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©Gregory James, September 2006 The vast majority of permanent residents living in Canada in 2005 came here as economic migrants.(more than 156,000). The family class provided less than half as many of our permanent residents (over 63,000). The third category, refugees, accounted for just more than one fifth as many as economic immigrants (35,000). Refugees accounted for just over 13 percent of the total. This reflects a significant shift in immigration strategy. Until 1993 the largest group of permanent residents in Canada came here as members of the Family Class. This change was deliberate. The Canadian government has elected to emphasize economic migration over family reunification. Although sponsorships of spouses, partners and children have not suffered by this change in emphasis, the sponsorship of parents and grandparents has suffered significantly. Economic migrants have to wait a very long time to have their parents and grandparents join them in Canada. The percentage of permanent residents who arrived as refugees has changed very little in the last 10 years. It is typically between 10 and 13 percent of total permanent residents. The top countries for immigration to Canada have remained fairly steady. The top four countries for immigration to Canada are, in order, China (16%), India (12.6%), the Philippines (6.7%) and Pakistan (5.2%). In the Arab world, the top source country for Canada is the United Arab Emirates, followed by Algeria, Lebanon and Morocco. If we total up the numbers for all Arab countries then those countries combined represent more immigrants than does the Philippines, which would mean that the Arab world would be ranked third in terms of total numbers of immigrants to Canada in 2005. It is worth remembering though that many of the migrants from the Arab world are not citizens of Arab countries. Many of them are in the UAE or Saudi Arabia, for example, on work permits. Given the restrictive citizenship rules in the Gulf many residents there are keen to find permanent residence in Canada. If we are to continue the theme of grouping countries with common languages and geography together, we should look at Latin America too. When Latin American countries are grouped together they produce more migrants to Canada than does Pakistan, and so would be the 5th largest country/region for immigration to Canada. The suggestion that Arabs and Latin Americans make up a significant portion of Canada’s immigrants is supported by statistics that say that Arabic and Spanish are the third and fourth most common language among immigrants. The two most common languages are Mandarin and English. Punjabi, Tagalog and Urdu rank fifth, sixth and seventh respectively. Recent statistics also show the language abilities of different categories of immigrants, with a focus on whether or not immigrants speak English, French or both. Although skilled worker applicants tend to speak English or French quite well, their dependants do not. About 50 per cent of the dependants of economic class immigrants do not speak English or French. In the family class, in comparison, less than 40% speak neither English nor French. This is a factor relevant to families establishing themselves in Canada and also to the burden placed on schools and other Canadian institutions. In Family class cases the immigrants have family support networks that can assist those who do not speak English or French. This is not always true for economic class immigrants. This factor is relevant to the ability of families to establish themselves in Canada and, ultimately, whether or not to stay in Canada. In 2005 almost 25% of international students went to Vancouver, compared to 19% in Toronto and 12% in Montreal. The Canadian government is trying to encourage students to go to schools outside of these three urban areas.
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