New data released by Statistics Canada shows despite the country’s record immigration intake, few of them are taking steps to obtain legal citizenship. Citizenship rates have dropped 30 points in three decades, according to Blacklock’s Reporter. In 1996, 75% of immigrants pursued Canadian citizenship within five to nine years of arrival, compared to only 46% of new immigrants now. “Assessing why the citizenship rate of recent immigrants has declined since 1996 is beyond the scope of this paper,” said a StatsCan report The Decline In The Citizenship Rate Among Recent Immigrants To Canada. “The citizenship rate among recent immigrants has decreased significantly,” wrote researchers. “At this point the reasons are not well known.”“Focusing on immigrants who arrived in Canada five to nine years earlier provides a good indication of emerging trends,” said the report. “Most immigrants who become citizens do so by the time they have been in Canada for nine years. Relatively few immigrants become citizens after 10 or more years in Canada.”“Census data indicate the overall citizenship rate, the share of all immigrants who met the residency requirements for citizenship and became Canadian citizens, rose slowly from 1991 to 2016 then declined for the first time in 2021,” wrote analysts.“A more significant decline was observed among recent immigrants who arrived in Canada five to nine years before each census,” said the report. “Their citizenship rate peaked at 75.4% in 1996 and declined to 45.7% by 2021, falling by 29.7 points over 25 years.”COVID-19 pandemic disruptions in processing of citizenship claims could not explain the decline, said StatsCan. “Even after accounting for the pandemic affect the citizenship rate declined at a faster rate.”Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s current immigration quotas are 500,000 new people coming into Canada as permanent residents, in addition to 227,000 annual permits for temporary foreign workers and 983,000 study permits for foreign students. On February 13, Bloc Québécois put forward a motion asking for Cabinet to review immigration quotas “based on the integration capacity.” The motion passed in a vote of 173 to 150. The new report comes after a 2023 in-house Canada Revenue Agency study that found immigrants complain living in Canada is too expensive because of high taxes. “Taxes being an integral characteristic of living in Canada is something newcomers heard from family or friends who previously immigrated,” said the November 1 report, Qualitative Research On First Time Tax Filing With Newcomers To Canada.“There is a perception taxes in Canada are expensive,” it said. “Not only does tax on top of the price of goods and services add up quickly and make life in Canada expensive, there is also a perceived substantial difference between net and gross pay.”
