Request for IMDB custom tab

Question
I have a researcher who is interested in getting some custom tabulations from the IMDB. He needs longitudinal micros level data on individual refugees older than 19 years of age for approximately 5 years since landing.

In order to assist his request, is it possible to get a list of the IMDB variables?

Answer
Below is the response we have received from subject matter:

“Unfortunately, IMDB micro-records are not released and all aggregate statistics are subject to suppression and rounding, in order to prevent the disclosure of identifiable data.

If the researcher wishes to purchase a custom tabulation of aggregate data, please put him/her in touch with us directly.”

Followup Question
If the researcher proceeds with the custom tab, will that data then be made available to all DLI participants? It was my understanding that this is the case but I'm not clear on the process. Does the researcher have to release the data (to me?) for distribution? 

Followup Answer
Custom tabs fall under the Open Licence Agreement, for more information please see:

• Statistics Canada Open Licence Agreement
• Frequently Asked Questions
• The Open Licence applies to both standard and custom products and services with the exception of Statistics Canada's postal products (see list) and Public Use Microdata Files (PUMFs).

However, it would be at the researcher’s discretion to share the outputs with us.

Immigration data for Mirabel airport

Question

I have a researcher who is looking for immigration data at the port of entry level, specifically for the Mirabel Airport in Montreal, from 1975 to 2004.

She would like to obtain the following info:

· Total number of landed immigrants who went through the airport. These numbers are available for the 1966 to 1996 period from the Immigration Statistics Archive (http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/202/301/immigration_statistics-ef/index.html) but we are missing the 1997 to 2004 period. Is that available anywhere? And it would be nice to obtain a table summarizing this information for the whole period(1975 to 2004) as the Immigration Statistics Archive is composed of individual pdf documents for each year.

· Country of origin of immigrants going through Mirabel, per year (1975 to 2004)

· Type of immigrant category (family, economic, refugee, other), also per year (1975 to 2004)

Finally, she would also like to know the percentage of successful immigration requests for immigrants landed through that same airport. I’m not sure if that question makes sense as my impression is that one has to apply for immigration from outside of Canada and cannot apply upon arrival at the airport, but I would like to confirm that.

Answer

This data should be available from CIC’s Immigrant Landing File. It contains a variable for point of entry, for country of origin and immigration category.

SASD does have access to a data source called the Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB), which is a record linkage between the Immigrant Landing File and T1FF tax data. However, it has a linkage rate of approximately 87% and its intended use is for analysing the economic performance of immigrants, via the tax data. If none of the tax file data is of interest, the IMDB should not be used. Furthermore, this data source only includes immigrants who obtained their landed immigrant status since 1980 and who have filed at least one tax return since 1982. Due to these limitations, our data source would not be appropriate.

A landed immigrant could have been living in Canada for multiple years before obtaining their landed immigrant status. So it may be possible to obtain data relating to successful applications for immigrants who entered Canada via Mirabel Airport. Unfortunately, I cannot say this with certainty and you will have to contact CIC for a more thorough answer.

Finally, to contact CIC about a potential data request, you can try this email:NHQ-RE-STATS@cic.gc.ca

Longitudinal Immigration Database

Question

For the Longitudinal Immigration Database, what can we expect in terms of data dissemination? I see some have been released through the Daily and CANSIM in January of this year.

Any other plans? PUMF or RDC?

Could emigration data at the sub-national scale be gleaned from IMDB custom tables (that is, where in particular countries immigrants to Canada are originating from)?

Answer

The IMDB data have been released in December 2015 (Canada level) and January 2016 (provincial level) through the Daily and CANSIM. The IMDB micro-data are not released to users and they are not available in RDCs.

Please note that users can get custom tables by sending requests to the IMDB team.

The IMDB contains variables for Country of birth, Country of citizenshipand Country of last permanent residence. (Three distinct concepts.) Unfortunately, it does not contain any variables that would indicate from which specific region of a country they immigrated from. Sub-national emigration data, prior to landing in Canada, is unavailable.

Socio-economic Rankings

Question

I am working with a researcher who is looking at immigrant integration in communities in Toronto and the Silicon Valley. She has collected data through interviews with the immigrants and want to create a socio-economic ranking with the data she has. However, she is wondering about that ranking being skewed by the education variable – if an immigrant received a University degree in their home country but after immigrating are working at a lower level job, the education variable would affect their socio-economic rank (possibly put them at a higher level). Is there a resource I can point her to that addresses this issue and how to deal with it?

Answer

The Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB) could serve to inform the relationship between education at landing (not published since 2010) and long-term economic outcomes (from tax files). For example, table 054-0002 shows “Income of immigrants, by world area, sex, immigrant admission category, education qualifications, knowledge of official languages, and landing year for tax year 2013”: http://www5.statcan.gc.ca/cansim/a26?lang=eng&retrLang=eng&id=0540002&&pattern=&stByVal=1&p1=1&p2=-1&tabMode=dataTable&csid=

Longitudinal Immigration Database

Question

The IMDB used to be available via the Metropolis project but since it's wound down, access is no longer available. Can someone confirm the database is available via the RDCs?

Answer

IMDB is not available in the RDCs. The Permanent Resident Landing File has just been added to our data collection. It is in a pilot phase but proposals to access the data can still be submitted.

Immigration Canada Facts and Figures

Question

I have a researcher asking for historical immigration data. Is the historical data available for inclusion in the DLI Collection?

Immigration Canada Facts and Figures publication.

I am looking for historical time series for:

• Canada – Transition of temporary residents to permanent resident status


• Canada – Transition of temporary residents by previous yearly status


• Canada – Total entries of foreign students by province or territory and urban are


• Canada – Foreign students present on December 1st by province or territory and urban area

Preferably starting from 1980.

The historical series are not available on the Citizenship and Immigration website or from Stats Can...

Answer

We have a copy of the Citizenship and Immigration Canada 2006 Facts and Figures Digital Library on the DLI mirror site at the University of Alberta (please see: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/dli-ild/data-donnees/ftp/cic-cic-eng.htm). I had a quick look at this product and while some of the tables go back to 1980, others only back into the '90s. The researcher may wish to approach CIC (Research-Recherche@cic.gc.ca) directly to see if they can provide additional historical data if the Digital Library product doesn't contain all of the data he/she needs. They can also provide the 2008 edition of the Facts and Figures Digital Library on request.

Facts and Figures 2008 Digital Library
The Facts and Figures 2008 Digital Library is a bilingual collection of statistical tables describing Canada’s permanent and temporary residents. The tables are available in Excel and are easily accessible through a built-in search engine.

The collection includes annual statistics for both permanent and temporary residents for calendar years 1984 to 2008 along with a series of tables describing additional selected characteristics for the ten-year period from 1999 to 2008. Tables are provided for Canada, the provinces and territories, and selected urban areas. The temporary resident section includes information for foreign workers, foreign students, refugee claimants and other humanitarian cases.

Annual statistics are provided for new permanent residents, total entries of temporary residents and temporary residents present on December 1st as well as for transitions from one temporary resident status to another and from temporary resident to permanent resident status. Please contact Research-Recherche@cic.gc.ca to request copies of the Facts and Figures 2008 Digital Library." (http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/statistics/menu-fact.asp)

StatCan has a Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB, http://www.statcan.gc.ca/cgi-bin/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=5057&lang=en&db=imdb&adm=8&dis=2) that covers 1980 to 2007. This database isn't available through the DLI but custom data extractions from this database are available for a fee. If this would be of interest to your researcher, I can consult the division that oversees the Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB) to confirm if the tables your researcher requires could be produced on a custom basis.

The researcher may also wish to look into the files held by the Metropolis project in BC (http://mbc.metropolis.net/). Their data holdings are described at: http://web.uvic.ca/~baer/MBC/

The following Postsecondary Student Information System (PSIS) table only goes back to 1992/1993 but may still be of interest to the researcher: University enrolments, by province of study and immigration status, annual (number), 1992/1993 to 2007/2008 (xls) at http://www.statcan.gc.ca/dli-ild/data-donnees/ftp/psis-siep-eng.htm

I hope that this is helpful.

Emigration/return of foreign born professionals

Question

A student is doing a research on the topic of emigration or return migration of foreign-born professionals in Canada, 1990 to 2003 for her graduate research methods course. Is there an appropriate data set to address this topic?

Answer

This data doesn't appear to be available in a DLI product.

Our Demography Division has data on emigration and returning emigrants but not data on emigration or return emigration of foreign born professionals in particular.

Some of the data your graduate student was hoping for might be available as a fee based custom request from the longitudinal administrative data (LAD) file.

Here is what the author division told me about the data that might be available as a fee based custom request:

"Our longitudinal administrative data (LAD) contain variables from the Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB). A couple of variables (from IMDB) relate to field of work: Immigrant's Intended Occupation and Immigrant's Industry Codes. On the LAD, we also have NAICS coding to identify primary and secondary industry of employment. This industry information is captured for all individuals for whom we have a T4 record.

By linking to the IMDB, we identify immigrants who arrived to Canada starting in 1980 (landing year). This allows a researcher to then study the incomes and family characteristics of this group of individuals through the years, up to 2005. With the LAD, I believe we can also identify return migrants, although we could not always distinguish foreign-born from Canadian-born unless that individual was already identified as an immigrant through IMDB.

The LAD Data Dictionary (12-585-XIE -
http://www.statcan.ca/bsolc/english/bsolc?catno=12-585-X)
which contains a complete glossary of LAD variables, is always a good starting point. I suggest your client consult the dictionary and examine the different variables that can be used. Once we have more details on the output required, we can further discuss feasibility of project and related costs."

IMDB and LIDS?

Question

I have had a request for the Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB), and the Landed Immigrant Data system (LIDS); beyond some messages in the archives dating back to 2000, plus the product page in the online catalogue, I can find nothing else about the
IMDB, and nothing at all about LIDS. Can anyone enlighten me? A MSW student here is enquiring about access.

Answer

1. The IMDB/LIDS data are not in the DLI access silo, but in the CERIS access silo. Your user will need to become a CERIS accredited researcher in order to use them:
http://ceris.metropolis.net/frameset_e.html

2. IMDB is controlled by a group including provincal/federal gov't depts and various researchers. It was proposed for access by DLI but this was opposed by SOME of the provincial reps. I am not sure why. It may have to do with 'who pays' (it is a cost recovery project) or they may be concerned about other things. At one time we thought that a lobbying effort by the DLI institiutions might sway their thinking but I am not sure about it these days.

Thematic Search Tool (TST)

Question

Is there a reason why access to the thematic search tool is now restricted? It's an extemely valuable resource for finding older files.

Answers and Responses

1. I asked this question a while ago and the division advised that the tool is not being kept up-to-date and that users should be using the IMDB (Longitudinal Immigration Database).

2. When the IMDB becomes as useful as the TST, we will certainly use it. But the TST is the ONLY resource at StatCan that will allow users to look at surveys in that level of detail. While it is not being kept up to date, it is still extremely useful. A caveat as to its coverage should be enough cya for even STC. Rendering a useful resource useless just doesn't make sense.

3. The difference between the thematic search tool and the IMDB is like the difference between searching the library's catalogue, versus searching a database of journal articles. Sure you can find out that Stats Can has a survey called SLID in year XXXX, but only the Thematic Search Tool will tell you that that survey has a question with eg the word "daycare" (I'm pulling stuff out of memory here, but I think that's about right).

Unless the IMDB can provide searchable question text in all surveys, it is no replacement for the TST.

4. A final point is that the IMDB is NOT retrospective, while the TST is. Thus much of the material in the Thematic Search Tool is not going to be found in the IMDB. We can use the IMDB for current stuff, but the TST is invaluable for the historic files.