Immigrant Change: Using Taxfiling Patterns to Identify Patterns of Emigration and Mortality of Landed Immigrants

Heather B. Dryburgh, Statistics Canada
Maureen Kelly, U.K. Office for National Statistics

Statistics Canada’s Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB) matches landed immigrant information from landing records with taxation files from 1980 to 2000. Once immigrants begin to file tax returns most do so continuously. Nevertheless, some file intermittently, while others permanently 'disappear' from the database. This paper analyzes persons who disappear from the IMDB and presents new methods using these data for estimating 1) emigration of landed immigrants from Canada, 2) immigrant mortality, and 3) the number no longer required to file a tax return. The disappearance rates indicate that immigrants with the greatest resources - skills, education and language ability - are most likely to disappear. Refugees are the least likely of the immigrant classes to disappear. Approximately 17% of immigrants disappear from the IDMB, and of these, an estimated 16% have died and a further 25% have emigrated, according to estimation methods laid out in this paper.