The economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic influenced the integration outcomes of immigrants – both recent immigrants and established immigrants in Canada. In general, these groups are more negatively affected by the COVID-19 crisis than those born in Canada, and these disparities create additional barriers to the integration process. Tracking the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on immigrants relative to the Canadian-born population with empirical evidence and incorporating this into the CIMI is especially critical. In order to explore this, two analyses have been conducted.

In the first analysis Impact of Covid-19 on Canadians – Crowdsourcing Data, data from the Statistics Canada crowdsourcing surveys was used to test the feasibility of building an index to analyze gaps between immigrants and non-immigrants. We attempted to match crowdsourcing data to some of the CIMI indicators and dimensions, looking at gaps between immigrants and non-immigrants across identity markers such as sex and visible minority status.

You may download this report from the link below.

Impact of COVID-19 on Canadians – Crowdsourcing data

The second analysis was focused on the CIMI economic dimension. Data from Statistics Canada’s 2019 and 2020 Labour Force Surveys was used to demonstrate how COVID-19 has affected the economic outcomes of immigrants, both recent and established.

Please use the drop-down menu below to access data from our second analysis. This will allow you to view information related to how Canada and its regions perform when immigrant economic outcomes are compared from one year prior to the COVID-19 crisis (2019), to during the COVID-19 crisis (2020). National level data includes the entire Canadian population. The data on this page is limited to the regions listed below due to sample size limitations.

Saskatchewan

Data below is based on the monthly Labour Force Surveys collected from January 2019 to December 2020.

Below you will find 1) CIMI Ranking/ Adjusted Data and 2) Unadjusted Data.

CIMI RANKINGS

Saskatchewan ranks #5 out of the 7 regions for immigrant economic integration in 2019 and #3 in 2020. It ranks similar when the gap between recent and established immigrants is compared (#4 in 2019 and #4 in 2020).

Saskatchewan improved its position from 2019 and performs very well on most of the economic indicators in 2020, including labour force participation, employment, and unemployment rate. Saskatchewan performs average on most of the indicators when the gap between recent and established immigrants is analyzed but performs poorly in wages.

UNADJUSTED DATA

See below for the breakdown of immigrants, recent and established, and the Canadian-born population in this region. Any blank in the chart indicates that the data is unavailable/statistically insignificant.  Please note that the data below does not control for socio-demographic characteristics, unlike our rankings above.

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Median weekly wages (full time)

Without accounting for socio-demographic differences, full-time immigrant workers consistently earned less than their Canadian-born counterparts prior to and during the pandemic, with the gap varying from $231 to $332 in most survey months. The only exception was in December 2019, when established immigrants earned more than non-immigrants. Recent immigrants were the group that had the lowest wage during these two years.

Note: All wages seen here are before Consumer Price Index (CPI) adjustment

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Median weekly wages (part time)

Without accounting for socio-demographic differences, part-time immigrant workers, on average, earned $40 less than their Canadian-born counterparts. During the 2020 COVID-19 crisis the gap varied, and in March the Canadian-born earned less than immigrant population. The gap between recent and established immigrants was bigger, but it decreased in 2020. While in 2019 average wage gap was $78, in 2020, it fell to $22.

Note: All wages seen here are before Consumer Price Index (CPI) adjustment

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Labour force participation

Without accounting for socio-demographic differences, the gap between immigrants and the Canadian-born population varied before and during the pandemic, although it stayed relatively small (less than 4%). The gap was a bit bigger between recent and established immigrants (less than 5%). There was a drop in labour force participation in 2020 between March and April for all groups; the smallest decline was for the Canadian-born (3.5%) and the largest for established immigrants (6.5%).

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Employment rate

Without accounting for socio-demographic differences, the gap between all groups of immigrants and the Canadian-born population varied. While in 2019, non-immigrants were the least likely to be employed, in 2020 there was an opposite trend. There was a significant fall in the employment rate across all groups in the three-month period from February to April 2020; the largest was among recent immigrants (11.7%). Even though the employment rate started improving in April, at the end of 2020, it was still slightly below the rate from February 2020.

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Unemployment rate

Without accounting for socio-demographic differences, recent immigrants were more likely to be unemployed than established immigrants in general over the survey months. The unemployment rate varied for all groups, but it went sharply up at the onset of the pandemic in April 2020 with the peak in May. The biggest jump in unemployment was for recent immigrants (9.2%). The highest unemployment rate for Canadian-born was in April. It was not until May 2020 when the unemployment rate started going down for immigrants.

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Full-time employment rate

Without accounting for socio-demographic differences, recent immigrants in most survey months prior to and during the pandemic were less likely to work full-time than established immigrants; the gap varied and was at its largest in Jun 2020 (10%). The gap between immigrants and Canadian-born was smaller across all survey periods (less than 5%).

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