The Geographical Migration Decisions of Immigrants in British Columbia, Canada: An Empirical Study Using an Immigrant Longitudinal Database

Michael Haan, University of New Brunswick
Wen Ci, Statistics Canada
Marcel Voia, Carleton University
Zhou Yu, University of Utah

In this paper we use individual-level data from the Longitudinal Immigrant Database (IMDB) and community information from the 1996, 2001, and 2006 censuses of Canada to identify some of the individual and community-level determinants of secondary migration among three immigrant cohorts in the Canadian province of British Columbia. We use a rich set of observables, including admission category, recency of arrival, and household structure, at the individual level, and ethnic composition and neighbourhood affluence at the community level, to identify migration choices. We find distinct mobility patterns between immigrants that live in an ethnic enclave and those that do not. We also find that mobility differs by marital and low-income status, and discuss the implications of these findings.