Sense of belonging for immigrants not the same across Canada: study 

Canada welcomed a record number of immigrants last year, but survey findings suggest that not every province offers the same feeling of being “at home” for newcomers.

A new study from Statistics Canada released Wednesday showed that Atlantic provinces – New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island – and Ontario had the strongest feeling of integration, with 63 per cent of immigrants residing there reporting a “very strong sense of belonging.”

In Canada, the majority of immigrants live in Ontario — the country’s most populous province.

Among the newcomers in Quebec, 59 per cent said they had a “very strong sense of belonging.”

Out west, immigrants in British Columbia (53 per cent) and Alberta (56 per cent) had the weakest sense of belonging compared to the rest of Canada, StatCan said.

“Sense of belonging is associated with immigrants’ quality of life in Canada and their level of social integration,” the study said. “Taken together, this evidence shows that immigrants in Ontario and the Atlantic provinces have especially favourable views about belonging to Canada.”

3:19 Canada’s population just hit the 40-million milestone

The differences between Alberta and Ontario — which was used as a reference point — largely stem from the make-up and size of the immigrant population, perceptions of discrimination and structural conditions, such as unemployment rates and median income, StatCan said.

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However, the same factors could not be attributed to the differences seen in British Columbia when compared with Ontario.

Data from the 2020 General Social Survey was used for this study.

The survey was conducted between August 2020 and February 2021 and included nearly 14,000 landed immigrants across the 10 provinces.

Canada saw a sharp drop in the number of immigrants to the country in 2020 at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s not noted what the pandemic’s impacts might have had on survey respondents’ experiences.

Immigrants make up nearly a quarter of all people in Canada. The majority of newcomers arrive from India, the latest 2021 census data shows.

In a push to further boost immigration, the federal government has set a target of welcoming 1.45 million new immigrants over the next three years.

Canada recently reached a massive milestone with the population surpassing 40 million people. It’s projected that should the growth continue, Canada could see its population reach 50 million in just 20 years.