Social Integration of Immigrants in Canada

Parveen Nangia , Laurentian University

Social integration provides a sense of connectedness to others and belongingness to the community. It is equally important for immigrants and the host communities. The objective of this study is to assess the level of social integration of immigrants in Canadian society. It also examines how social integration of immigrants changes over time and which factors contribute to successful integration. This paper uses data from the Canadian Community Health Survey, 2015-16, which collected information from nearly 110,000 individuals. This study compares social integration of recent immigrants, established immigrants and non-immigrants. Logistic regression is used to predict social integration of the three groups. Ten indicators of social integration are used, viz. emotional security, trustworthy relations, counting on someone in an emergency, depending on someone for help, enjoyment of social activities, talking to someone for important decisions, recognition of skills, sharing of beliefs, emotional bonds, and admiration of abilities. Findings of the study reveal that on all these indicators, except for sharing of beliefs, there is no significant difference between recent and established immigrants. However, a significant difference between established immigrants and non-immigrants on all these indicators indicates that immigrants have a lower level of social integration. Recent immigrants are similar to established immigrants on the scale of social integration, but established immigrants have a significantly lower level of social integration than non-immigrants. Results of the logistic regression show that selected predictors of social integration have a differential effect on integration of recent immigrants, established immigrants and non-immigrants.

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 Presented in Session P3. Poster Session Migration, Economics, Environment, Methods, History and Policy