The initial destinations and redistribution of Canada's major immigrant
groups: changes over the past two decades
by Feng Hou
Business and Labour Market Analysis Division
Analytical Studies Branch research paper series, No. 254
Context
During the past few decades, international immigrants have become the
largest component of national population growth and a major factor in
social change in many western countries. The inflows of immigrants increasingly
concentrate in large urban areas. The increased immigrant concentration
in these gateway cities has raised extensive public interest and policy
debate on whether or how a more "balanced geographic distribution
of immigrants", (Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) 2001)
should be achieved.
Objectives
This study examines changes in the geographic concentration of Canada's
major immigrant groups, with respect to their initial destination and
subsequent redistribution during the past two decades. At the same time,
it examines the role of pre-existing immigrant communities in determining
immigrants' locational choices.
Findings
The results show a large rise in concentration levels at the initial
destination among major immigrant groups throughout the 1970s and 1980s;
this subsided in the following decade. Redistribution after immigration
was generally small-scale, and had inconsistent effects on changing
concentration at initial destinations among immigrant groups and across
arrival cohorts within an immigrant group. Even for immigrant and refugee
groups whose initial settlement was strongly influenced by government
intervention, redistribution only partly altered general geographic
distribution. Finally, this study finds that the size of the pre-existing
immigrant community is not a significant factor in immigrant locational
choice when location fixed effects are accounted for.
Data Sources: Censuses of 1976 to 2001.
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