December 22, 1998

Dr. Ivan Fellegi
Chief Statistician of Canada
Office of the Chief Statistician of Canada
Statistics Canada
RHC26A
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0T6

Dear Dr. Fellegi:

I am writing on behalf of the Management Board of the Joint Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement -- Toronto (CERIS). We wish to communicate our views on the need for a post-censal survey of Canada's immigrant population.

Earlier this year we held consultations with our academic, government and community research partners about the availability and analysis of census data. With the assistance of Statistics Canada representatives from Ottawa and Toronto, these meetings were well-attended and gave rise to lively discussion.

One of the recurring themes at the meetings was the need for more statistical data about Canada's immigrant and refugee population with larger sample sizes than that provided by the census. Several of the participants in these sessions suggested that this need would be met best by including the immigrant population in a post-censal survey of Statistics Canada.

We wish to record our formal support for this proposal. In our view, a post-censal survey could have a sufficiently large sample size to permit meaningful statistical analysis for sub-groups such as immigrant women, immigrant youth, and refugees. Representatives from CERIS would also be pleased to participate in consultations about the sample design and the variables to be included in such a survey.

Please note as well that we have circulated this proposal to the directors of the other three Metropolis centres in Canada, and they have communicated to us their general agreement and support.

In closing, let me express my thanks and those of our Board of Directors for the support Statistics Canada has provided to CERIS and the Metropolis project, and my confidence that our productive collaboration will continue.

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Carl Amrhein,
Chair, Management Board

cc:
Dr. Don DeVoretz, Co-Director, Research on Immigration and Integration in the Metropolis -- Vancouver RIIM)

Dr. David Ley, Co-Director, Research on Immigration and Integration in the Metropolis -- Vancouver (RIIM)

Dr. Baha Abu-Laban, Director, Prairie Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Integration (PCERII)

Dr. Marie McAndrew, Director, Montréal Centre for Inter-university Research on Immigration, Integration and Urban Dynamics (IM)

Meyer Burstein, Executive Head, Metropolis Project