Recent Trends in the Interprovincial Migration of Canadian Immigrants: An Analysis of Immigrant Resettlement during 1986 to 2001

Barry Edmonston, Portland State University

Data from the 1991, 1996, and 2001 Censuses of Canada provide direct evidence on the migration experience of immigrant cohorts in the five years prior to the census. They also provide indirect evidence for the internal redistribution of those immigrants who arrived in Canada during the five years prior to each census. This paper shows that, although local mobility is common for all segments of Canadian society, including both native and foreign-born, interprovincial redistribution shifts are nonetheless significant. Shifts in provincial populations attributable to migration over five-year periods may exceed 10 percent, while the short-run impacts on recent immigrants may be even larger. Data on the foreign-born are compared to information about the internal migration patterns of the native-born. Analysis of the migratory behavior of recent immigrant cohorts provides evidence that there are distinct patterns of higher and lower migration for ethnic origin groups.