Since 2010, the largest number of U.S. citizens migrating to Canada was recorded in 2013 at 70,420
While there has been a surge in the number of temporary foreign workers coming to Canada in recent years, the number arriving from the United States has been declining over the past decade, according to Statistics Canada (StatCan).
Since 2010, the largest number of U.S. citizens migrating to Canada was recorded in 2013 at 70,420. That year, the corresponding non-U.S. citizen count was 6,770.
After 2013, however, the number of U.S. citizens moving to Canada began to decline, while the number of non-U.S. citizens increased.
By 2023, the U.S. citizen migration count totalled 38,867, while the non-U.S. citizen figure stood at 17,353.
“Early studies suggested that United States–Canada free trade agreements historically contributed to an increase in the flow of temporary workers from Canada to the United States and a decrease in the opposite direction,” say Feng Hou and Yuqian Lu, with the Social Analysis and Modelling Division, Analytical Studies and Modelling Branch, at StatCan.
“This pattern likely reflects the tendency of multinational enterprises (primarily in the United States) to centralize key functions in their home country, reducing the need to place senior management and highly skilled workers in foreign affiliates. This tendency may have intensified since the mid-2010s.”
The remaining one-third of the decline in U.S. citizen temporary foreign workers was associated with the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), they note.
“This decrease was likely influenced by policy changes introduced in 2013 and 2014 that aimed to reduce employer reliance on temporary foreign workers and strengthen compliance mechanisms. The TFWP allows Canadian employers with a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) to hire foreign workers to fill temporary job vacancies when no suitable Canadian citizens or permanent residents are available.”
Several Canadian provinces have started more actively recruiting US healthcare professionals.
How much do temporary foreign workers get paid in Canada?
Although U.S. citizen entries under both the TFWP and international agreements have declined since 2013, entries under the International Mobility Program (IMP), excluding international agreements, increased throughout the 2010s and remained relatively stable in the early 2020s, according to the StatCan report.
The IMP lets employers hire a temporary worker without an LMIA.
In contrast to the decline in U.S. citizen temporary workers, the number of U.S. non-citizen residents coming to Canada as temporary foreign workers has risen. Their numbers grew from 3,700 in 2010 to 17,400 in 2023, with the largest increases occurring between 2016 and 2019, and again after 2020. By 2023, U.S. non-citizen residents accounted for 31% of all temporary workers from the United States, up from 6% in 2010.
“U.S. non-citizen workers had a larger share of work permits without designated occupational skill levels, because of the prevalence of open work permits issued under various IMP sub-streams,” say Hou and Yu. “Compared with both U.S. citizen and non-citizen workers, temporary foreign workers from other countries had a significantly lower share of work permits designated for managerial, professional or technical occupations and a higher share without designated occupational skill levels.”
Over time, however, the number holding professional or technical occupations has been decreasing, while those listed under “Occupations not specified” has been increasing.
This trend applies to both U.S. citizens and non-citizen residents, although the numbers are significantly larger among the latter group.
“The trends in temporary foreign workers coming from the United States to Canada reveal an evolving landscape,” say Hou and Yu.
“Notably, U.S. non-citizen temporary workers had higher rates of T4 earnings and higher median earnings than their U.S. citizen counterparts, and much higher median earnings than temporary foreign workers from other countries. Although their numbers remain small, U.S. non-citizen temporary workers’ strong labour market outcomes suggest they can be a key source of skilled talent for Canada. They are more likely drawn by the prospect of Canadian permanent residency and pushed by restrictive U.S. immigration policies.”
Previously, Ottawa temporarily banned 24 Canadian metropolitan areas from accessing the low-wage stream of the TFWP. Since Sept. 26, 2024, Ottawa has refused to process LMIA applications in the low-wage stream in census metropolitan areas with an unemployment rate of 6% or higher.
