A profile of foreign students who transition to permanent resident status in Atlantic Canada

Conclusion

The number of foreign students studying in Atlantic Canada has been increasing over the past ten years as are the number making the transition to permanent resident status. Over this period transitions have risen from just over 200 per year to fewer than 500 per year. Nevertheless, Atlantic Canada falls slightly below the Canadian average in the number of foreign students who transition immediately to permanent residents. The proportion of foreign students who remained in Canada and Atlantic Canada and transitioned to permanent resident status has traditionally been relatively small at about five percent (or less) in Atlantic Canada compared to about 6% or less in the rest of Canada. The majority of those who become permanent residents in Atlantic Canada studied in the same province in which they become permanent residents although traditionally there is a small net outflow of foreign students who studied in Atlantic Canada but transitioned to permanent resident status in provinces outside Atlantic Canada. In 2009, there was a small inflow (29) from the rest of Canada to Atlantic Canada.

In the Atlantic provinces, transitions from foreign student to permanent resident status are less important than the volume of foreign workers who transitioned to permanent resident status. For example, foreign worker transitions have become more significant in recent years rising from about 24% (in 1999) of all temporary to permanent transitions to 47% (2009) while the proportion of foreign students of all transitions to permanent status have remained almost static at 21% to 23%. This is not to say that foreign student transitions have not been growing, they have been, just not as quickly as those from foreign workers.

In terms of characteristics, foreign students transitioning are likely to be male. As in the rest of Canada, China and South Korea are important source countries, accounting for about 45% in 2009. China is the main source country in Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia while Korea is the main source country in PEI and New Brunswick.

About half of the foreign students who transition to permanent resident status in Atlantic Canada are between the ages of 19 and 31 and almost another 40% are 18 years or younger. The age profile is more heavily weighted towards the younger group in Atlantic Canada than in the rest of Canada where those between the ages of 19 and 31 comprise 60% of student transitions and 27% are 18 years or younger.

The fact that so many foreign students transitioning in Atlantic Canada are young could be the reason that the educational levels of those transitioning to permanent resident status have been gradually declining over the period. By 2009, less than 45% of foreign students transitioning have post-secondary education compared to 64% a decade earlier. Of those with secondary school or less, almost all are dependents, mainly of PNPs or skilled workers.

Over the period and more particularly since 2004, a growing proportion of foreign students transitioning have a family status of dependents rather than principal applicants.

Discussion

The fact that so many foreign students transitioning to permanent resident status are dependents of Provincial Nominees or Skilled Workers may have important ramifications for Atlantic Canada. For example, it could affect the economic impact on the provinces concerned should the principal applicant decide to leave the province for labour market (or other) reasons. Other research has shown that PNPs are a highly mobile population with only half of PNPs that were nominated in Atlantic Canada remaining in there. If the principal applicants leave the province for jobs elsewhere the impact on the population will be stronger due to the dependants tied to them.

With regard to the long term impact of the level of education of foreign students studying at the high school level or less: as they transition to permanent resident status it will take much longer for these immigrants to be labour market ready because they tend to be younger and in the process of completing their education. However, if a high proportion of them are children their socio-economic outcomes may be similar to those of the Canadian-born especially in comparison to those who are older when they land and can face challenges integrating into society and the labour marketFootnote 25. In addition, these children will temporarily contribute to reducing the region’s age profile.

In general, in terms of being able to predict the impact of foreign student transitions on the labour market, principal applicants who transition to categories closely tied to the labour market such as skilled workers and provincial nominees made up only 25% of all foreign student landings in Atlantic Canada in 2009. The rest were children and spouses about whom there is limited information as to their labour market readiness. And, as the occupational analysis indicated, the majority could not be coded to a specific occupational group because they had limited experience in the labour market. Of those that could indicate an occupation, the majority had occupations related to post-secondary institutions.

Finally, as noted earlier, the current data only allow the analysis of permanent residents whose immediate prior status is “foreign student” although we can see from the data, for example the data on post-graduate employment, that many foreign students transition first to foreign worker status and may subsequently transition to permanent resident status. Improvements to the administrative data system allowing the capture of any prior occurrence of foreign student status would permit a more complete analysis of foreign student transitions and retention rates and thus the importance of this immigration stream to Canada.

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