IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/stc/stcp8e/202500600001e.html

Estimating immigrant citizenship rates in Canada and the United States: Data sources and comparability issues

Author

Listed:
  • Feng Hou
  • Garnett Picot
  • Li Xu

Abstract

Recent studies have documented a significant decline in the citizenship rate among recent immigrants to Canada. Among immigrants (permanent residents) admitted to Canada five to nine years earlier, the citizenship rate declined from 75.4% in 1996 to 45.7% in 2021 (Hou & Picot, 2019; 2024). The effects of COVID-19 may partially explain the more recent decline, but the reasons for the longer-term fall remain unclear. Possible explanations include the increased fluidity of international migration, rapid economic growth in some source countries and changes in government policies on citizenship (Hou & Picot, 2021). Cross-country comparisons can help clarify the relative importance of these factors. If similar trends are observed in other major immigrant-receiving Western countries, this would suggest that the underlying causes are not unique to Canada. The United States would be a useful comparison country for Canada, as both are major immigrant-receiving nations with close geographic and economic ties. However, differences in available data complicate comparisons of immigrant citizenship rates. This article examines key data sources for studying immigrant citizenship in both countries and highlights the challenges in comparing citizenship rates and trends.

Suggested Citation

  • Feng Hou & Garnett Picot & Li Xu, 2025. "Estimating immigrant citizenship rates in Canada and the United States: Data sources and comparability issues," Economic and Social Reports 202500600001e, Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies and Modelling Branch.
    • Handle: RePEc:stc:stcp8e:202500600001e
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.25318/36280001202500600001-eng
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/36-28-0001/2025006/article/00001-eng.htm
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/36-28-0001/2025006/article/00001-eng.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/https://doi.org/10.25318/36280001202500600001-eng?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Feng Hou & Garnett Picot, 2024. "The decline in the citizenship rate among recent immigrants to Canada: Update to 2021," Economic and Social Reports 202400200002e, Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies and Modelling Branch.
    2. repec:stc:stcp8e:2024002e is not listed on IDEAS
    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.

      More about this item

      Keywords

      ;
      ;
      ;

      JEL classification:

      • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
      • M21 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Economics - - - Business Economics

      NEP fields

      This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

      Statistics

      Access and download statistics

      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:stc:stcp8e:202500600001e. 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: Mark Brown (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/stagvca.html .

      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.