The research titled “Non-permanent Residents in Canada: A Portrait of a Growing Population from the 2021 Census” was issued by Statistic Canada on June 20.
The research titled “Non-permanent Residents in Canada: A Portrait of a Growing Population from the 2021 Census” was issued by Statistic Canada on June 20. Based on findings from the 2021 Census of Population, the study analyses the non-permanent residents’ characteristics according to the cause for their temporary stay in Canada.
The survey found that the proportion of non-permanent residents in Canada’s population is rising. Temporary foreign workers, international students, and asylum seekers are all eligible to reside in Canada as non-permanent residents. NPRs made for 2.5% of Canada’s population in 2021 when the census counted approximately 1 million of them.
The majority of those one million, or NPRs, had a work permit. In 2021, 14.2% of NPRs also had a study permit in addition to their job permit, while 40.1% of NPRs had a work permit solely. Additionally, NPRs with a study permit made up 21.9% of all NPRs. 15.1% of NPRs were requests for refugee protection. Other NPR kinds, such as temporary resident permit holders, NPRs’ families, and parents’ and grandparents’ super visa holders, made up the remaining 8.7% of the population.
NPRs are younger than the majority of Canadians.
In the 2021 Census, young adults between the ages of 20 and 34 made up 6 out of 10 NPRs. Comparatively, young adults made up 18.4% of the rest of Canada’s population, compared to 37.3% of recent immigrants.
The fact that most NPRs have work permits and study permits, which are often held by people between the ages of 20 and 34, may account for their young age.
The top two countries for NPR births are India and China.
Although NPRs originated from a variety of nations, India and China were the most prevalent birthplaces for NPRs (28.5 and 10.5%, respectively). Except for Quebec, where France was the most popular country of birth for NPRs (20.4%), India and China were the top two countries of birth nationwide.
The most frequent country of birth among asylum seekers was Nigeria (10.7%), followed by India (8.3%) and Mexico (8.1%). This varied considerably between provinces. Nigeria (15.4%) was the most common country of birth in Ontario, followed by Haiti (17.6%) in Quebec and Iran (29.8%) in British Columbia.
The majority speak an official language
The wide range of NPR-originating nations contributes to Canada’s linguistic diversity and richness. But 95.3% of NPRs were able to speak at least one official language.
97% of NPRs with study permits and 99% of those with work and study permits said they knew either English or French. The percentage (86.7%) for asylum seekers was still high.
Outside of Quebec, 94.8% of people knew English, compared to 4.6% who knew French. 68.4% of NPRs in Quebec were bilingual in French.
High involvement in the labour force
Canada’s population is aging, its fertility rate is falling, and there are worker shortages. As a result, Canada depends on NRPs to boost the economy and fill open positions.
NPRs had a higher labor force participation rate (74.2%) than the general population (63.4%). But this disparity is probably explained by the youth of NPRs. The most popular employment among NPRs aged 15 and older was in sales and service. Compared to a quarter (25%) of the rest of Canada’s population, more than one-third (36.4%) of NPRs employed in sales and service-related occupations.
Under-utilization of skills IN NPR
NPRs were more likely to work in non-educational occupations (23.7%) than the general population (15.7%) while having greater average educational attainment than the general population.
In 2021, just 26.2% of recent immigrants and 15.9% of the remainder of Canada’s population were overqualified for their current positions, compared to 32.4% of NPRs with a bachelor’s degree or more.
Furthermore, the over-qualification of NPRs was unaffected by whether the bachelor’s degree or higher was earned in Canada or overseas. Foreign credentials accounted for 34% of over-qualification, whereas domestic credentials accounted for 28.1%.
