The immigration triangle: Quebec, Canada and the rest of the world

Quebec, as many other immigrant destination areas, has experienced difficulty in retaining its original set of newcomers. The paper addresses this issue of retention in terms of a brain circulation model under which immigrants enter a niche area (Quebec) and receive subsidized human capital benefits in the form of education, language training and skill certification. Under this model the decision to move or stay in Quebec or any niche area depends on the rate of return earned from this acquired human capital in the niche area (Quebec) or the rest of Canada (ROC). The individual move stay-decision in the relevant resident area is estimated for both the foreign-born and Canadian-born households with a logit model featuring demographic and economic arguments. The results suggest that an economic model of move-stay explains the internal migration decision for both the foreign-born and Canadian-born populations in Quebec and elsewhere in Canada