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

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

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

Canada has high citizenship take-up rates compared with other countries Source: Statistics Canada, United States Census Bureau, Australian Bureau of Statistics, United Kingdom Home Office Proportion of foreign-born and citizenship take-up rates among the eligible, Canada, the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom 56% 84% 75% 40% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% CanadaUnited StatesAustraliaUnited Kingdom 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Foreign-bornNaturalized citizens

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

Recent immigrants taking up citizenship earlier and at a faster rate than earlier immigrants Source: Statistics Canada, 1981,1991, 2001 Census

Immigrants from Africa and Asia have highest take-up rates Source: Statistics Canada 2001 Census Naturalization rates by period of immigration and region of birth for Canada, years6-10 years11-20 years21-30 years31-40 years41-50 years50+ years Number of years in Canada % United States Central, South America and the Caribbean Northern and Western Europe Southern and Eastern Europe Africa Asia Oceania and other

Younger migrants take-up citizenship more than older migrants Source: Statistics Canada, 1981,1991, 2001 Census

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

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

Refugees have highest naturalization rates Source: Citizenship and Immigration Canada, PRDS-CDS

Refugees take up citizenship earliest and family class immigrants take longer to obtain citizenship Source: Citizenship and Immigration Canada, PRDS-CDS

Immigrants from China and Lebanon take-up citizenship earlier on than those from other countries Source: Citizenship and Immigration Canada, PRDS-CDS

Most immigrants take-up citizenship after 4 years of residence Source: Citizenship and Immigration Canada, PRDS-CDS

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

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