New research suggests more newcomers to Canada have chosen to leave in recent years, a threat to a country that relies on immigration to drive population and economic growth.
The rate of immigrants leaving the country, or onward migration, has been steadily increasing since the 1980s and is rising among recent cohorts, suggesting newcomers “may not be seeing the benefits of moving to Canada,” according to a study on immigrant retention by the Institute for Canadian Citizenship and the Conference Board of Canada.
The report, published Tuesday, underscored the risks of Canada failing to meet expectations of newcomers, who are facing worsening housing affordability, a strained health-care system and underemployment, among other issues. It also highlighted how disillusionment among immigrants can slow down progress even in a country that consistently sets fresh records for population gains.
“It’s a reflection on our broader society and more intractable failings that we have. If immigrants are saying ‘no, thanks’ and moving on, that’s a real existential threat to Canada’s prosperity,” Daniel Bernhard, chief executive officer of the Institute for Canadian Citizenship, a pro-immigration advocacy group, said in an interview. “We need to wake up and recognize that if we don’t deliver, people will leave. And if they leave, we’re in trouble.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has been using immigration to rapidly add more workers to stave off economic decline from an aging populace. But record population growth in recent years has led to growing criticism that its policies have exacerbated existing housing shortages and added more pressure on infrastructure and services like health care.
The report showed spikes in the annual rates of immigrants leaving Canada in 2017 and 2019, reaching 20-year highs of 1.1 per cent and 1.18 per cent, respectively. That’s compared to the average of 0.9 per cent of people who were granted permanent residence after 1982 who leave Canada each year. While the numbers may not sound significant, they add up over time and can lead to attrition of 20 per cent or more of an arrival cohort over 25 years.
Earlier this week, a survey by Environics Institute showed waning public support for high levels of immigration due to concerns of housing affordability and availability. That dwindling support, combined with growing dissatisfaction among newcomers, will be a fresh challenge for a government that’s trying to placate an outcry over an affordability crisis while competing in a global race for skilled workers.
The lack of enthusiasm for staying in Canada, which led to onward migration by some newcomers, is also behind a sharp drop in immigrants choosing to become Canadians, according to Bernhard. The proportion of permanent residents who took up citizenship within 10 years of arrival dropped by 40 per cent between 2001 and 2021.
“If Canada can’t reverse these issues and can’t provide these vital services and affordability, immigrants will leave,” Bernhard said. “We need to be working harder to make sure that they’re happy here, so that they contribute here, become Canadians and contribute to our shared success. We need to realize that on balance, immigrants may owe Canada less than Canada owes immigrants.”
It gets even worse if you’re from the US, which requires you to continue to pay taxes, even if you’re on the other side of the world. Then you have to pay US taxes and Canadian taxes, or, in the case of one of my friends, US and Finnish taxes.
The US is one of only two countries that attach taxes to citizenship and not current residence. The other is Eritrea, a country mainly known for its near-total lack of civil rights and freedom of the press; a country which regularly sits near or at the bottom of any list or study that attempts to score things like human rights and freedom of speech. Funny, because one of our parties seems to think Eritrea is a cool place to emulate.
US gives tax credits for any taxes you paid to your resident country. You therefore only pay the taxes if US taxes are higher than your resident country, which is almost never case. So really you just have to file US taxes not actually pay anything more.
I believe that’s only true if the countries have a reciprocal tax treaty. In practice I think the US has one with most countries, but I’m sure there are exceptions where both the US and that country would expect you to pay their full taxes.
I have a friend who’s been living in Finland for years who still has to pay taxes to the US. Granted, he may be fucking up his taxes and he is a freelancer, so that might make things different, but yeah. You have to pay a lot more in taxes as a freelancer than if you’re employed by a company (companies have to pay 50% of taxes, so if you’re a freelancer then you have to cover the amount that’d normally be covered by your employer).
This sounds very incorrect. Perhaps Finland is different, but in Canada companies just “withhold taxes at source”. So of you make $100k and pay $31k in tax, payroll will just remove 31%, sent directly to the GoC (and revenue QC). Companies are absolutely not paying a portion for you, they are just remove the monies for you.
Finnish tax law is trickier due to resident/EU/non-resident finagling my, but on the surface it looks like it’s just tax at source like Canada. Suomi.fi
Perhaps there is confusion with insurance/pension/social securities payments? Companies will often contribute to these, and it looks like employers take the majority in Finland with an ~9:5 split averaged over all payments.