Temporary residents in New Brunswick and their transition to permanent residency
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Date
2017
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New Brunswick Institute for Research, Data and Training
Abstract
How well does New Brunswick attract Temporary Residents? And how many become Permanent Residents?
With a declining population and slow economic growth, New Brunswick is seeking to boost growth in both areas by increasing the number of immigrants settling in the province. Research from Statistics Canada suggests that Temporary Foreign Workers are less likely to settle in the Atlantic provinces than in the rest of Canada. However, this research does not examine provincial variations in the attraction of Temporary Residents and Foreign Workers and transition to Permanent Residency in the Atlantic region. Knowing the characteristics and transition rates of Temporary Residents would allow the New Brunswick government to better identify gaps and opportunities to improve immigration policies.
In this report, researchers from the New Brunswick Institute for Research, Data and Training (NB-IRDT) use data from the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) database to describe the characteristics of Temporary Residents and Temporary Foreign Workers in New Brunswick as well as retention rates and the rate of transitions to Permanent Resident status.
Results show that from 2000 to 2013, the number of Temporary Residents in New Brunswick has been increasing at the same rate as that of Canada. However, if one considers the the population size of NB alongside the proportion of immigrants in New Brunswick, it becomes apparent that the number of Temporary Residents in New Brunswick is underrepresented, with New Brunswick seemingly holding less attraction for them.
Yet, while New Brunswick appears to be less attractive to Temporary Residents than the other Atlantic provinces it also has a higher rate of transition to Permanent Residency than the Canadian rate. Similarly, Permanent Residents who stay in New Brunswick for one year after transitioning show fairly persistent retention rates. These results suggest that the New Brunswick labour market may have the capacity to absorb more Permanent Residents because it does not receive a proportion of Temporary Residents equal to its proportion of the Atlantic population.