Immigrant Class and the Use of Unemployment Insurance by Recent Immigrants in Canada: Evidence from a New Data Base, 1980 to 1995

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between claiming unemployment insurance in Canada and the immigrant class in which immigrants were admitted using a new data base that combines tax and immigration records. Immigrants who entered Canada in 1980, 1985 or 1989, and who filed a personal income tax return, are followed from their year of landing until 1995 when the data end. There are large differences among the immigrant classes in the claims made against Canada's unemployment insurance scheme. Claim rates rise rapidly in the few years after arrival no matter in which class a person happened to be admitted in or which year she or he landed, but those rates decline thereafter for all classes or landing cohorts. Claim rates for Canada as a whole, as well as for the provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, and British Columbia, for both males and females, are examined and the patterns described above are repeated.