Guest column: Why are fewer newcomers becoming Canadian citizens?

Article content

By: Douglas Todd

Canada is witnessing a dramatic drop in newcomers choosing to become citizens.

There has been a 40 per cent decline in the past 25 years in the proportion of recent immigrants choosing to move on to citizenship, according to Statistics Canada researchers.

They point out only 46 per cent of recent immigrants to Canada are applying for citizenship, compared with 74 per cent in 1996, with most of the drop taking place between 2016 and 2021.

Article content

The relatively sudden plunge in so-called naturalization rates is most pronounced among recent arrivals from Asia. Only one out of four immigrants from China who qualify, for instance, are now seeking Canadian citizenship.

The rapid decline in citizenship among recent immigrants (defined as those who have been in Canada for five to nine years) hasn’t produced many headlines.

Some lambaste former Liberal prime minister Justin Trudeau for devaluing Canadian nationhood. They point, for example, to his much-debated 2016 interview with The New York Times when he said Canada is the world’s “first post-national state” and “there is no core identity, no mainstream in Canada.”

Others cite technical factors. They tend to blame the downturn on the COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2020. They argue it caused many foreign nationals to return to their homelands, which meant some failed to meet the citizenship requirement to spend at least three years out of their last five in Canada.

Article content

While there may be elements of truth in both explanations, migration is a convoluted enterprise. It requires families to make life-changing, emotional choices based on ever-changing policies.

There are likely multiple reasons fewer people are adopting Canadian citizenship — with B.C. witnessing the most significant drop, followed by Ontario and Alberta:

The pandemic

COVID might account for 40 per cent of the decline in naturalization rates in the five years before the 2021 census, according to the StatsCan research. But even after removing the pandemic effect, “the citizenship rate declined at a faster pace from 2016 to 2021 than during any other five-year period since 1996.”

Canada’s lost comparative advantage

With Canada performing poorly in the past decade in regard to GDP per-capita, the country isn’t offering the solid wages it once did. Meanwhile, many other countries are doing better.

Andrew Griffith, a former immigration department director now with the Institute for Canadian Citizenship (ICC), says many migrants with high-tech skills are using Canada as a stopover, where they can build up their credentials to eventually access the U.S. marketplace, which is harder to get into but has much higher-paying jobs.

Article content

Housing crisis

“Unaffordable housing is the top reason not to naturalize,” said Daniel Bernhard, CEO of the ICC. “This suggests that it’s a question of optimism about the future. If Canadians aren’t optimistic about our future overall, we shouldn’t be surprised that non-citizen residents of Canada feel the same way.”

Canadian citizenship devalued

Griffith believes Ottawa’s move to shift most citizenship ceremonies online has been discouraging for some.

He also thinks Canadian citizenship was diminished when the country moved to “unlimited voting rights for expatriates.” It used to be that non-resident citizens couldn’t vote after being out of the country for five years, but now it’s possible for millions to vote in federal elections regardless of how long they’ve been outside the country.

Ottawa has also “removed preferential hiring of citizens in the public service,” said Griffith. One now need only be a permanent resident to apply.

Article content

China makes things tougher

China has been among the top three sources of newcomers to Canada, making up one out of every four immigrants. But retired immigration lawyer Samuel Hyman notes China has been lately forcing its citizens to choose “whether they want to continue to have access to their wealth and assets in China” or be prepared to become Canadian citizens and struggle with far fewer rights in the homeland.

Lack of dual citizenship

Relatedly, the appeal of Canadian citizenship could be decreasing for people from nations like China and India in part because they don’t allow dual citizenship. As Hyman said by way of example, a migrant from India who becomes a Canadian citizen loses the right to inherit or buy property in India.

International tax scrutiny expanded

The government of Stephen Harper stepped up tax scrutiny of offshore wealth, said Hyman. That put pressure on people with luxury lifestyles to report to the Canada Revenue Agency on how and where they made their money. It may have contributed, Hyman said, to Canada losing its appeal to some high-net-worth individuals.

Lack of encouragement

Canada used to put more effort into encouraging would-be immigrants to learn Canadian history, laws and values, Griffith said, culminating in an often-emotional in-person ceremony.

Douglas Todd is a Postmedia News columnist with the Vancouver Sun. He can be reached at [email protected]

Article content