Text box B3
A brief overview of changes to immigration to Canada
Today, one measurable change to immigration to Canada is the sizeable and increasing proportion of labour force growth that immigration represents in Canada. Immigrants who arrived during the 1990s accounted for 70 percent of net labour force growth between 1991 and 2001 – a proportion set to increase to 100 percent over the next decade (Denton et al., 1999). At the same time, the economic performance of immigrants relative to the Canadian-born population has declined, raising questions about the factors that can explain diminished economic returns (Green and Worswick, 2002).
Concomitant with the changing economic role and fortunes of Canada’s immigrants, have been changes in the characteristics of new immigrants. Immigrants are more educated than in the past and are twice as likely as the Canadian-born population to have a university education (Citizenship and Immigration Canada, 2005a). Many go to school at institutions outside Canada in a language other than English or French and are much less likely to speak English or French as their mother tongue than previous immigrants (Citizenship and Immigration Canada, 2005b).
Immigrants aged 16 to 65 perform significantly below the average for the Canadian-born population in all four domains. The average prose literacy score for recent immigrants is 252 points, whereas the average score for those born in Canada is 288 points (See Annex A Table 3.25). This means that the average score for the Canadianborn population corresponds to Level 3 proficiency, while for recent immigrants the average score is at Level 2. Differences in performance between Canadian-born and recent as well as established immigrants are largest for prose literacy and smallest for numeracy.
Perhaps contrary to expectation, overall, duration of residence in Canada appears to have no significant impact on the average performance of immigrants in any of the four domains. While one might expect immigrants to perform better the longer they are in Canada, cohort differences may account for the results. Since recent immigrants are generally better educated than established immigrants, literacy levels may be higher for recent immigrants despite the short time they have been in Canada. Additional analysis is needed to better understand the lack of impact length of residence appears to have on proficiency in the four domains.
In all four domains, a higher percentage of recent and established immigrants perform at Levels 1 and 2 than the Canadian-born population. Sixty percent of recent and established immigrants, compared to 37 percent of the Canadian-born population, are at Levels 1 and 2 in prose literacy. Indeed, compared to the Canadianborn population, both groups of immigrants have a higher proportion performing at the lowest two levels for the prose and document literacy scales and for numeracy.
There are no significant differences between the proportion of recent and established immigrants at Levels 1 and 2 in any of the four domains. At the highest level of prose literacy, twelve percent of established and eight percent of recent immigrants performed at Level 4/5. This compares to 22 percent of the Canadianborn population indicating larger differences between Canadian-born and immigrant groups than among immigrant groups.