Becoming Canadian Citizens: Intent, process and outcome

1
Becoming Canadian Citizens Intent, process and
outcome
Kelly Tran, Tina Chui Statistics Canada Stan
Kustec, Martha Justus Citizenship and
Immigration Canada Prepared for the annual
meetings of the Canadian Population Society June
5, 2004 Winnipeg, Manitoba
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Citizenship and Naturalization

• extent or quality of participation in society
• formal status of belonging to a society
• final stage of the migration process
• measure of the willingness by the immigrant to
  integrate
• benefits
• voting rights
• access to certain jobs and occupations
• hold a Canadian passport
• protection from deportation

3
Becoming Canadian citizens

• 18 years of age or older
• parents can apply for citizenship on behalf of
  their children
• families can apply for citizenship together
• permanent resident of Canada
• have lived in Canada for at least three of the
  four years before applying
• time spent in Canada before becoming a permanent
  resident may be counted towards residency
  requirement
• be able to communicate in either English or
  French
• know about Canada and about the rights and
  responsibilities of citizenship
• citizenship test for those age 18 to 59 years
• appear before a citizenship judge to be
  officially recognized as a Canadian citizen

4
Canada has high citizenship take-up rates
compared with other countries
Proportion of foreign-born and citizenship
take-up rates among the eligible, Canada, the
United States, Australia and the United Kingdom
25
100
Foreign-born
Naturalized citizens
84
20
80
75
15
60
56
10
40
40
5
20
0
0
Canada
United States
Australia
United Kingdom
Source Statistics Canada, United States Census
Bureau, Australian Bureau of Statistics, United
Kingdom Home Office
5
Citizenship intentions were high early in the
migration process
Citizenship intentions of immigrants to Canada 6
months after landing, 2001
Source Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to
Canada (LSIC) Wave 1, 2001
6
Recent immigrants taking up citizenship earlier
and at a faster rate than earlier immigrants
Source Statistics Canada, 1981,1991, 2001 Census
7
Immigrants from Africa and Asia have highest
take-up rates
Naturalization rates by period of immigration and
region of birth for Canada, 2001

120.0
100.0
80.0
60.0
United States
Central, South America and the
Caribbean
40.0
Northern and Western Europe
Southern and Eastern Europe
Africa
20.0
Asia
Oceania and other
0.0
4-5 years
6-10 years
11-20 years
21-30 years
31-40 years
41-50 years
50 years
Number of years in Canada
Source Statistics Canada 2001 Census
8
Younger migrants take-up citizenship more than
older migrants
Source Statistics Canada, 1981,1991, 2001 Census
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What the Census can reveal

• Advantages
• Vast array of demographic, ethno-cultural and
  economic variables
• Large sample size and detailed geography
• Comparison group Canadian by birth
• Historical data available
• Limitations
• Does not reveal when citizenship was obtained
• No information on landing characteristics
• Self reported citizenship characteristics

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Administrative records

• A new administrative database obtained from 2
  sources
• The Permanent Resident Data System (PRDS)
• The Citizenship Registry System (CRS)
• PRDS data contains detailed information on
  immigrant landings, including category of entry,
  country of birth, country of last permanent
  residence, country of citizenship, as well as
  many others
• CRS contains information relevant to the
  citizenship process including the date of the
  citizenship application, whether or not
  citizenship was awarded and when
• The two datasets linked by individual identifiers
  then merged to evaluate citizenship take-up rates
  by landing characteristics

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Refugees have highest naturalization rates
Source Citizenship and Immigration Canada,
PRDS-CDS
12
Refugees take up citizenship earliest and family
class immigrants take longer to obtain citizenship
Source Citizenship and Immigration Canada,
PRDS-CDS
13
Immigrants from China and Lebanon take-up
citizenship earlier on than those from other
countries
Source Citizenship and Immigration Canada,
PRDS-CDS
14
Most immigrants take-up citizenship after 4 years
of residence
Source Citizenship and Immigration Canada,
PRDS-CDS
15
Administrative records

• Advantages
• Provides key process of citizenship information
  
• Allows for examination of landing characteristics
  and citizenship acquisition
• Contains all immigrants and all citizenship
  applicants
• Trajectory from landing to citizenship can be
  examined
• Limitations
• Data available only since 1991
• Can not tell whether these immigrants are still
  in Canada
• No information on multiple citizenships

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Research potential

• New data initiative of combining landing records
  and citizenship registry information provides a
  more complete picture of the citizenship process
• The PRDS-CDS allows more policy based research
  due to the information on landing
  characteristics, especially admission categories
• Citizenship information from the Census can
  examine the outcome of integration, i.e. labour
  market performance and educational attainment
• Information from the LSIC can assess the
  citizenship process during the initial 4 years in
  Canada and how the other aspects of integration
  impacts the citizenship decision
• Administrative records facilitate verification of
  self-reported census data