Statistics

Findings from the Longitudinal Immigration Database: Socioeconomic outcomes of immigrants admitted to Canada as children, 2018

From Statistics Canada’s The Daily, some interesting data on immigrant children. The key take-away: immigrant children are good for Canada.
Some highlights:

Immigrants who came to Canada as children are more likely to participate in post secondary education than the overall population.

Children admitted to Canada with economic immigrant families report higher post secondary education participation than Canadians overall or immigrants admitted under other categories.

At age 30, immigrants who were admitted to Canada before the age of 15 with economic immigrant families report the highest wages compared with those admitted under other categories.

Immigrant women admitted to Canada as children have higher post secondary education participation than men.

Statistics Canada on children with an immigrant background


Statistics Canada have released census findings from 2016 including a Census in Brief on children with an immigrant background. As on their website, here are some highlights:

  • “In 2016, close to 2.2 million children under the age of 15, or 37.5% of the total population of children, had at least one foreign born parent.
  • “Children with an immigrant background could represent between 39% and 49% of the total population of children in 2036.
  • “Almost half of children with an immigrant background were from an Asian country of ancestry, while less than one quarter were from a European country of ancestry or the United States.
  • “Close to 15% of children with an immigrant background lived in a household with at least three generations.
  • “More than one third of children with an immigrant background spoke only an official language at home, compared with less than 10% of their parents”.

Read the entire brief here.

Census information in multiple languages

Statistics Canada has produced a number of promotional materials (posters, bookmarks, fact sheets) about the May 2011 Census including information in several languages: Arabic, Bengali, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Creole, Dari, English, French, Hindi, Japanese, Koren, Laotian, Persian, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Tamil, Urdu, Vietnamese.
The Census 2011 site provides concise information about why people should complete the Census.
Other useful resources developed include articles specific to business associations, organizations, groups such as immigrants, seniors, youth, university/college students and Aboriginal peoples. These articles can be posted on websites, included in newsletters, e-bulletins or emails to contacts.
About 4 weeks after the Census, Statistics Canada will conduct the new voluntary National Household Survey (NHS). Around 4.5 million households across Canada will receive the NHS questionnaire. The NHS is needed to plan family services, housing, roads, public transportation, and skills training for employment.
With the demise of the long-form Census, it’s important to get the message out on why the Census is important for planning for the future of Canada. immigrantchildren.ca is pleased to see the outreach to the diverse linguistic communities in Canada with this multilingual information being made available. Let’s all do our duty and promote it!

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Who are the newcomer children in BC? An NCIE Bulletin

The Affiliation of Multicultural Societies and Services Agencies of BC (AMSSA) in February (see immigrantchildren.ca post) launched The Newcomer Children Information Exchange (NCIE) to share information, resources and announce events related to newcomer children in British Columbia.
One of the proposed activities of NCIE was to regularly put out an information bulletin. From the March 2010 Bulletin:

The Bulletin will explore different topics related to newcomer children. There are a number of service providers, educators and researchers currently working with newcomer children to help them succeed, but their work is rarely documented. The ANCIE Bulletins will provide an opportunity to feature some of their work, strategies, service models, success stories and/or research. Each issue will also include a relevant case study“.

The March 2010 Bulletin is now available. It highlights some demographic facts about newcomer children in BC. The next bulletin will focus on English as a Second Language. Future bulletins will focus on:

  • Early Childhood Education
  • Health and Wellness
  • Refugee Children.

StatsCan study: Canadian immigrant labour market

Statistics Canada today released a study on the quality of employment in the Canadian immigrant labour market.
StatsCan finds that there were differences in indicators of quality between non-immigrants and immigrants, with immigrants experiencing, on average, lower wages than non-immigrants. But, for newcomers who made Canada their home for more than 10 years, the indicators “more closely resembled those of Canadian born”.
Again, immigrantchildren.ca finds that investigations into employment-related issues – and, especially, quality of employment experiences – neglects to include availability of high-quality, accessible child care as an indicator.

The early years study ~ 10 years later

The landmark Early Years Study, subtitled The Real Brain Drain, was released on April 20, 1999.
See also a “very brief history” of the Early Years Study posted on the Health Nexus Santé (formerly the Ontario Prevention Clearinghouse) blog in March 2005, including links to the follow-up report The Early Years Study: Three Years Later, recounting how the early years initiative was rolled out in Ontario via the Ontario Early Years Centres.
Fraser Mustard and the Council on Early Child Development continue to work to raise awareness of and support for an early childhood learning and care program for all children and their families across Canada as the first tier to the formal school system.
See the upcoming conference sponsored by the Council on Early Child Development May 13-15 in New Brunswick, Putting Science into Action: Equity from the Start Through Early Child Development.
How responsive have the Ontario Early Years Centres been to immigrant and refugee families and young children?

New York Times series on immigration: Teaching newcomer children

Beginning today, the New York Times will run a series on immigration, inviting a national debate on the topic in the United States. The first installment is a discussion on how best to educate immigrant children. To be followed up this Sunday.
The series will be interactive, inviting comments from readers and includes a searchable database of the history of ethnic diversity in each school district and an interactive map showing census data on settlement over the past century.
Today’s stories include: 

Robert Linquanti comments on “No Child Left Behind: Pros and Cons”. Linquanti is with WestEd research agency in San Francisco.
Chicago superintendent Roger Prosise writes a piece entitled “For Bilingual Education, You Need Bilingual Teachers”
Co-directors at NYU Immigration Studies, Marcelo Orozco and Carola Orozco write on “Teach in Two Languages”.
A California principal, Linda Mikels counters with a piece entitled “No, Teach in English”.

Looks like a fascinating series. Follow it online at the New York Times “Room for Debate” webpage.

Discussion paper: Immigrant serving agencies' perspective on immigrant children's needs

A new Discussion Paper: Immigrant Serving Agencies’ Perspective on the Issues and Needs of Immigrant and Refugee Children in Canada, by Dr Susan Chuang, University of Guelph and the Canadian Immigrant Settlement Sector Alliance (CISSA).
From the Executive Summary: 

While immigrant and refugee children and youth are not usually apart of the decision to emigrate and/or flee their home country (in the case of refugees) once in Canada, most federally funded immigrant settlement programs and services target adults. There is a growing consensus across Canada among service providers, school boards and broad based youth mandated agencies that much more must be done to adequately support immigrant and refugee children and youth. Over the past 15 years in particular, immigrant serving agencies (ISAs) across Canada have responded. ISAs have put in place through often piece meal, short-term project based funding and local fundraising activities a variety of innovative after school and summer social, academic and recreational interventions to help ease the transition of IRCY into Canada. These projects and programs are becoming increasingly difficult to sustain.

Issues addressed in the discussion paper include emerging trends, organizational responses, ideal programming and considerations for Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

Gender-based barriers to settlement and integration for live-in caregivers: A review of the literature

The Ontario Metropolis Centre/the Joint Centre of Excellence for Research in Immigration Studies (CERIS) has released a literature review on barriers to integration and settlement for live-in caregivers.
Authors Denise L. Spitzer and Sara Torres ask what is known about the women who migrate to Canada under the federal live-in caregiver program and the barriers they face in settling and integrating in a new community. The paper provides historical, economic and demographic information and concludes with several policy recommendations.