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.