Exploring the Ethnic Immigrant Inflows from Latin America to Canada: 1981-2016

Abstract

Using 2016 census data, the study carried out five socio-demographic explorations regarding 25 ethnic immigrant inflows from Latin America to Canada occurring between 1981 and 2016. The population represented by these inflows comprised approximately 470 thousand immigrants. The data was drawn from two special 2016 census tables which collected information on immigrants' admission categories (economic, family and refugee) and their reported ethnic ancestries. Explorations focused on the following aspects: census counts and periods of arrival, residential preferences, admission class mix, population configurations and human capital attainment profiles. Five main historical immigrant waves had been already been identified by Canadian scholars: Lead or Eurolatino, Andean, Coup, Central American and Technological or Professional. Evidence of the presence of these immigrant waves was found in the census data explorations undertaken. Census figures revealed that the largest ethnic immigrant inflow corresponded to those reporting Spanish ancestry (158 thousand or 34% of the total) followed by the Colombian, Mexican, Salvadoran and Peruvian inflows. Residential concentrations in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec were also detected. Explorations suggest that "Latino" communities in Canada are emerging as the demographic product of a mixture of admission classes which are uniquely distributed in age-gender cohorts of their respective population configurations. Human capital attainment explorations revealed that inflow members of the working populations corresponding to the fifth technological or professional wave from countries such as Venezuela, Mexico, Brazil and Colombia ranked at top levels of education and income achievements, those admitted as economic class in particular. The study of Latin American ethnic inflows to Canada is especially relevant for social policy because it represents a "collective" case study where the researcher is able to summarize a complex immigration picture through the examination of the geographical region representing a sample of units which ensures maximum variation in terms of several push-pull migratory factors at work.