Family Class Immigrants to Canada 1981–1984
| Author | T. J. Samuel |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2435.1988.tb00650.x |
| Published date | 01 July 1988 |
| Date | 01 July 1988 |
Family Class Immigrants to Canada
Part
2*:
Some
Aspects
of
Social
Adaptation
1981
-
1984
:
T.
J.
SAMUEL**
Family Class immigration has been the cornerstone of Canadian immigration policy.
Top priority is given to the processing of Family Class immigrants in Canada’s immi-
gration posts. These immigrants cost virtually nothing to the public treasury once they
are processed since their sponsors look after their basic needs for several years after
amval.
During the 1970’s, the Family Class immigrants to Canada exceeded half a million,
about 36 per cent of total immigration. Another 3
12,000
amved during 1980-86 and in
1986 they formed 43 per cent of all immigrants to Canada.
The growing significance of Family Class immigration aroused concerns in various
quarters. For instance, the Auditor General of Canada in his report for the fiscal year
ending in March 1983 pointed out that the Family Class immigrant inflow had been quite
significant in recent years and that Employment and Immigration Canada ‘should eva-
luate the selection criteria for Family Class immigrants and spouses to determine
if
they
ensure that these immigrants will be able to become successfully established in Canada’.’
Another commentator wrote: ‘...many Family Class immigrants have little training,
don’t know the language, can’t get jobs, have difficulty adapting, and become
a
burden on
social programs and the Canadian tax payers’.2
Employment and Immigration Canada conducted a telephone survey
of
a random
sample of 1400 Family Class immigrants who became landed immigrants in Canada
between April 1981 and March 1984. The survey was conducted in 1985 among those
who settled in the metropolitan areas of Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, Calgary and
Vancouver in order to examine their adaptation.
Aspects related to the labour force activity of these immigrants have been reported in
an Employment and Immigration Canada working paper,
Family Class Immigrants
to
Canada, 1981-1984: Labour Force Activity Aspects.
The findings reported in the wor-
king paper contradict the opinions expressed above on the adaptation of Family Class
immigrants.
*Part
I
on
‘Labour
Force
Activity Aspects’ was published in the June issue,
Internafional
Migrarion
XXVl
(1988)
2,
171-186.
**
Employment
and
Immigration Canada, Ottawa (Canada).
287
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