ARCHIVED – Recent Immigrants, Earlier Immigrants and the Canadian–Born: Association with Collective Identities

3. Methodology

The World Values Survey (WVS) is a survey-based “worldwide investigation of sociocultural and political change. The longitudinal survey has been conducted by a network of social scientists at leading universities all around world” (WVS 2008). Five waves of the survey have been carried out: in 1981, 1990-1991, 1995-1997, 1999-2001 and most recently in 2005-2006.

The WVS presents a national representative sample of Canadian residents 18 years of age and older. The core survey sample (total population N=1,765) was expanded for the second time in 2006 (first boosted in 2000) to include a larger sample of recent immigrants which allows for the comparison of the responses of recent immigrants – defined as persons not born in Canada who have lived in the country for a period of less than 10 years – with those of earlier immigrants – persons not born in Canada who have lived in the country 10 years or more – and the Canadian-born. The new immigrant sample targeted new immigrants in Vancouver (N=151), Toronto (N=157), and Montreal (N=192) and supplemented the core survey. [note 6] For each question, the reported results do not include respondents who did not, or refused to, answer the question. The core WVS sample was combined with the new immigrant sample, and then the population was sorted into three groups: those born in Canada, recent immigrants, and earlier immigrants.

CIC has provided on-going funding to the project (including the funding for the boosted new immigrant sample) and has an agreement to receive some of the Canadian data prior to its public release. Since the microdata was not accessible, the statistical analyses for this report are drawn from the work of Professor Neil Nevitte, University of Toronto – Canada’s principal investigator for the WVS.

Survey respondents were asked whether they strongly agree, agree, disagree, or strongly disagree with the statement: “I see myself as …a citizen of the world/a citizen of North America/a citizen of Canada as a whole/a citizen of my province or region/a member of my local community”. The percentages of the three population groups were contrasted, in order to see how the patterns of identification compare across the population groups (see Appendix A for Nevitte (2008) data tables).

In order to gain further insight into the variables that are associated with an individual’s likelihood of identifying themselves with Canada as a whole, ordered logistic regression analyses were completed along with a pseudo r-squared test for goodness-of-fit. The regression analyses were conducted using the new immigrant sample which enabled the separation of Canadian-born, earlier immigrant, and recent immigrant populations.

Odds ratios and p-values were also calculated. Odds ratios greater than 1 indicate that the association of the independent variable with identification as a citizen of Canada is positive, while those less than 1 indicate that the association of the independent variable with identification as a citizen of Canada is negative. Odds ratios close to 1 indicate that changes in the independent variable are not associated with the dependent variable. It should be noted that in order to deal with missing data, “don’t know” and refused responses were excluded from the calculations.


Footnotes

[Note 6] Within Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, the survey data was weighted to ensure that it accurately reflects the profile of new immigrants within that city by age and gender. The weights were calculated using the data from the 2006 Canadian Census for the Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver census metropolitan areas.

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