ARCHIVED – Portrait of an Integration Process

Difficulties encountered and resources relied on for newcomers in their first 4 years in Canada

Li Xue
Research and Evaluation
Citizenship and Immigration Canada
June 2007

This study examines the progressive process of the LSIC immigrants during the initial settlement and integrating period, with a focus on the barriers new immigrants experienced and resources they relied on in the first 4 years in Canada. Four key areas of settlement and integration are explored including: finding employment, getting education, accessing health care and finding housing. The paper tries to identify core integration barriers and possible sources of assistance for these hurdles. Challenges to assimilation process are also examined in terms of unmet needs in the key integration tasks over time. The paper draws on the advantages of the LSIC, by examining the dynamics of the integration process. Special attention is given to the progressive nature of the initial 4 years for immigrants.

Evidence from three waves of the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada (LSIC)

Acknowledgement: I am very grateful to Martha Justus, Eden Thompson and Jessie-Lynn MacDonald who provided great guidance and support on completing the LSIC research projects. Especially, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to Jessie-Lynn MacDonald and Stan Kustec for their very helpful suggestions and comments on the earlier versions of the paper.

Portrait of an Integration Process
[ PDF Version (PDF, 761.54KB) ]

Table of contents

Background

Introduction

Overview

Finding Employment

• Employment rate closer to Canadian average
• Skilled workers were most likely to encounter labour market barriers
• Recognition of foreign qualifications or experience was critical, especially for skilled workers
• Newcomers in Quebec faced greater obstacles while those in Prairies fared better in the labour market
• Immigrants were more likely to receive help in the first six months
• Social networks continued to play an important role in assisting immigrants overcoming labour market barriers
• Approximately 3 in 10 immigrants reported not receiving assistance needed for problems finding employment throughout the first 4 years
• Information and advice were most needed when entering labour market while the need for work-related training emerged over time

Accessing education and/or training

• Lowest involvement rate among four integration tasks
• Financial time constraints the most serious hindrance to accessing education
• Proportion of immigrants receiving help and those not receiving help needed decreased over time
• School, friends, government and family helped newcomers overcome problems accessing education or training
• Financial help, information and advice constantly needed for helping with problems accessing education or training

Accessing health care services

• Majority of immigrants tried to access health care services in the initial 4 years
• Family class immigrants least likely reported obstacles accessing health care services
• Long wait times to see doctors was the dominating problem
• Family class immigrants were most likely to receive assistance for health care related barriers
• Friends were the most cited source of help for problems accessing health care services

Finding housing

• Most immigrants did not encounter difficulties finding housing
• Home ownership rate increased substantially over time
• Housing costs was the most pronounced difficulty in finding housing at any point in time
• Friends helped out in finding housing

Conclusions

Appendix

• Definitions of labour force statistics

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