Rethinking Digital Inequalities: a Quantitative Study on E-Government Use by Nepali Immigrants in Canada

In recent years, approximately 400,000 immigrants have arrived in Canada annually. A significant portion of these immigrants comes from developing countries in Asia and Africa, where digital inequalities are pronounced, particularly in relation to the utilization of e-government services that are considered a viable tool for facilitating the integration of immigrants into Canadian society. We conducted a survey of 261 Nepali immigrants in Ontario, Canada, to examine the differences in the use of federal, provincial, and municipal e-government services between “very recent” immigrants and “recent and established” immigrants in Canada. For our data analysis, we employed descriptive and statistical methods, including t-tests, chi-squared tests, and logistic regression. The findings reveal that very recent immigrants utilize e-government services more frequently than their earlier immigrant counterparts in Canada. This finding challenges the prevailing assumption that recent and established immigrants are more likely than very recent immigrants to be proficient users of information and communication technologies, including e-government services. Consequently, this outcome underscores the need for researchers, policymakers, and government agencies to reconsider the often taken-for-granted assumptions regarding how very recent immigrants experience digital inequalities in comparison to their recent and established counterparts.