Changing urban places: Mobility, migration and immigration in Canada

Migration and immigration have always been prominent features of the Canadian scene. However, as rates of fertility and natural population increase have declined following the early post-war baby-boom, these two components have assumed increasing importance as determinants of urban and regional growth, and more broadly as sources of social change and economic well-being, and subjects of policy concern. This paper offers an overview of population migration and immigration in Canada, with specific emphasis on movements within and between urban areas during the 1981-86 and 1986-91 census periods. The study attempts to illustrate the impressive volume, variety, volatility and uneven geography of population flows in Canada by region, city-size and relative location, as well as by age and sex. It explores the complex relationships between migration and immigration flows and between those flows and the attributes of individual urban places through correlation and regression analyses, and offers a simple typology to demonstrate the diversity of migration regimes that characterize those places. The paper concludes that, while there are common properties to migration flows, no single model or typology fits all flows or places or time periods. Indeed, the diversity of flows suggests that Canadian cities are becoming more dissimilar in their social characteristics, and growth prospects, over time