The Receipt of Transfer Payments by Immigrants to Canada

Abstract

Using the native born as a benchmark we examine immigrants reliance on Canadas social safety net....We find that immigrants have lower participation rates in Unemployment Insurance and Social Assistance than natives. We also find that `assimilation leads to greater participation in both these programs....More recent immigrant cohorts have higher recipiency rates than their predecessors....The results for Social Assistance contrast with U.S. evidence that the raw entry participation rates of many immigrant cohorts exceed the native rates. Finally our analysis of rent subsidies...[shows that] immigrants initially have higher rates of participation which fall with assimilation. (EXCERPT)