One in five recent immigrants lived below the poverty line in Canada in 2022, and most of them were in "deep poverty," according to a report Thursday from Statistics Canada.
The report studied rates of deep poverty across large sections of the Canadian population, and found it prevalent among recent immigrants, people with disabilities, one-parent families and single people who don't live with family.
StatCan says a family or a person lives in poverty if they can't afford the cost of a basket of goods and services that represents a basic standard of living. They are in deep poverty if their income falls below 75 per cent of that threshold.
"This confirms what front-line organizations have been witnessing for years," said Janet Madume, executive director of the Welland Heritage Council and Multicultural Centre in Ontario.
"Poverty among immigrants is not a personal failure, it's a systemic failure," she said. "And without intervention, it's going to constantly worsen."
Among the provinces, the report found that Nova Scotia had the highest rate of poverty, with 12.5 per cent of the population in 2022 unable to afford the basic basket of goods. British Columbia had the second-highest poverty rate at 12.2 per cent, followed by Manitoba at 11.9 per cent, and Newfoundland and Labrador at 11.4 per cent.
Meanwhile, 6.9 per cent of people in Manitoba lived in deep poverty, which is the highest rate among the provinces.
In other demographics, nearly a quarter of one-parent families lived in poverty, and 10 per cent lived in deep poverty.
About 60 per cent of Canadians below the poverty line lived with a disability, the report said.
Almost half of Canadians in poverty — 46.1 per cent — were on their own, outside of an "economic family," defined as a group of two or more people related by blood, marriage or other legal arrangement such as common-law marriage.
Josh Smee, chief executive of non-profit Food First Newfoundland and Labrador, said single, working-age adults are often left out of poverty-alleviation measures, often for political reasons. Relief programs directed specifically toward single working-age adults may not be as popular with the public as those for other groups prone to food insecurity or poverty, such as single parents or people with disabilities, he said in a recent interview.
"There's a real challenge in addressing the same issues with single folks, especially working-age single folks, because you risk that 'They should just get a job' pushback, which obviously oversimplifies the situation," Smee said.
However, he noted there is wide public support for policy changes that would address poverty among most groups — including single people — such as increasing benefit programs and minimum wages. "People are very supportive of those kinds of interventions — maybe more so than decision makers," he said.
Wide-reaching policy changes to increase incomes for everyone would also help alleviate some poverty among immigrants and other newcomers, said Madume. But recent immigrants still face a unique set of barriers, including systemic racism. Many arrive in Canada with years of professional experience and qualifications that aren't recognized by employers or institutions, she said.
Often, the only jobs available are low-wage, precarious positions or gig work. And like the rest of Canadians, new immigrants must grapple with housing shortages, rents outpacing incomes and a lack of policies to alleviate those pressures, such as rent control, she said.
Madume said more disaggregated, race-based data is needed on employment, income, poverty and a host of other factors to really understand how newcomers are faring in Canada.
"We need to start acting, and we are urging every level of government to act urgently to address the root causes of (poverty among immigrants)," she said.
