ARCHIVED – Recent Immigrants, Earlier Immigrants and the Canadian–Born: Association with Collective Identities

Executive Summary

Highlights:

• Recent immigrants, earlier immigrants and the Canadian-born collectively express high levels of positive identification as citizens of Canada as a whole, as citizens of their province/region, and as members of their local community. However, when looking at differences between the three groups, results show a decreased tendency for recent immigrants to ‘strongly agree’ with the various Canadian collective identities.
• Earlier immigrant and recent immigrant respondents who strongly identify with their community are significantly more likely to identify as citizens of Canada. This suggests that micro-community identification may play a significant role in influencing macro-community identification.
• For recent immigrants, race [note 1] is a significant variable which appears to have an impact upon response patterns. The Black population is found to express the lowest rates of identifying as a citizen of Canada and as a citizen of their province.
• Results suggest that income status does not appear to be associated with the degree to which the Canadian-born, earlier immigrant, and recent immigrant respondents identify as citizens of Canada. This finding suggests that economic integration may not play an integral role in the psychological integration of immigrants to their national community.
• Finally, the study provides preliminary evidence to suggest that there is no contradiction between identifying as a citizen of the world and identifying as a citizen of Canada. In fact, when looking at the total WVS population, the results show that respondents who identify as a world citizen are significantly more likely to positively identify as a citizen of Canada.
• This research report draws on data from the Canadian sample (2006) of the fifth wave of the World Values Survey (WVS).
• Recent immigrants, earlier immigrants and the Canadian-born are asked whether they strongly agree, agree, disagree, or strongly disagree with the statement: “I see myself as … a citizen of the world/a citizen of North America/a citizen of Canada as a whole/a citizen of my province or region/a member of my local community”. The responses of the three population groups are examined to see if and how patterns of identification compare across population groups.
• In order to gain further insight into the variables that are associated with an individual’s likelihood of identifying themselves as a citizen of Canada in particular, ordered logistic regression analyses are completed.

Footnotes

[Note 1] Although ethnicity is the measured variable in WVS documentation, for the purposes of this paper, the authors are using the categories to reflect race rather than ethnicity.

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