Evaluation of Canadian Refugee Resettlement Programs in the Assimilation of Refugees

Abstract

The effectiveness of resettlement initiatives on refugee assimilation in Canada is assessed using the Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB) to follow refugee income variations between 1982-2015. To determine the short-and-long term variations in the labour integration process for different refugee sponsorship types, government-sponsored refugees (GARs) and privately-sponsored refugees (PSRs) are analyzed using an unconditioned and conditioned mean approach for 1, 3, 7, 10, and 15 years after landing in Canada. The impact of the Resettlement Assistance Program (RAP) on GARs’ conditioned mean incomes one and three years after migration is also assessed using the annual Public Accounts of Canada expenditure data in combination with the IMDB. Refugee assimilation is compared to federal skilled worker (FSW) class immigrants, the control group, to account for period effects. The results show that both PSR and GAR earnings converge to FSW in-about 15 years after migration. Furthermore, we find that higher RAP income support amounts have deterring effects on labour decisions, thereby delaying the labour integration process in comparison to the lowest years.