Why Canada might gain from a more uniform distribution population of immigrants

The percentage of recent immigrants who have settled in Canada’s three largest urban centers “continues to fall,” according to data from Statistical Canada’s most recent census. According to the most recent census data, the proportion of landed immigrants residing in one of the three cities decreased by 2.6% between 2016 and 2021, from 56.0% to 53.4%. The Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) in Montreal, where the share of immigration fell from 14.8% in 2016 to 12.2% in 2021, saw the biggest decline in the overall immigrant population.

In the meantime, more and more recent immigrants are choosing to settle farther from Toronto, Montreal, and especially Vancouver. In actuality, immigration to the Ottawa-Gatineau region increased by 1.3% (3.1% in 2016 to 4.4% in 2021). Additionally, over the same period, the Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo CMA saw an almost two-fold growth in the number of immigrants (1.2% to 2.1%), and in 2021, more than 3% of recent immigrants resided in both “small urban” (4.4%) and “rural” (3.2%) communities.

On a bigger scale, recent immigrants are dispersing to several Canadian provinces. Compared to earlier censuses, the proportion of recent immigrants improved in five provinces in 2021. In the most recent Canadian census, which encompassed four different quarterly reports, Ontario saw an increase in the percentage of recent immigrants, from 39% in 2016 to 44% in 2021. In the same period, immigration to British Columbia increased from 14.5% to 14.9%, and immigrant settlement increased in Prince Edward Island (0.3% to 0.4%), Nova Scotia (1% to 1.6%), as well as New Brunswick (0.8% to 1.2%).

What does this new distribution of immigrants signify for Canada?Widespread immigration in Canada benefits the entire country by fostering economic growth in the nation’s smaller areas, which is why Canada created its Provincial Nominee Programs (PNPs) in 1998.

Using one of the 11 PNPs or another immigration method, more immigrants will move to varied regions of Canada, where they will contribute to addressing local labor market needs. As new immigrants find employment, make money, and then spend money that feeds back into the economy, this will inevitably lead to economic growth in those areas. The fact that immigration is credited with 79.9% of Canada’s labor force increase serves as evidence of this between 2016 and 2022.

Newcomers will also continue to pay taxes and spend money on essentials like housing, transportation, and other necessities, which will help the economies of the regions of the country that are currently experiencing a boom in immigration grow even more.

In the long run, the establishment of these new immigrant settlement areas across Canada will benefit the entire nation since more regions will experience economic and developmental success, which will improve Canada throughout the country.