About the Longituginal Survey of Immigrants to Canada

As positive settlement outcomes benefit both the immigrant and host society, there exists a need for information on immigrant integration – particularly the timing of stages in the settlement process, the factors that affect integration and the services used or needed by immigrants to facilitate the process.

While full integration may take generations to achieve, the LSIC is designed to examine the process during the critical first four years of settlement, whereby newcomers establish economic, social and cultural ties to Canadian society.

Although other data sources, such as the Census, provide important information, they lack specific detail on key settlement issues. The LSIC was implemented to fill major data gaps and to complement traditional sources of data in this area. The LSIC is the first national longitudinal survey conducted with the recent immigrant population since the 1970s.

The survey employs a longitudinal design, interviewing the same selected immigrants at three points in time: approximately six months (Wave 1), two years (Wave 2), and four years (Wave 3) after landing. The target population includes all immigrants and refugees aged 15 and over who landed from abroad between October 1st, 2000 and September 30th, 2001 . This group accounts for approximately 170,000 of the total 250,000 persons admitted to Canada during the reference period¹. From the target population², about 21,000 individuals – representing as many immigrant categories, by province, as possible – were selected to participate in the survey. Approximately 12,000 respondents participated in the survey.

Some immigrants landed in Canada , but resided only for a short period of time before returning to their original country or migrating to another country. The main objective of the survey is to understand the integration process of new immigrants who settle in Canada and not those who arrive and then leave. To address any potential bias that may be introduced, a breakdown of populations was established: concepts for the population of interest and population out of interest.

In the LSIC, the population of interest refers to immigrants who meet the criteria noted above and have lived in Canada for more than 6 months. The out-of-interest population refers to immigrants who no longer live in Canada (i.e. who have left since landing in Canada). Between October 2000 and September 2001, 169,430 immigrants aged 15 and over landed from abroad. Six months after their arrival, an estimated 5,227 immigrants left and approximately 164,203 still resided in Canada.

The main topics examined in the LSIC include: housing, education, foreign credential recognition, employment, income, the development and use of social networks, language skills, health, values and attitudes and satisfaction with the settlement experience. There are also a set of questions pertaining to the access of services – with a focus on housing, education, employment and health.

By examining newcomers' progress over time, the LSIC affords the possibility of assisting researchers and policy-makers to go beyond existing descriptions of immigrant integration outcomes to an examination of how newcomers achieve these outcomes – in essence, the "how" and "why" dimensions. While the full value of the survey will be reached when the three waves of data collection are completed, this first wave of data provides important benchmark information.

The focus of this publication is on the early settlement experiences of immigrants, from pre-migration to the first six months after arrival. First an overview of the LSIC population is provided, looking at both pre-migration characteristics as well as those at arrival. This is followed by a comprehensive look at the first six months of the settlement process, looking at things such as health, housing and mobility; education and training taken since arrival; employment, income and the general perception of the immigrant's settlement experience. The last section presents a more in-depth look at problems and difficulties newcomers experience in four key areas of integration: accessing health services, finding housing, accessing education and training and finding employment. Challenges to integration are examined in terms of what help was needed, received and from whom, or needed and not received.

Notes

1. The other 80,000 immigrants who landed in Canada during the sampling period were children or landed from inside Canada.

2. See definition in Methodology and data quality.