Newcomers to Canada are settling outside urban cores

From: Conference Board of Canada

Imafge credit: Claude Laprise on Unsplash

Communities across Canada are experiencing changes in their populations of immigrants and temporary residents who live there.

The Conferecne Board of Canada analyzed the geographic distribution of these newcomers to help forecast scenarios and guide local-level policies.

Its maps and data help identify population trends by census division and can be used to optimize policy decisions that span housing, healthcare, settlement services, education, and labour force dynamics.

Key findings, below:

The temporary resident population in Canada has grown considerably. Many regions of Canada saw their temporary resident populations – people with temporary status, such as temporary foreign workers, international students, and refugee claimants – more than double between 2016 and 2021, with some regions seeing growth over 1,000 per cent.

Quebec saw some of the highest growth, with the temporary resident populations growing between 209 and 1,520 per cent in rural regions. Many urban areas including Montréal, Longueuil, Québec City, Gatineau, and Laval saw more temporary residents as well.

In urban regions, increases in temporary residents probably include a mix of international students and temporary foreign workers, as well as their families, while increases in other regions probably include mostly temporary workers and their family members

Immigrants are settling outside urban cores. The ring of census divisions surrounding Mon-tréal showed larger increases in the immigrant population than urban centres Montréal, Laval, and Lon-gueil.

A similar phenomenon played out around the Greater Toronto Area. York and Peel showed small growth in their immigrant popu-lations of just 8.1 per cent (York) and 5.4 per cent (Peel). Regions surrounding these showed significant immigrant increases, ranging from nearly 19 per cent to over 30 per cent.

Whether due to the pandemic or housing unavailability or unaffordability in traditional cores, these increases indicate that immigrants are settling away from urban centres.

It’s not just more people arriving – the demographic characteristics of these regions are changing. Most regions of Prince Edward Island experienced an increase in its female immigrant population, and particularly its female temporary resident population, between 2016 and 2021.

Identifying gendered population changes helps communities recognize changing needs within their jurisdiction, such as the increased requirement for particular services like medical or settlement services aimed at a particular sex. P.E.I. can expect increased demand for services aimed at women.

– Conference Board of Canada