Immigration from Asia -- Top Country Sources by Percentage

Top Asian Countries

In recent years more than half of all immigrants from the top Asian source countries have entered Canada under the economic immigrants class. Refugees have steadily declined since 2005, accounting for just 3% of immigrants from the top Asian source countries in 2009. Family immigration has remained relatively stable, hovering around 26-34%, peaking at 34.6% in 2006. It is interesting to note the changes in composition, for specific countries, over the past five years. Vietnamese migration to Canada has undergone a shift with a greater proportion of Vietnamese entering Canada under the economic immigrant class (an increase of 16 percentage points) and a smaller proportion of Vietnamese coming in under the family class (a decrease of 15 percentage points). Taiwanese immigration has also experienced a shift, with the proportion of economic immigrants entering Canada decreasing five percentage points and the proportion of family class immigrants increasing five percentage points.

Source: Based on original data from Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Permanent Residents by Source Country and Category 2009, 14 June 2010.

Notes: 1. The ‘Other’ category is comprised of all other immigrants who do not qualify in any of the other three categories.
2. Due to privacy considerations, some cells in this table have been suppressed and replaced with the notation ”–”.