Satisfaction, adaptation and integration: Changes in immigrants’ assessment of their experience in Canada in their first four years after arrival

Developed countries compete to attract and retain high-skilled immigrants. Canada implemented in 1967 a points system to select immigrants in terms of their skills, experience and demographic characteristics. Multiculturalism as a policy aims at integrating immigrants into Canadian society. The presence of dissatisfaction among the foreign-born challenges these policies and even more so if those dissatisfied are the high-skilled. How immigrants assess their experience in Canada will impact emigration, settlement patterns, future immigration, and ultimately, social cohesion and national identity. Who are those dissatisfied after six months and after for years? Is dissatisfaction the result of unrealistic expectations of the immigration experience? How do indicators of integration relate to changes in satisfaction? How do these relationships differ by motivations for migration and entry status? The paper studies changes on immigrant self-rated satisfaction with the experience in the first four years upon arrival using the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada. The descriptive analysis of differences in satisfaction by type of expectations, time spent and entry status is followed by Logistic Fixed Effects Models studying the relationship of changes in satisfaction with economic, social and institutional integration.