Knowledge of Canada’s two official languages, English and French, also affects citizenship. Immigrants with English or French as their native language only experienced a decline in citizenship rates of 69.2% to 61.0%, but the rate for immigrants with a different native language dropped from 79.7% to 63.4%.
Education is also a significant factor, but even immigrants with a bachelor’s degree or higher level of education have experienced a decline in citizenship rates from 80.9% to 67.1% during 1996 – 2016. Immigrants with high school degrees alone saw a drop of 75.7% to 55.4% over the same period.
Country of origin is closely related to native language. The rates of successful citizenship for immigrants from the United States, Western Europe, and South America have either stayed the same or dropped very slightly over the past two decades. Immigrants from East Asia experienced a sharp drop in citizenship rates from 82.9% in 1996 to 44.8% in 2016.
Some of the decline for East Asian immigrants can be explained by China’s impressive economic growth that began in the1990s and has not slowed. People that may have left China in the past have chosen to stay and enjoy economic growth in their own nation.
