Canadian Immigration: Short- and Longer-term Implications

Policies of immigration intake have altered certain features both of quality and quantity of arrivals. With greater proportions of family and assisted relatives, the expected rates of participation are considerably lower. Among immigrants destined for the labour force, greater proportions intend blue-collar occupations. This increase is mainly due to greater proportions of immigrants of Third-World origins, whose occupational profiles are concentrated in that category. The age range of immigrants is widening with large proportions in mature years. Social effects include more restricted changes for job mobility, increased demands for social assistance in years immediately following arrival and a vastly changed system of health and social service delivery for the aging cohort of immigrants from widely varying ethnic origins.