Immigrants and Canadian-born: A consumption behaviour assessment

Immigration has always been of great significance to Canada. This study undertakes an examination of the demand-side impact of immigration on the Canadian economy. Consumption patterns, both aggregate and disaggregate, are estimated using the data base provided by the 1986 Statistics Canada Survey of Family Expenditures. Aggregate results indicate that immigrant consumption spatterns approach those of the Canadian-born over time while the disaggregate analysis provides several exceptions to this finding. While immigrants tend to behave like their Canadian-born counterparts in areas of shelter, household operation and health care, significant differences are observed in the majority of other categories analyzed.