Statistic Canada published a study on June 20 titled “Non-permanent residents in Canada: a portrait of a growing population.”. According to their purpose for temporary presence in Canada, this paper analyzes the characteristics of non-permanent residents based on data from the Census of Population 2021. Canada’s population is becoming more non-permanently residents, according to a recent survey. Over 1 million temporary residents call Canada home, and international students, temporary foreign workers, and asylum seekers can all live in Canada as non-permanent residents.

Approximately 1 million NPRs lived in Canada in 2021, which represents 2.5% of the nation’s population. 

NPRs, or non-permitted residents, constituted the majority of those one million. Among NPRs, 14.2% also held a study permit in addition to their job permit in 2021, while 40.1% held a work permit alone. Furthermore, 21.9% of all NPRs held a study permit. Refugee protection requests accounted for 15.1% of NPRs.

A total of 8.7% of persons in NPRs hold temporary resident permits, family members of NPRs, or super visas for parents and grandparents. 

Compared to the rest of Canada’s population, NPRs are younger

Among NPRs aged 20 to 34, young adults comprised six out of 10 of the population. The proportion of young adults in Canada’s rest of the population was 18.4% compared with 37.3% for recent immigrants. Their young age may be attributed to the fact that most NPRs hold work permits and study permits.

The top birthplaces of NPRs are India and China

NPRs come from a variety of nations, but India and China have the highest proportion of NPRs (28.5% and 10.5%, respectively). Nationally, India and China were the top two countries of birth for NPRs, except for Quebec, where France ranked first (20.4%).

Nigeria accounted for 10.7% of asylum seekers, followed by India (8.3%) and Mexico (8.1%). Provinces differed considerably on this issue. A majority of Ontario’s births are from Nigeria (15.4%), Quebec’s are from Haiti (17.6%), and British Columbia’s come from Iran (29.8%).

The majority of non-permanent residents speak an official language

The diversity and richness of Canada’s linguistic landscape are due in part to the wide range of nations that hold NPR-originating nations. However, 95.3% of NPRs were able to speak one or more official languages.

A majority of NPRs with study permits said they knew either English or French, while 99% said they knew both. Asylum seekers still made up a high percentage (86.7%).

English was spoken by 94.8% outside of Quebec, while French was spoken by 4.6%. A total of 68.4% of NPRs in Quebec were bilingual in French and English.

Non-permanent residents participated in the labor force at a high rate

As the population ages, fertility rates decline, and there are shortages of workers, Canada faces a number of challenges. To stimulate the economy and fill open positions, Canada depends on NRPs.

Labor force participation rates among NPRs were higher than those among the general population (63.4%). Nevertheless, the youth of NPRs may explain this disparity.

Sales and service were the most popular occupations among NPRs. More than a third (36.4%) of NPRs work in sales and service-related occupations, compared to a quarter (25%) of the rest of Canada’s population. Asylum seekers, on the other hand, had much more distinctive occupation profiles. In the manufacturing, utilities, and health sectors, these NPRs were more prevalent (12.3%), followed by trades, transport, and equipment operators, and allied sectors (23.9%).

Underutilization of skills is more common among non-permanent residents

Compared to the general population, NPRs were more likely to work in non-educational occupations (23.7%) and had higher average educational attainment (15.7%).

Recent immigrants accounted for 26.2% of those who were overqualified for their current positions in 2021, while those with a bachelor’s degree or higher made up 15.9% of the rest of Canada’s population. Further, bachelor’s degrees earned overseas or in Canada did not influence NPRs’ overqualification. Credentials from foreign countries accounted for 34% of overqualification, while credentials from domestic countries accounted for 28.1%.