ARCHIVED – Portrait of an Integration Process

Background

The Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada (LSIC) is the first national longitudinal survey conducted with the recent immigrant population since the 1970s. The survey is designed to study how newly arrived immigrants adjust to life in Canada during their first four years. Information collected within LSIC improves upon current data to assess integration experiences, such as the Census and the Immigration Data Base (IMDB), by including longitudinal information, identifying immigrants by immigration category, and by capturing information that moves beyond the economic to include the social and cultural aspects of integration – information critical to understanding the determinants of immigrant integration outcomes.

The LSIC is a “longitudinal” survey – that is, the same respondents are interviewed at each wave. The sample was selected from the population of immigrants15 years of age and over who landed from abroad between October 1st, 2000 and September 30th, 2001. There was only one participant from each family unit. The interviews took place at six months, two years and four years after landing in Canada. 12,000 individuals took part in Wave 1, 9,300 of them participated in the Wave 2 interview, and 7,700 had taken the Wave 3 interview. The final sample represents 157,600 immigrants of the above mentioned population. By interviewing the same people over time, the LSIC information provides a dynamic picture of the experiences of these newcomers, rather than a static “snapshot”.1

Notes

1For more details about the LSIC sample design, use of weights, non-response adjustments and imputation, please refer to the Microdata User Guide — Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada — Wave 3.

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