Immigrants like the convenience of public transit when moving to Vancouver, British Columbia so much that they tend to choose residences near the city’s SkyTrain transit hubs.
Their destinations of choice are Burnaby’s Metrotown, Surrey’s Newton and Richmond’s City Centre, all key public transit hubs, reveals a survey presented to the city’s regional planning committee.
Long-time Vancouverites, by comparison, tend to prefer the lower-density areas of the West Coast city, such as the suburbs of Delta, Coquitlam, Maple Ridge and White Rock.
“Long-term residents and immigrants of the Boomer/war generation tend to stick to a single location over the long-term, while those with lower incomes of any age are more likely to move to a secondary location or bounce around the region,” said the report.
Immigrants and long-term residents of Vancouver shared a common desire to have additional space in their homes, an additional bedroom, but immigrants are more likely to choose to live in an apartment or townhouse while other Vancouverites prefer stand-alone houses.
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“It’s an interesting report with information about ‘gateway neighbourhoods’ where immigrant residents are landing and where there are more ‘incumbents’ as opposed to ‘newcomers’ and what their capacities are,” Andy Yan, director of the City Program at Simon Fraser University, reportedly said.
“It’s a continuum where immigrants become long-term residents and there are benefits to being an incumbent such as knowing where the jobs are and how to get to them and the length of time it takes.”
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The report’s finding that long-term Vancouverites prefer to live in stand-alone houses runs contrary to the municipality’s urban planning goals, known as Metro 2050, to create a city with a compact, urban core to protect the environment, provide diverse and affordable housing choices and support sustainable transportation choices.
The latest data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) reveals the province welcomed 64,200 new permanent residents in the first 11 months of 2023, putting it on track to close the year up by 70,036 immigrants.
Majority Of New Permanent Residents Arrived Through Economic Immigration Programs
That projected number of new permanent residents for 2023 would be 14.4 per cent more than the 61,210 new permanent residents to the province the previous year.
The majority of new permanent residents to British Columbia, 38,630 of them, in the first 11 months of 2023 came to the province through economic programs, including the British Columbia Provincial Nominee Program (BCPNP), the Caregiver programs, the Agri-Food Pilot (AIP), Canadian Experience Class (CEC), the Start-Up Visa (SUV), Rural and Northern Immigration Program (RNIP), Federal Skilled Trades (FST), and Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) programs.
Another 16,490 new permanent residents to British Columbia came to the province in the first 11 months of the year through family sponsorship programs and 6,715 arrived in the province through refugee and protected person programs.
