Todd: 10 reasons fewer newcomers are becoming Canadian citizens

Good overview:

The pandemic mattered, somewhat
COVID might account for 40 per cent of the decline in naturalization rates in the five years before the 2021 census, estimate Fou and Picot. But Fou emphasizes that, even after removing the pandemic effect, “the citizenship rate declined at a faster pace from 2016 to 2021 than during any other five-year period since 1996.”

Canada has lost comparative advantage
With Canada performing poorly in the past decade in regard to GDP per capita, the country isn’t offering the solid wages it once did. Meanwhile, many other countries are doing better than they did in the past.

It’s revealing that the immigrants most likely to apply for citizenship are from countries with grim economies and severe civil strife, including such as Iran and Pakistan. Citizenship take-up is lower among newcomers from countries such as Britain and India.

Andrew Griffith, a former immigration department director now with the Institute for Canadian Citizenship (ICC), adds that many migrants with high-tech skills are using Canada as a stopover, where they can build up their credentials to eventually access the U.S. marketplace, which is harder to get into but has much higher-paying jobs.

Housing crisis
“Unaffordable housing is the top reason not to naturalize,” said Daniel Bernhard, CEO of the ICC. “This suggests that it’s a question of optimism about the future. If Canadians aren’t optimistic about our future overall, we shouldn’t be surprised that non-citizen residents of Canada feel the same way.”

Canadian citizenship has been devalued
Separate from debates over whether too many Canadian politicians have been overstressing the problematic aspects of the nation’s identity and history, migration specialists point to specific signs of devaluation.

Griffith believes Ottawa’s move to shift most citizenship ceremonies online has been discouraging for some.

He also thinks Canadian citizenship was diminished when the country moved to “unlimited voting rights for expatriates.” It used to be that non-resident citizens couldn’t vote after being out of the country for five years, but now it’s possible for millions to vote in federal elections regardless of how long they’ve been outside the country.

Ottawa has also “removed preferential hiring of citizens in the public service,” said Griffith. One now need only be a permanent resident to apply.

China is making things tougher
China has been among the top three sources of newcomers to Canada, where immigrants make up one out of four residents. But retired immigration lawyer Samuel Hyman notes China has been lately forcing its citizens to choose “whether they want to continue to have access to their wealth and assets in China” or be prepared to become Canadian citizens and struggle with far fewer rights in the homeland.

Lack of dual citizenship can discourage
Relatedly, the appeal of Canadian citizenship could be decreasing for people from nations like China and India in part because they don’t allow dual citizenship. As Hyman said by way of example, a migrant from India who becomes a Canadian citizen loses the right to inherit or buy property in India.

Citizenship uptake
Popular internet discussion forums, such as on Reddit, are devoted to foreign nationals in Canada discussing the financial and social-services consequences of obtaining citizenship in Canada while losing it in one’s homeland.

International tax scrutiny has expanded
The government of Stephen Harper stepped up tax scrutiny of offshore wealth, said Hyman. That put pressure on people with luxury lifestyles to report to the Canada Revenue Agency on how and where they made their money. It may have contributed, Hyman said, to Canada losing its appeal to some high-net-worth individuals.

Overemphasis on self-interest
While many commentators now highlight the value of Canadian pride and loyalty, some immigration advisers stress mere transactional self-interest. They advise clients that if they become citizens they can spend more time outside the country, and that a Canadian passport will allow them to travel to more countries. It can make the country less appealing.

Citizenship fees increased
On a bureaucratic note, some suggest it’s significant that the government has for a decade steadily hiked the fees that permanent residents must pay to obtain citizenship. [Note: Fees were increased by the Harper government in 2014-15 and have been frozen ever since. Liberal electoral platforms promised to eliminate fees in 2019 and 2021 but this was never implemented.]

Lack of encouragement
Canada used to put more effort into encouraging would-be immigrants to learn Canadian history, laws and values, Griffith said, culminating in an often-emotional in person ceremony. He recommends the immigration department begin to devote two per cent of its [Note: settlement services] budget to “citizenship preparation courses.”

Source: 10 reasons fewer newcomers are becoming Canadian citizens