Quebec doing better job at retaining immigrants, Atlantic Canada still struggling
CTV
Immigrants are increasingly choosing to stay in Quebec, according to a new report from Statistics Canada, but the same isn't true in the Atlantic region, which continues to lose newcomers to the rest of the country.
Immigrants are increasingly choosing to stay in Quebec, according to a new report from Statistics Canada, but the same isn't true in the Atlantic region, which continues to lose newcomers to the rest of the country.
Out of all the immigrants admitted into Quebec in 2021, almost 94 per cent of them were still in the province one year later -- a jump of 8.8 percentage points compared with the 2018 cohort of newcomers.
The largest increase in newcomers choosing to stay in Quebec was in the economic category, the StatCan report said.
Catherine Xhardez, assistant professor of political science at Université de Montréal, said the StatCan report is welcome news for Quebec because unlike in the rest of the country, the provincial government controls its economic immigration stream.
"It's also a question of competition. You want the best and brightest to stay because if you invest in them, if you select them, you do not want them to go to Ontario," said Xhardez, who also directs ÉRIQA, a research group that studies immigration to Quebec.
Decades ago, when the Quebec unemployment rate was much higher than the current 5.7 per cent, immigrants were leaving the province at a much higher rate, Xhardez pointed out, saying job opportunities and social programs are key to keeping newcomers.
"It really depends on living conditions and opportunities for migrants. That is the biggest factor for people moving from one province to another province," she said.
