Recent Immigrants in Metropolitan Areas: Toronto—A Comparative Profile Based on the 2001 Census

Prepared by
Strategic Research and Statistics
in collaboration with Informetrica Limited

April 2005

Table of Contents

• Foreword
• Highlights
• Part A: Immigrants and Recent Immigrants
  • 2 million immigrants in the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area
  • Immigrants approaching one-half of the population
  • More than one-half of immigrants landed after 1985
  • An increasing concentration
  • 1,078,5000 recent immigrants—a large share of the Toronto CMA population
  • More than four in five eligible recent immigrants are citizens of Canada
• Part B: Who Are the Recent Immigrants?
  • Origin, immigration category and religion
    • Asian origins are predominant
    • A favoured destination
    • High share of economic immigrants among very recent landings
    • Religions changing with countries of birth
  • Age and gender
    • Nearly one-half of very recent immigrants are working-age adults 25 to 44
    • More women than men
  • Language and education
    • Nine in ten very recent immigrants speak English or French
    • Seven in ten very recent immigrants speak a foreign language at home
    • Very recent immigrants better educated than those who came before
    • Recent immigrants add to Toronto’s pool of scientists and engineers
    • Recent immigrants more likely to attend school
• Part C: Families and Households
  • Family and household affiliation of individuals
    • Older recent immigrants more likely to be living with relatives
    • Recent immigrants more likely to live in extended families
  • Families
    • One in three families is a recent immigrant family
    • Recent immigrant families more likely to have children in the home
    • Older recent immigrant families have more children living at home
    • In two-thirds of recent immigrant families comprise recent immigrant couple
  • Households
    • One in four households is a recent immigrant household
    • Recent immigrant households more likely to be larger than a nuclear family
    • Recent immigrant households tend to be large
    • More care of children
• Part D: Participation in the Economy
  • Participation in the labour market
    • Labour force participation lower the more recent the arrival
    • Pattern of adjustment similar for most levels of education
    • Knowledge of English important for labour force participation
    • Unemployment not uncommon during initial years
    • Share of men and women with jobs increases with length of stay
  • The jobs of recent immigrants
    • Part-time jobs more common for very recent immigrants aged 25 to 64
    • Many recent immigrants in sales and services and processing occupations
    • Many recent immigrants in manufacturing, few in the public sector
    • Skill requirements of jobs of recent immigrants lower
    • Education of recent immigrants not fully utilized
• Part E: Income
  • Sources and level of income
    • Sources of income vary by time in Canada
    • Average income higher for immigrants who have been in Canada longer
    • Earnings of recent immigrants working mostly full-time lower than average
    • Transfer payments a larger share of household income of non-seniors
  • The distribution of income
    • Personal income approaches parity and similar distribution with longer stay
    • Distribution of household income becomes very similar
    • One-third of very recent immigrants have low income
• Part F: Housing
  • Crowded accommodations more common for recent immigrants
  • Large households likely to have crowded accommodations
  • More than one-third of recent immigrant households face high housing cost
  • Housing of very recent immigrants in similar state of repair
  • Home ownership less common among very recent immigrant households
• Glossary
• List of Tables
• List of Figures

All rights reserved. No part of this information (publication or product) may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without prior written permission of the Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0S5 or copyright.droitdauteur@pwgsc.gc.ca.

©Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, represented by the Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada, 2005.

Cat. no. MP22-20/3-2005E-HTML
ISBN 0-662-39061-X

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