Canadian professionals moving from and returning to Canada

Question

I've got a student who is looking for data on the number of Canadians professionals who move back to Canada after moving away. He would be interested in figures for Canadians who have moved anywhere in the world and also Canadians who have moved to the U.S.

Another thing he is interested in is how many exchange students (all of them combined -- at the high school level and at the post secondary level) go out of Canada to anywhere in the world on any given year.

For the first, so far the only thing I have found is a Statistics Canada study entitled _South of the border: graduates from the class of '95 who moved to the United States_ (81-587-XPB). According to this, 18 percent of the graduates had moved back between the summer of 1997 and March 1999. I also found a couple of articles describing the results of this study.

The student may use the 2001 Census PUMF to determine how many professionals moved back to Canada who were Canadian born citizens, but that doesn't really give him exactly what he is looking for, as he will be making assumptions about these people (as to when and why they moved in the first place).

For the second request, the only thing I have found so far is an HRDC report
(http://www11.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/pls/edd/SPAH194_06_02.lhtml),
in which there is the following statement:

"For example, during the 1997/98 academic year, institutions reported 5,058 Canadian students studying abroad as part of an exchange. However, even this level of participation means that less than one percent of Canadian university students (full-time graduate and undergraduate students) were studying abroad in an exchange program during the 1997/98 academic year."

A note clarifies that "Knight notes that institutions are not systematically keeping this data, so this is an estimate."

Can anyone help?

Answer

I had a similar question from a patron on the number of Canadians living abroad by foreign country, and I had to go the Canadian Consul for this information. They have a database with all this information and may be able to help you.