Analytical Studies Branch Research Paper Series Internal Migration of Immigrants: Do Immigrants Respond to Regional Labour Demand Shocks? by Yuri Ostrovsky, Feng Hou and Garnett Picot

Abstract

The recent economic boom in the Canadian province of Alberta provides an ideal ‘natural experiment’ to examine immigrants’ responses to a strong labour demand outside major metropolitan centres. The key finding of our study, which is based on a unique dataset that combines administrative and immigrant records, is that not only did immigrants respond to the recent economic boom in Alberta, but they responded generally more strongly than non-immigrants. We find, however, a great deal of heterogeneity in the magnitude of the response across different regions and for different categories of immigrants.

Keywords: labour market, immigrant workers, internal migration