Overview

Summary

The Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB) combines linked administrative immigration and tax data files. It is a comprehensive source of data on the socio-economic outcomes of the immigrant tax filer population in Canada. The database is managed by Statistics Canada on behalf of a federal-provincial consortium led by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). The IMDB provides detailed and reliable information on the labour market behaviour of different categories of immigrants over a period that is long enough to assess the impact of characteristics at admission, such as education and knowledge of French or English. The database also provides information on pre-admission work or study experience in Canada, provincial mobility and family composition.

The benefits of analysis using the IMDB include:

• Support for evidence based policy making;
• Increase the use of administrative data sources for research, thereby reducing the cost of data collection and the burden on respondents for surveys;
• Allow inferential statistical analysis on the confidential microdata and analytical work complex in nature or not suitable for other forms of data access.


Since 1980, over 2.2 million immigrants who were admitted to Canada were aged less than 18 years old at the time of admission. This represents almost 25% of immigrants admitted during that timeframe. Children will most likely receive all or part of their education in Canada and have different challenges than adult immigrants. Little information is available about immigrant children during their childhood in the Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB), as they are not tax filers. In order to increase the analytical capability of the IMDB a children module was produced. The ability to study the impact of the childhood socioeconomic condition on adulthood economic outcome is an added value to the IMDB.

Please note that additional documentation is available for this survey. Please contact your RDC analyst to request this documentation.

A supplementary list of firm-level variables is linkable to the IMDB to facilitate an understanding of the labour market connection for individuals in the database. These variables are drawn from the Canadian Employer-Employee Dynamic Database.

Available Cycles

Years	Name
1980-2022	Longitudinal Immigration Database