A report prepared for the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer of Canada says newly-arrived immigrants’ incomes grew faster than those of other Canadians.
“During the period 2014 to 2018, their relative income went from 55 per cent to 78 per cent of that of all Canadian tax filers,” note Philip Bagnoli, Chris Matier and Xiaoyi Yan in Income Dynamics Of New Immigrants To Canada.
Although the boost in the incomes of immigrants was broad-based, those who came to Canada from Asian countries, including India, the Philippines and China, seemed to have fared best and so did those with higher education coming to take higher-paying jobs.
“Those in professional occupations (e.g., engineers, applied scientists, teachers, accountants, physicians, etc.) were responsible for much of the narrowed gap, in terms of their incomes one year after landing,” note the authors of the report.
Strong family networks in Canada prior to immigration and the ability to work as temporary foreign workers or international students before gaining permanent residency seemed to have helped immigrants to Canada boost their incomes during those years.