IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/ariqol/v19y2024i5d10.1007_s11482-024-10351-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Factors Associated with the Sense of Community Belonging of Immigrants: Insight from the 2011–2018 Canadian Community Health Survey

Author

Listed:
  • Charles Gyan

    (McGill University)

  • Batholomew Chireh

    (EPID@Work Research Institute, Lakehead University)

Abstract

Canada is one of the world’s important migration poles. For several decades, immigration has contributed to Canada’s ethnic, economic, cultural and diversity development. This paper examines the associated factors of sense of community belonging among immigrants using a pooled data from the 2011–2018 Canadian Community Health Survey. A secondary analysis of the Canadian Community Health Surveys, 2011–2018 was conducted. A subsample of the immigrant population (n = 64,680) was used for this analysis. All analyses were performed in STATA version 18. The article employed descriptive statistics, univariate, and multivariate ordinal logistic regression models to analyze the association between immigrants' sense of community belonging and various demographic and socio-economic predictors. The results indicate that 69.94% of immigrants reported a strong sense of community belonging. Overall, age, life satisfaction, personal income, homeownership, sex, and belonging to a visible minority were positively associated with a stronger sense of community belonging. Conversely, factors like higher household income, higher educational attainment, being single, lack of proficiency in official languages, and experiencing extreme life stress were associated with a weaker sense of community belonging. This research underscores the complex interplay between socio-economic status, personal circumstances, and immigrants' integration into their new communities. It points to the need for targeted policy interventions and community support programs that address the varied needs of immigrants to foster a greater sense of community belonging and facilitate successful integration. The study contributes to the growing body of literature on immigration, integration, and community belonging, emphasizing the importance of considering a wide range of factors in understanding and supporting immigrant populations in Canada.

Suggested Citation

  • Charles Gyan & Batholomew Chireh, 2024. "Factors Associated with the Sense of Community Belonging of Immigrants: Insight from the 2011–2018 Canadian Community Health Survey," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 19(5), pages 2685-2704, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ariqol:v:19:y:2024:i:5:d:10.1007_s11482-024-10351-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s11482-024-10351-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11482-024-10351-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11482-024-10351-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paul W. Miller & Barry R. Chiswick, 2002. "Immigrant earnings: Language skills, linguistic concentrations and the business cycle," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 15(1), pages 31-57.
    2. Karin Amit & Shirly Bar-Lev, 2015. "Immigrants’ Sense of Belonging to the Host Country: The Role of Life Satisfaction, Language Proficiency, and Religious Motives," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 124(3), pages 947-961, December.
    3. Costanza, Robert & Fisher, Brendan & Ali, Saleem & Beer, Caroline & Bond, Lynne & Boumans, Roelof & Danigelis, Nicholas L. & Dickinson, Jennifer & Elliott, Carolyn & Farley, Joshua & Gayer, Diane Elli, 2007. "Quality of life: An approach integrating opportunities, human needs, and subjective well-being," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2-3), pages 267-276, March.
    4. Fauser, Margit & Liebau, Elisabeth & Voigtländer, Sven & Tuncer, Hidayet & Faist, Thomas & Razum, Oliver, 2015. "Measuring Transnationality of Immigrants in Germany: Prevalence and Relationship with Social Inequalities," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 38(9), pages 1497-1519.
    5. Adam Shapiro & Corey Keyes, 2008. "Marital Status and Social Well-Being: Are the Married Always Better Off?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 88(2), pages 329-346, September.
    6. Lasser, K.E. & Himmelstein, D.U. & Woolhandler, S., 2006. "Access to care, health status, and health disparities in the United States and Canada: Results of a Cross-National Population Based Survey," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 96(7), pages 1300-1307.
    7. McLafferty, S. & Grady, S., 2005. "Immigration and geographic access to prenatal clinics in Brooklyn, NY: A geographic information systems analysis," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 95(4), pages 638-640.
    8. Peter Kitchen & Allison Williams & James Chowhan, 2012. "Sense of Community Belonging and Health in Canada: A Regional Analysis," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 107(1), pages 103-126, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Asanin, Jennifer & Wilson, Kathi, 2008. ""I spent nine years looking for a doctor": Exploring access to health care among immigrants in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(6), pages 1271-1283, March.
    2. Ina Teresa Wilczewska, 2023. "Examining the Relationship Between Acculturation and Socioeconomic Status and Their Role for the First Generation Polish Immigrants’ Well-Being," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 1337-1355, September.
    3. Simonetta Longhi & Peter Nijkamp & Jacques Poot, 2010. "Meta-Analyses of Labour-Market Impacts of Immigration: Key Conclusions and Policy Implications," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 28(5), pages 819-833, October.
    4. Anna Kovacs-Györi & Pablo Cabrera-Barona & Bernd Resch & Michael Mehaffy & Thomas Blaschke, 2019. "Assessing and Representing Livability through the Analysis of Residential Preference," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-23, September.
    5. Yu-Chuan Chen & Yung-Ho Chiu & Tzu-Han Chang & Tai-Yu Lin, 2023. "Sustainable Development, Government Efficiency, and People’s Happiness," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 1549-1578, April.
    6. Victor Ginsburgh & Shlomo Weber, 2020. "The Economics of Language," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 58(2), pages 348-404, June.
    7. Mark Gradstein & Moshe Justman, 2023. "Cultural and economic integration of immigrant minorities: Analytical framework and policy implications," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 25(6), pages 1337-1360, December.
    8. Marco Marozzi & Mario Bolzan, 2018. "An Index of Household Accessibility to Basic Services: A Study of Italian Regions," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 136(3), pages 1237-1250, April.
    9. Duncan Gillespie & Meredith Trotter & Shripad Tuljapurkar, 2014. "Divergence in Age Patterns of Mortality Change Drives International Divergence in Lifespan Inequality," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(3), pages 1003-1017, June.
    10. Javier Torres, 2013. "Repeat after me, my name is Javier: immigrants english prociency improvement four years after arrival," Working Papers 13-03, Centro de Investigación, Universidad del Pacífico.
    11. Barry R. Chiswick & Paul W. Miller, 2007. "Modeling Immigrants’ Language Skills," Research in Labor Economics, in: Immigration, pages 75-128, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    12. Alejandra Cattaneo & Rainer Winkelmann, 2005. "Earnings Differentials between German and French speakers in Switzerland," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 141(II), pages 191-212, June.
    13. O’Leary, Nigel & Li, Ian W. & Gupta, Prashant & Blackaby, David, 2020. "Wellbeing trajectories around life events in Australia," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 499-509.
    14. Gao, Wenshu & Smyth, Russell, 2011. "Economic returns to speaking 'standard Mandarin' among migrants in China's urban labour market," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 342-352, April.
    15. Fang, Tony & Samnani, Al-Karim & Novicevic, Milorad M. & Bing, Mark N., 2013. "Liability-of-foreignness effects on job success of immigrant job seekers," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 98-109.
    16. Aksoy, Cevat Giray & Poutvaara, Panu & Schikora, Felicitas, 2023. "First time around: Local conditions and multi-dimensional integration of refugees," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    17. Yogi Vidyattama, 2017. "Assessing the Association between Trust and Concentration Area of Migrant Ethnic Minority in Sydney," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 50(4), pages 412-426, December.
    18. Lin, Xiaohua & Yang, Xiyan, 2017. "From human capital externality to entrepreneurial aspiration: Revisiting the migration-trade linkage," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 360-371.
    19. Jan Fidrmuc, 2012. "The Economics of Multilingualism in the EU," Chapters, in: Thomas Eger & Hans-Bernd Schäfer (ed.), Research Handbook on the Economics of European Union Law, chapter 15, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    20. O'Donnell, Gus & Oswald, Andrew J., 2015. "National well-being policy and a weighted approach to human feelings," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 59-70.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:ariqol:v:19:y:2024:i:5:d:10.1007_s11482-024-10351-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.