Northern America · data through 2024
Canada has one of the highest shares of residents born abroad among large countries, with a managed points based system and strong regional programmes.
Twenty five year view
These lines show migrant stock, meaning people living outside their birth country at each point in time. They do not show annual arrivals.
Why people move
Economic, family, and refugee streams are planned through published multi year levels. India, China, and the Philippines are the largest recent origins, and international students have become a major pathway to permanent residence.
Connections
Common destinations
United States, United Kingdom, Australia, France
Common origins
India, China, Philippines, Nigeria, Pakistan, Syria
Adapting and finding support
Credential recognition remains the most common frustration for arriving professionals. Housing cost in the largest cities is now a leading settlement difficulty.
Settlement agencies funded by the federal government provide free services before and after arrival.
Use the support guideResearch that explains this pattern
Psychology
Arriving people navigate two questions at once: how much of the culture of origin to keep, and how much of the new culture to take on. The combinations give integration, assimilation, separation, and marginalisation.
Integration, keeping both, is consistently linked to better wellbeing than any of the other three.
John W. Berry, acculturation theory
Psychology
Children of immigrants do not follow one path. Outcomes depend on the parents' resources, the strength of the community, and the reception they meet.
The same family can produce very different outcomes across cities and school systems.
Alejandro Portes and Rubén Rumbaut, segmented assimilation
Psychology
Some people report deepened relationships, clearer purpose, and new strength after severe adversity, alongside rather than instead of the pain.
Support works better when it recognises capability rather than treating arriving people only as damaged.
Richard Tedeschi and Lawrence Calhoun
Support inside and beyond Canada
Free language training, job search, and settlement help across the country.
Permanent residents and refugees
OpenAdvocacy, rights information, and referral for refugees and vulnerable migrants.
Refugees and people seeking protection
OpenAssistance, voluntary return, reintegration, and counter trafficking support through the local office.
Anyone moving, arriving, or returning
OpenThese are public organisations. The project is not affiliated with them and cannot guarantee outcomes. Nothing here is legal advice or an emergency service.
Figures are rounded published estimates. Causes and adaptation differ within every country and should not be read as a verdict about any person.