admitted after 1980 have positive net direct fiscal contributions. Economic principal applicants make higher net direct fiscal contributions than other immigrants and Canadians.
• Although refugees and family class immigrants have net direct fiscal contributions that are consistently below the Canadian average, their contribution grows over time.

Economic Outcomes

Key Takeaways

• While immigrant men outperform their Canadian-born counterparts in employment and participation rates, core-aged immigrant women continue to face significant labour market challenges, with lower employment rates and higher unemployment compared to Canadian-born women.
• The median entry earnings for new immigrants fell in 2023 mainly because earnings in 2021 and 2022 were unusually high. Those years saw a higher proportion of new immigrants drawn from temporary residents already residing in Canada due to pandemic travel restrictions. Since many of them had Canadian work experience and/or education, they entered the labour market with stronger foundations, temporarily pushing up median entry wages.
• The only exception was the Canadian Experience Class (CEC), which saw a modest increase, and their earnings still remain the highest among all admission categories.

Immigrant Outcomes in the Canadian Labour Market^{Footnote 1}

• Immigrants aged 25 to 54 (i.e., core labour force age) participate in the labour market at a modestly lower rate than the Canadian-born population, and report slightly lower employment rates.
• Immigrant men in the same age cohort reported moderately higher participation and employment rates than their native-born counterparts; whereas immigrant women reported substantially lower rates than their Canadian-born peers.

Median Entry Earnings^{Footnote 2}

• The median entry earnings (the first full year of wages, salaries and commissions since admission) for new immigrants decreased by 10.6% from 2022 to 2023, the largest decline since 1991.
• The median entry earnings (i.e., one year after admission) of immigrants admitted in 2022 was lower ($39,800), compared to entry earnings of those admitted in 2021 ($44,500).
• In 2021, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) specifically invited Express Entry candidates, who were more likely to be physically located in Canada and therefore less impacted by pandemic-related border restrictions, to apply for permanent residency. This was done, in part, by increasing the number of immigrants admitted through the CEC program, the category with the highest median entry wage. Specifically, the share of immigrants aged 15 years and older admitted as CEC principal applicants increased from 12% in 2020 to 27% in 2021. This change contributed to the growth of the entry wage of all new immigrants in 2022.
• With the removal of border restrictions in 2022, CEC principal applicants were less targeted, and their share declined to 5% in that year. This, in addition to the other factors at play during the post-pandemic period, contributed to the overall reduction in the entry wages of new immigrants in 2023.

Immigrant Earnings Over Time^{Footnote 3}

• Economic principal applicants’ employment earnings were well above the median for all immigrants and surpassed the Canadian median shortly after admission regardless of the time spent in the country.
• Among family sponsored immigrants and refugees, employment earnings were consistently lower than the median for all immigrants and remained below the Canadian median 10 years after admission.
• CEC immigrants consistently have higher median employment earnings than both Federal Skilled Worker and Provincial Nominee Program principal applicants, regardless of years after admission.

The Canadian median includes the immigrant population.

Use of Social Assistance^{Footnote 4}

• Among all immigrants, the incidence of social assistance is generally stable at 6%, below the Canadian average of 8%.
• For refugees, the initially high rates of social assistance decrease over time, as economic outcomes improve.
• Unlike other immigrant categories, the incidence of social assistance among sponsored family class immigrants was higher among cohorts who had been in Canada longer; this is likely due to sponsorship agreements, which typically end after 10 years.

Social Outcomes

Key Takeaways

• Immigrants in Canada demonstrate strong social integration through a high sense of belonging, greater trust in others, and a strong belief in shared values, with overall higher life satisfaction and greater confidence in institutions compared to Canadian-born individuals.
• Immigrants in less dense urban centers experience stronger social bonds, with higher levels of neighborly support and familiarity, while immigrant women in mid-sized cities build the largest social networks, which grow over time in Canada.
• While Canada’s citizenship rate has declined in recent years, it remains one of the highest among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.
• Immigrant children in Canada often outperform their peers in university completion rates, yet disparities persist across different ethnic backgrounds. At the same time, immigrants face challenges in building local social networks, with those arriving during formative years experiencing the greatest difficulties in forming close friendships.
• Immigrants and non-permanent residents play a crucial role in shaping Canada's housing market, with distinct needs across ownership and rental sectors. While immigrants drive demand for both owned homes and rentals, non-permanent residents, especially those on work permits, primarily influence the rental market.

Sense of Belonging and Shared Values^{Footnote 5}

• Immigrants in Atlantic provinces and in Ontario reported the highest sense of belonging to Canada.
• Immigrants in Alberta and British Columbia had a significantly lower likelihood of strong belonging compared to those in Ontario. This difference disappeared for Alberta after controlling for various demographic, economic, and regional factors; whereas, the difference remained for British Columbia.

Note: The predicted probabilities are based on results from an ordinary least squares regression model that controls for survey mode.

Source: Statistics Canada, General Social Survey, 2020.

Source Report: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/36-28-0001/2023006/article/00003-eng.htm

• Immigrants were more likely than Canadian-born to believe Canadians share core values.
• Human rights were the most widely shared value among immigrants. Additionally, newcomers saw ethno-cultural diversity and respect for the law as more shared than Canadian-born.

Life Satisfaction and Trust

• Generally, immigrants report higher levels of satisfaction towards their life compared to Canadian-born counterparts.
• This gap in life satisfaction between immigrants and Canadian-born individuals is more pronounced among certain groups like Other Visible Minority, Chinese and Black populations.

• Across all population groups, immigrants are more likely to express generalized trust in others than the Canadian-born.
• However, regardless of immigrant status, people in the Black and Other Visible Minority population groups report lower levels of trust.

Confidence in Institutions

• Immigrants, particularly recent immigrants, tend to have higher confidence in various institutions, compared to the Canadian-born.
• Immigrants’ confidence in institutions tends to align more with the Canadian-born average as time spent in Canada increases.

Social Connections and Networks

• Immigrants in less dense urban centres experience stronger social connections, including higher levels of neighbourly favour exchange, altruism, and familiarity with neighbours.
• Despite smaller networks, immigrants in these areas experience stronger social ties compared to those in larger urban centers.

Note: Adjusted figures

Sources: Statistics Canada, General Social Survey, 2020 and Census of Population, 2016

• Immigrant women in mid-sized cities have larger social networks compared to those in larger or smaller cities, with network size improving over time in Canada.

Citizenship Take-Up Rate

• Canada’s citizenship rate is among the highest in all OECD countries, at 80.7% for all “eligible” immigrants.
• Refugees report the highest citizenship take-up rate of all immigrants, at 83.2%.

Children of Immigrants

• The children of immigrants, second generation (individuals born in Canada but have parents who are born abroad) and 1.5 generation (immigrants who arrive in Canada under the age of 15), complete university at a higher rate than their peers with Canadian-born parents (third generation or higher).
• The educational attainment of the children of immigrants varies by visible minority status, with children of Black, Latin American and Southeast Asian backgrounds reporting lower university completion rates.

• Immigrants, on average, had fewer close friends in their local area, compared to the Canadian-born population.
• This is mainly driven by smaller close-friend circles of those who arrived in Canada from stages of pre-adolescence through early adulthood.

Special Report: Housing

• Immigrants have higher housing needs compared to Canadian-born individuals, both in homeownership and rental markets.
• Non-permanent residents, particularly those on work and permits, seek rental housing, while study permit holders have relatively lower rental demand.
• Immigrants primarily contribute to the demand for owned single-detached homes and rental apartments, whereas non-permanent residents significantly drive demand for rental apartments, with minimal influence on homeownership trends.

Housing Suitability of International Students across Major Municipalities

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• Students from India face significantly higher unsuitable housing rates than other international and Canadian-born students. Housing suitability refers to whether a private household is living in suitable accommodations with enough bedrooms according to the National Occupancy Standard.