Canada's mid-sized cities are enjoying an immigration boom while the stream of newcomers flatlines or even declines in the large urban centres that typically act as magnets, according to new figures from Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

The change reflects shifting economic and employment prospects across the country and the successful efforts of smaller centres to woo newcomers, experts say.

"Immigration (in Canada) has been extremely concentrated, and I think it's possible to argue perhaps too much so," says Larry Bourne, a professor of geography and planning with the University of Toronto's Cities Centre. "One trend the recent figures seem to suggest is that immigrants are indeed spreading out or dispersing a bit more to medium-sized cities."

Toronto, whose share of Canada's immigrants slipped to 37 per cent last year from 50 per cent in 2001, welcomed 87,136 immigrants last year - down almost 26,000 from two years earlier. In Vancouver, immigrant newcomers those same two years dropped to 32,920 in 2007 from 39,498 in 2005.

The flow of new arrivals to Montreal has virtually stagnated at about 38,000 per year.

At the same time, the country's smaller centres are enjoying major boosts.

Saskatoon more than doubled its immigrant intake between 2003 and 2007, to 1,618 people from 631, while the number of newcomers to Halifax jumped to 1,926 from 1,101 in the same period. Charlottetown's immigrant intake shot up to 801 from 110 over the last five years.

"In very short periods of time, some of these areas which have really been making efforts to try to recruit more immigrants are actually enjoying some success," says Jack Jedwab, executive director of the Association for Canadian Studies. "Toronto's loss has been the gain of other cities."

He also notes that in 2007, Quebec took in its largest share of Canada's immigrants in the last decade - 19 per cent - suggesting that the province's reasonable accommodation debate has not cooled its desire or ability to attract newcomers.

One reason for slowing immigration to Toronto and Montreal is the decline of the manufacturing sector due to the strong Canadian dollar and faltering U.S. economy, says Charles Beach, an economics professor at Queen's University.

"Traditionally, the big absorber of immigrants was manufacturing jobs because if your English or French was not as fluent as it might be, you could still learn to run a machine pretty well," he says. "That means the loss of manufacturing jobs is hurting places that were manufacturing centres of Canada in their absorption of immigrants."

That also helps explain an immigration boom across the west as Alberta's economy heats up the Prairies and newcomers follow the jobs, Bourne says.

With immigration levels rising to 8,472 last year from 5,144 in 2003, Winnipeg appears to be benefiting from a provincial nominee program that enables Manitoba to nominate immigrants whose skills match the province's labour and economic needs, he says, and other provinces will likely take note.

Source: www.canada.com

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