Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB)

Detailed information for 2011

The Immigration Database was created to respond to the need for detailed and reliable data on the performance and impact of the Immigration Program.

Data release - December 23, 2013

• Description
• Data sources and methodology
• Data accuracy

Description

The Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB) is a database combining linked immigration and taxation records. The IMDB is a comprehensive source of data on the economic behaviour of the immigrant taxfiler population in Canada and is the only source of data that provides a direct link between immigration policy levers and the economic performance of immigrants. The database is managed by Statistics Canada on behalf of a federal-provincial consortium led by Citizenship & Immigration Canada. A person is included in the database only if he or she obtained landed immigrant status since 1980 and filed at least one tax return since 1982.

The IMDB was created to respond to the need for detailed and reliable data on the performance and impact of the Immigration Program. It allows the analysis of relative labour market behaviour of different categories of immigrants over a period long enough to assess the impact of immigrant characteristics, such as education and knowledge of French or English, to their settlement success. It also allows the measurement and analysis of secondary inter-provincial and inter-urban migration.

Reference period: Calendar year

Collection period: March/April (tax data) All year (landings data)

Subjects

• Education, training and skills
• Immigration and ethnocultural diversity (formerly Ethnic diversity and immigration)
• Labour market and income
• Mobility and migration
• Population and demography

Data sources and methodology

Target population

A person is included in the database only if he or she obtained landed immigrant status since 1980 and filed at least one tax return since 1982.

Instrument design

This methodology does not apply.

Sampling

This survey is a census with a longitudinal design.

Data are collected for all units of the target population, therefore, no sampling is done.

Data sources

Data are extracted from administrative files.

The IMDB brings together information from the Field Operations Support System (FOSS) landing information with taxation data (mainly from the T1 Family File). A person is included in the database only if he or she landed since 1980 and filed at least one tax return since 1982.

It should be noted that some immigrants file taxes prior to receiving their landed or permanent resident status in Canada (for example, non-permanent residents (NPR) can include refugees who are in Canada prior to obtaining landed immigrant status and people on temporary work or student visas who subsequently apply for landed status). Only those NPR's who become permanent residents appear in the IMDB.

Each year the IMDB is updated with a new cohort of landings and the taxation data for all landing cohorts covered by the IMDB. In each new tax year there are new entrants from all landing cohorts, not just the newly added cohort, who have filed (or are matched) for the first time. There are also those immigrants who have filed previously, but have not filed in that year (although these immigrants remain in the IMDB as they could file in future years).

Error detection

The landings micro-data go through a series of edits prior to linkage to ensure that there are no duplicate records and no key data missing that are mandatory for matching. Logical edits, range edits and content edits are used at this stage to prepare the files for linkage. After matching, flags are set to identify extreme values and missing information necessary for derivations. SAS software is used for these processes.

Imputation

This methodology type does not apply to this statistical program.

Estimation

This methodology type does not apply to this statistical program.

Quality evaluation

A series of diagnostic tables is produced after each update to evaluate the quality of the match. These provide historical trend comparisons of counts with previous years data by key characteristics. Coverage rates are produced to assess the success of the matching process.

Disclosure control

Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any data which would divulge information obtained under the Statistics Act that relates to any identifiable person, business or organization without the prior knowledge or the consent in writing of that person, business or organization. Various confidentiality rules are applied to all data that are released or published to prevent the publication or disclosure of any information deemed confidential. As necessary, data are suppressed or rounded to prevent direct or residual disclosure of identifiable data.

The use of the Longitudinal Immigration Database is subject to the normal privacy and confidentiality constraints to prevent the release of personal information. Micro-records are not released to users and all aggregate statistics are subject to suppression or rounding.

Revisions and seasonal adjustment

This methodology type does not apply to this statistical program.

Data accuracy

The IMDB combines an administrative Landing File with the T1 Family File (T1FF) through exact matching record linkage techniques. The overall linkage rate is approximately 80%.

Details on data accuracy for information from the T1FF may be consulted under the T1FF entry (record number 4105).

The Landing File goes through a number of manual checks for accuracy of code sets and comparisons with the previous year's file.

No coefficients of variation (CV) are produced for estimates as the IMDB is considered a census of all immigrant tax-filers within the reference years.