Citizenship

Note that in this section on citizenship, “source country” refers to the country of birth. In other sections of The Monitor that discuss permanent residents, foreign workers and foreign students, “source country” refers to the country of last permanent residence.

Citizenship grants increased by 68% over the first quarter of 2003 (see table 10). The rise in citizenship grants is consistent with the higher numbers of landings during 2000 and 2001. Many of these immigrants became eligible and decided to acquire Canadian citizenship. A total of 56,147 people were granted Canadian citizenship between January and March 2004. The leading six countries of birth for new citizens all came from Asia. This included, in descending order, China, India, the Philippines, Pakistan, South Korea and Sri Lanka. The United States and Jamaica were the only two countries from the Americas to rank among the top ten, and England was the only European country. Finally, Iran ranked tenth and was the only country to make the top ten outside of the world areas described above.

China, which accounted for 12% of new Canadian citizens, jumped by 59% in the first quarter of 2004, to 6,630 people. India was second, with 5,647 new Canadian citizens—a 90% increase over the same period in 2003, and accounting for one in ten new Canadian citizens.

Table 10
Citizenship Grants by Top Ten Source Countries