In order to establish policies that attract newcomers to a specific location, it is necessary to research where immigrants choose to reside.

We can discover what kind of locales immigrants find appealing and what factors influence their decision to stay or depart using mobility data.

Statistics Canada recently published a report on the cities and regions where immigrants have lived the longest. The 2020 Longitudinal Immigration Database, which is frequently used to follow the economic results of Canadian immigrants, was used by the researchers. For this study, they focused on immigrants who arrived in Canada in 2014.

Immigrants who arrived in Vancouver in 2014 had the highest retention percentage at the city level, with slightly more than 86 percent five years later. To put it another way, if 100 people relocated to Vancouver in 2014, 86 of them were still paying taxes in 2019.

With around 86 percent of these 2014 newcomers staying in the city five years later, Toronto had the second-highest retention rate. With approximately 85% of the vote, Edmonton came in third.

Compared to any other group of immigrants, family-sponsored immigrants were the most likely to stay in their planned city of entry.

There are three types of immigrants in Canada: economic immigrants who apply based on their work experience, refugees who apply largely for security or humanitarian reasons, and family-class immigrants who are sponsored by a Canadian, frequently their spouse.

Halifax had the greatest retention percentage in Atlantic Canada, at approximately 58 percent. The Atlantic Immigration Pilot was created in response to historically low retention rates in Atlantic Canada. With nearly 63 percent, Nova Scotia has the highest retention rate in the region.

Immigrants’ decisions to migrate between regions are influenced by their employment or educational experience in Canada.

Employment appears to be a significant element in employee retention. Those with job experience who became permanent residents in 2014 were more likely to stay in the province or territory where they were admitted.

With a retention rate of 93 percent, refugees with prior employment experience were the most likely to remain in their admittance province. The retention percentage for those who just held work permits before becoming permanent residents was slightly higher than 90%.

The retention rate for newcomers with work and study experience was around 81 percent. Immigrants who just had study permits before obtaining permanent residence had the lowest retention rates, at around 79%. Although students may relocate more frequently in search of work, this study did not look into the precise reasons why immigrants chose to relocate.

Nearly 86 percent of immigrants in the research stayed in their home province or territory five years following entry. Overall, Ontario had the highest retention rate, at nearly 94%, followed by British Columbia at nearly 90%, and Alberta at 89 percent.

Those who have relatives in the province or area where they were admitted were more likely to stay. More than 93 percent of family-sponsored immigrants were retained after five years. Refugees stayed around 86 percent of the time, while economic immigrants stayed about 82 percent of the time.

In addition, the study discovered that immigrants were more inclined to relocate in the first few years after their entry. Immigrants who had been in Canada for ten years had a retention rate of approximately 86 percent, compared to about 88 percent for those who had been here for five years. Because the difference between the two timeframes is only 2%, the first five years appear to be more volatile.

At ten years, retention rates by province and immigrant class were identical to those seen at five years. Once obtained Ontario (91.5 percent), British Columbia (87.3 percent), and Alberta had the greatest 10-year retention rates (86.1 percent ). Nova Scotia has the greatest 10-year retention rate of the Atlantic provinces, at 58.0 percent. The majority of refugees (92%) and those who merely held work permits prior to immigration (88.3%) stayed in the province or territory where they were admitted.