Citizenship Expectation In Canada

Becoming a Canadian citizen is one of the defining  moment for Canada’s immigrants, because It marks the end of their newcomer journey and the beginning of their journey as a Canadian with the same rights as those born in Canada.

These rights includes the right to vote, to run for political office, to be to apply for any government office, if they wish, to travel with a Canadian passport, and to travel outside of Canada whenever they want.

Policy changes made by Canada over the past decade have hurt naturalization rates, but recent reforms could change that, because presently, Canada expects a 40 per cent increase in citizenship among immigrants by 2024.

A recent study (Statistics Canada study) has shown, that fewer recent immigrants, are gaining Canadian citizenship and this is seen as a cause for concern, but improvements are on the horizon.

A study carried out by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2018, reported that about 91 per cent of immigrants who had lived in Canada for at least 10 years has gotten their citizenship, compared with the OECD average of 63 per cent. Other top destinations for immigrants such as Australia (81 per cent) and the United States (62 per cent) lag behind Canada by a wide margin.

The country’s high rate of citizenship acquisition is an important indicator that Canada does a good job of facilitating integration and has also shown that Canada takes pride in supporting the citizenship journey of immigrants.

The Low possession of Citizenship

Statistics Canada’s new study finds that citizenship acquisition was 86 per cent at the time of the 2016 Census compared with 82 per cent during the 1991 Census.

However, this great insight has been overshadowed by the obvious decline in citizenship acquisition among more recent immigrant cohorts.

Statistics Canada’s analysis found that the citizenship rate for most immigrant cohorts fell in 2016 compared with the 2006 Census. Immigrants with low income, official language proficiency, and education have experienced the sharpest drop in naturalization.

In 1996, for example, 68 per cent of eligible immigrants who had been in Canada for five years were citizens, but this figure fell to 43 per cent in 2016.

Read Employment Increase and decrease in Canada


Decline in Citizenship possession among recent immigrants

The Statistics Canada’s study on this, suggests that the citizenship policy changes made by Canada over the past decade  massively affected the rate in naturalization.

In 2010, Canada introduced new language requirements and a new citizenship exam. Immigrants between the ages of 14 and 64 had to demonstrate a minimum language proficiency and obtain a pass mark of at least 75 per cent on their citizenship exam (the previous pass mark was 60 per cent). In 2017, these requirements were reversed to only apply to those aged between 18 and 54.

Strict language proficiency and citizenship test requirements have made it more difficult for immigrants with low education to become citizens and weak language proficiency skills.

The rationale for these changes was to ensure immigrants were integrating into Canadian society by demonstrating their language proficiency and understanding of Canada’s history, geography, politics, laws, and economy. The government also introduced multiple versions of the citizenship test to reduce cheating and ensure immigrants had a strong knowledge of the topics that it covered.

The fee hikes also played a role in affecting the acquisition of citizenship, the fees were said to help the government recover the costs of processing citizenship applications.

The citizenship acquisition currently costs a total of $630 per person to apply for citizenship. A family of four needs to pay $1,500,

these increase in citizenship fees made it to be less affordable for low-income earners and immigrants to apply for citizenship.

In addition, the federal government increased the citizenship application fee from $100 to $300 for adults in February 2014 and then raised it again to $530 in January 2015.

The fee for children remained the same at $100. Both adult and child applicants also had to pay an extra $100 for right of citizenship fee.