Immigrant and Temporary Resident Children in British Columbia

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1 and Temporary Resident Children in British Columbia January 2011 During the five-year period from 2005 to 2009, on average, approximately 40,000 immigrants arrived in B.C. annually and approximately 7,900 were children. Most children arrived as dependents under the Economic immigration class. children came to B.C. as International Students, Humanitarian Cases and Temporary Residents. Between 2005 and 2009, approximately 82,000 temporary residents arrived annually in B.C. and approximately 5,900 were children. A large proportion of temporary resident children arrived as International Students. Whether children come to Canada as dependants of immigrants or come to study, they may face challenges in integrating into Canadian society. For example, language could be a barrier for them to integrate into society. Fewer immigrant child arrivals to B.C. have official language ability than the national average. This report focuses on immigrant child arrivals to B.C. from 2005 to 2009 defined as children age 0 to 14 years old, including their share of total immigrant arrivals, immigration class, source countries, official language ability and mother tongue. The report also profiles the temporary resident children in B.C. and the trends over the past decade. New Child Arrivals to B.C. B.C. welcomes approximately 40,000 new immigrants each year, and approximately one in five are children, comparable with the national share. Between the years 2005 and 2009, B.C. became a new home to 39,443 immigrants between the ages of 0 and 14 years old. That is an average of 7,889 immigrant children arriving each year. In 2009, 7,296 immigrant children arrived in B.C., a decrease of 20.8% from Chart 1: Child Arrivals to B.C. ( ) 10,000 9,000 8,000 7,000 6,000 5,000 4,000 3,000 2,000 1, ,213 7,752 8,069 7,113 7, % 20% 18% 16% 14% 12% 10% 8% 6% 4% 2% 0% Children (0-14 years) % of All s Policy & Decision Support Branch Ministry of Regional Economic and Skills Development

2 2 data in this report comes from two different sources, the 2006 Census and Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC). Temporary resident data in this report come from CIC. Temporary resident data generally refer to stock numbers unless otherwise indicated. For definition of stock, see Glossary of Terms. Data from CIC was extracted in June The data may differ slightly from the official statistics as published by CIC at It is important to note that the analyses presented in this fact sheet are descriptive in nature. The results have no controls for the multiple factors that influence the statistics. Source Countries The top three source countries of new immigrant child arrivals to B.C. from 2005 to 2009 were Mainland China (23.3%), the Philippines (12.7%), and South Korea (8.1%) which accounted for 44.1% (17,405 out of 39,443) of the immigrant child arrivals. Almost two thirds of immigrant child arrivals were from the Asia Pacific region which is comparable to the immigrant youth and adult shares to B.C. The top three source countries of immigrant youth and adults to B.C. were Mainland China, India and the Philippines. Chart 3: Top Five Source Countries of Child Arrivals to B.C. ( ) During the five years from 2005 to 2009, most immigrant child arrivals to B.C. were Economic class arrivals (80.0%). Within the Economic class arrivals, a large proportion of immigrant child arrivals were dependents of the principal applicants in the Federal Skilled Worker class (66.0%), followed by the Business class (19.9%), Provincial Nominee class (8.8%) and Live-in Caregiver Program class (5.2%). Twenty percent of child immigrants arrived in the Non- Economic class to B.C. from 2005 to Within the Non- Economic class, 62.3% of child immigrant arrivals were in the Family class, followed by the Refugee class (31.5%), and the class (6.2%). Chart 2: Child Arrivals to B.C. by Immigration Class ( ) Refugee, 2,481, 6.3% Family, 4,918, 12.5% Live-in Caregiver, 1,627, 4.1% Provincial Nominee, 2,768, 7.0% Business, 6,294, 16.0% Economic Class, 489, 1.2% Federal Skilled Worker, 20,837, 52.9% Non-economic Class source countries, 16,842, 42.7% s come to Canada in different immigration classes. There are eight broad immigration classes, which can be grouped down into two major classes, Economic class and Non-Economic class. Economic class immigrants are selected for their skills and ability to contribute to Canada s economy. This class of immigrants includes members of the Federal Skilled Worker, Business, Provincial Nominee, Live-in Caregiver, and Canadian Experience classes. Economic class immigrants include the principal applicant and their dependants (i.e. spouses and dependent children). Non-Economic class immigrants are members of the Family Class, Refugee Class, and s. Intended Destination India, 2,451, 6.2% Mainland China, 9,199, 23.3% United States, 2,745, 7.0% Philippines, 5,000, 12.7% S. Korea, 3,206, 8.1% In the five years from 2005 to 2009, Metro Vancouver was the intended destination of 88.1% of new immigrant children (34,730 out of 39,443). This was comparable with all B.C. immigrants at 85.6%.

3 3 Chart 4: Child Arrivals with Official Language Ability by Province, ( ) 60.0% 55.8% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 40.7% 31.6% 43.2% 36.9% 48.1% 41.4% 40.8% 30.8% National=38.3% 20.0% 21.4% 20.3% 10.0% 0.0% AB BC MB NB NL NS ON PE QC SK Territories Official Language Ability During the five-year period from 2005 to 2009, 31.6% (12,463) of new immigrant children to B.C. had official language ability, (i.e. spoke some level of English or French). This was lower than the national share (38.3%). B.C., at 31.6%, had the fourth lowest share of immigrant children with official language ability across the provinces. Provinces with lower proportions were Saskatchewan (30.8%), Manitoba (21.4%) and Prince Edward Island (20.3%). Excluding the Territories, Nova Scotia (48.1%) and New Brunswick (43.2%) had the highest shares of immigrant child arrivals with official language ability. Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and Newfoundland had national shares just above or below the national average of 38.3%. immigrant children were Chinese, English and Arabic, followed by Tagalog as a close fourth. Chart 5: Top Five Mother Tongues of Child arrivals to B.C. ( ) mother tongues, 11,482, 29.1% Chinese, 12,961, 32.9% Punjabi, 1,825, 4.6% Korean, 3,260, 8.3% Tagalog, 4,620, 11.7% English, 5,295, 13.4% Children in B.C. in 2006 Mother Tongues In B.C., the top three mother tongues of new immigrant children were Chinese (32.9%), followed by English (13.4%) and Tagalog (11.7%). In Canada, the top three mother tongues of 2006 Census shows that there were 52,620 immigrant children in B.C. children represented 7.7% of the total child population in B.C. in 2006, well above the national share of 6.2%. Only Ontario had a higher proportion of the immigrant child population (8.2%). The proportion was much higher in Metro Vancouver where 12.7% of children were immigrants

4 4 and Greater Toronto had the highest proportion (13.7%). Of the 52,620 immigrant children in B.C. in 2006, 31,720, or 60.3%, immigrated to Canada between 2001 and 2006, 32.4% immigrated to Canada between 1996 and 2000 and 7.3% immigrated to Canada before s living in B.C. are concentrated in Metro Vancouver, as are immigrant children. According to the 2006 Census, while 50.9% of the total child population in B.C. lived in Metro Vancouver, a full 83.4% of immigrant children in the province lived there. Chart 6: Distribution of Child Population in B.C by Immigration Status and Period of Immigration, 2006 Children arrived , 31,720, 4.7% Children arrived , 17,050, 2.5% Children arrived before 1996, 3,850, 0.6% International Student Children In 2009, there were 55,508 International Students in B.C. and 11.4% of them were children, which was higher than the national share of 8.0%. The number of International Student children in B.C. has doubled in the ten years since 2000 from 3,117 to 6,304 in International Student children came from over 80 countries but two-thirds were from South Korea. The top five source countries were South Korea (63.5%), United Kingdom (4.8%), Taiwan (3.4%), Mexico (3.2%), and the United States (2.5%). With the implementation of Canada s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, international students taking a short-term course or program (e.g. English language course) of six months or less no longer require a study permit. For this reason, the reported number of international students understates the total number engaged in studies. Chart 7: Top 5 Source Countries for International Student Children in B.C (2009) Non-immigrant 620,575, 92.2% Data Source: Statistics Canada, 2006 Census United States, 159, 2.5% Mexico, 201, 3.2% Taiwan, 213, 3.4% United Kingdom, 301, 4.8% source countries, 1,430, 22.7% South Korea, 4,000, 63.5%, stock on December 1st Temporary Resident Children Temporary Resident Children in B.C. In 2009, there were 142,564 temporary residents in B.C. and 7.0% or 10,065 of them were children, which was comparable to the national share at 7.3%. Of the temporary resident children, almost two-thirds (62.6%) were International Students, 30.8% Temporary Residents and 6.3% Humanitarian Population. Temporary Residents are persons with a temporary resident permit or a visitor record issued for the purpose of entering Canada. In 2009, there were 12,167 Temporary Residents in B.C. and 25.5% of them (3,102) were children which was lower than the national share of 29.3%. The number of Temporary Resident children in B.C. has increased five-fold from 625 in 2000 to 3,102 in 2009.

5 5 Chart 8: Humanitarian Cases in B.C. ( ) 10,000 Humanitarian Population (all other ages) Humanitarian Child Population (ages 0-14 yrs) 8,000 6,000 4,000 2, , stock on December 1st The country of last permanent residence is used for determining source countries for International Students or s. For Humanitarian cases the country of citizenship more accurately reflects source country as some refugee claimants transit through another country before entering Canada. In 2009 by country of citizenship, Mexico was the top source country for Humanitarian children to B.C. at 37.1% followed by the United States (14.4%), Hungary (8.5%), Afghanistan (3.0%) and Colombia (2.7%). B.C. and Temporary Resident Child Arrivals Trends Humanitarian Children In 2009, there were 5,784 Humanitarian cases in B.C. and 11.0% or 634 of them were children, which was comparable with the national share of 13.4%. All of the B.C. Humanitarian child cases were Refugee Claimants. From 2000 to 2009, the total Humanitarian cases in B.C. declined significantly (55.3%) from 9,367 in 2000 to the lowest in the past decade at 4,183 in There has been an increase over the past two years to 5,784 in The share of the Humanitarian children also declined (50.6%) from 1,283 in 2000 to 634 in Temporary resident data in this section refer to flow numbers in order to compare with the immigrant arrival data. For definition of flow, see Glossary of Terms. Over the ten-year period from 2000 to 2009, immigrant child arrivals to B.C. have fluctuated but averaged about 7,500 children per year. During this time, the growth of temporary resident child arrivals to B.C. has increased by 77.4% to 5,592 children in Between 2000 and 2009, Temporary Resident child arrivals to B.C. increased the most (+201.4%), followed by International Student child arrivals (+56.2%). The Humanitarian child arrivals decreased from 2000 until 2006,s when they began to increase again until they reached almost the same level in 2009.

6 6 Chart 9: Child and Temporary Resident Child Arrivals to B.C., (2000 and 2009) Flow Temporary Resident 653, 6.2% International Student 2,077, 19.6% 7,448, 70.5% Humanitaria n 393, 3.7% Temporary Resident 1,968, 15.3% Humanitari an 341, 2.7% Internation al Student 3,244, 25.2% 7,296, 56.8% , flow or entries Chart 10: Child & Temporary Resident Child Arrivals to B.C., ( ) Flow 10,000 8,000 6,000 4,000 2, Children Temporary Resident Children International Student Children Humanitarian Children, flow or entries For more immigration reports and statistics, please visit: trends For more information on the and Temporary Resident Children Fact Sheet, contact: Selma Low, Immigration Research Unit Policy & Decision Support Branch Labour Market and Immigration Division, Ministry of Regional Economic and Skills Development Selma.Low@gov.bc.ca Thanks to Kitty Kwok for her work on this fact sheet during her time with the Immigration Research Unit. Glossary of Terms Temporary Resident Stock: the number of temporary residents present in the CIC administrative system on a specific date; usually reported as of December 1st. Temporary Resident Flow: the number of temporary residents identified as entering the CIC administrative system (and presumably the country) for the first time over a period of time (usually one year). Flows are calculated as of the earliest effective data of any valid permit issued to a temporary resident.