Emigration from Canada: Rationale and Implications of Immigrants Leaving

Emigration from Canada is an important phenomenon that often gets overshadowed by our academic and policy focus on immigration issues. However, asking and understanding why people leave Canada is equally important for a country that relies so heavily on its immigrant population for various economic, labour market and demographic challenges. It is also important for policymakers to think about immigration policies beyond just attracting immigrants to come to Canada but also to ensure that they feel well integrated in the society to retain them.

Exploring the migration journeys of immigrants to Canada and their decisions to leave Canada involves a deeper examination of the motivations, aspirations, challenges and experiences of this immigrant/emigrant population and their decision-making processes resulting in unique trajectories. This project takes a holistic approach to explore this by using the IMDB database to quantitatively analyze the characteristics of emigrants and the trends in onward migration among Canadian immigrants. We will also collect primary data through interviews of immigrants who have emigrated from Canada to explore their rationale and decision-making processes. We are particularly interested to identify the turning point that led an immigrant to decide to leave.

This research uses a mixed-methods approach incorporating both quantitative and qualitative methods. We analyze the Longitudinal Immigrant Database (IMDB) to provide an up-to-date estimate on the number of immigrants that have left Canada over the years. Furthermore, we will look at the socio-economic and demographic profile of those leaving to understand implications for Canada’s economic, labour market and demographic challenges. In addition, the qualitative research will focus on conducting 50 semi-structured interviews with Canadian immigrants who have emigrated out of Canada to explore their migration trajectories and understand their rationale and decision-making processes.

This project is in progress, quantitative data collection is currently ongoing.