Statistics Canada reported on Monday that immigrants admitted to Canada in 2015 earned the highest entry wages of any cohort admitted since 1981.

The federal agency said the median entry wages of immigrant tax filers admitted in 2015 was $25,400 in 2016, with the previous high $24,800 for those admitted in 2014. Median entry wages are measured as the median wages one year after admission to Canada as permanent residents, it said.

“A rising proportion of immigrants have pre-admission experience in Canada, as evidenced by the fact that they held at least one non-permanent resident permit (for example, work permit, study permit or refugee claim) prior to their admission as a permanent resident.

“For immigrants admitted to Canada in 2015, one-third had pre-admission experience, compared with 20 per cent for those admitted a decade earlier in 2005,” explained StatsCan.

“For the 2016 tax year, among the immigrants admitted in 2015, tax filers without pre-admission experience had median entry wages of $19,800, compared with $34,400 for tax filers who had a previous work permit. As the proportion of immigrants with pre-admission work experiences in Canada rises, the entry wages of immigrants are increasing.”

“The wages of immigrants increase with the number of years spent in Canada across all admission categories. The median wages of immigrant tax filers admitted to Canada in 2006 were estimated at $19,100 in 2007, one year after admission. For the same cohort, wages increased to $25,700 five years after admission, and $31,700 a decade later. This was also true for refugees, where the median wages of those admitted in 2006 as government-assisted refugees were $8,200 one year after admission, $16,800 after five years and $21,000 in 2016, a decade after admission. In comparison, the median wages of privately sponsored refugees admitted in 2006 were $20,600 one year after admission, $22,900 after five years and $25,800 in 2016.”

In 2016, 86 per cent of immigrant tax filers admitted in 2011 filed tax returns in their province of admission. The retention rates were highest in Ontario (91 per cent), Alberta (90 per cent) and British Columbia (87 per cent); the remaining provinces had retention rates lower than the national rate.

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