Canada the top pick of U.S. immigrants
By Norma Greenaway
CanWest News Service

Sunday, July 29, 2007

OTTAWA • The number of Americans admitted to Canada last year hit a 30-year high, fuelling a pattern that suggests the drain of Canadian brains south of the border may be a shrinking phenomenon.

The number of Americans accepted into Canada reached 10,942 in 2006, almost double the number admitted in 2000. By contrast, the number of Canadians admitted to the United States in 2006 dropped sharply from the previous year, falling to 23,913 from 29,930.

The data were gathered and analyzed by the Montreal-based Association for Canadian Studies. Executive director Jack Jedwab said an analysis of the numbers shows Canada is enjoying an upswing as a preferred destination for Americans, many of whom are increasingly well educated.

That has not happened since the early 1970s, when the United States was experiencing political turmoil. From 1970 through 1974, Canada was admitting between 22,000 and 26,000 Americans a year, many of them draft dodgers from the Vietnam war.

Although the data did not offer reasons for the renewed American interest in Canada, Jedwab pointed to the economic downturn in the United States as a top possibility, followed by social and political considerations.

Mr. Jedwab also cited a recent Gallup poll that said a whopping 92% of Americans had a favourable view of Canada, making it the top pick among 25 foreign countries listed.

American Laurie McLaughlin puts love at the top of her list of reasons for moving to Canada. She fell for her husband, an academic, while he was doing research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. The couple have been living in Montreal with their young son since 2003, and Ms. McLaughlin is on the verge of becoming a Canadian citizen.

"We're settled," the self-employed editor said in an interview. "It feels very comfortable in Montreal."

Ms. McLaughlin, 47, said she is not surprised more Americans are choosing to live in Canada. She said many are fed up with an increasing tax burden south of the border and a piling up of debt because of the U.S. military adventures in Iraq and elsewhere in the world.

"I have friends in the U.S. who keep saying, "Boy, I'd like to come up there,' " she said, adding that her sister and brother-in-law have explored the possibility.

Ditto for American Pamela Chaloult, now vice-president of Vancouver-based Renewal Partners, a seed capital company that invests in socially responsible businesses and organizations.

Lured by excellent jobs, Ms. Chaloult and her architect husband moved a year ago to Vancouver from San Francisco where, she said, they could not even dream of being able to buy a house. The one they were renting was on the market for $2.1-million.

Mr. Jedwab said the data, taken from statistics collected by Citizenship and Immigration Canada and the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration, show that Americans settling in Canada increasingly boast better education credentials. In 2006, 49.5% of American immigrants held a bachelor's degree or better, up from 46% in 2000.

In 2006, 4,498 people were admitted as economic immigrants, which means they need to collect sufficient points to gain entry. This narrowly outpaced the 4,468 immigrants brought in under family-reunification rules.

"Canada is undoubtedly narrowing the brain drain," Mr. Jedwab said. "The most educated class of immigrants we're getting right now is coming from the United States."

Ontario continued to be the principal destination for American immigrants in 2006 (5,705), followed by British Columbia (2,435) and Quebec (1,006). Alberta was fourth with 980.

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