Residential independence of elderly immigrants in Canada

This article addresses three questions: Are elderly immigrants less likely than Canadian-born elderly people to reside independently? What are the effects of economic, cultural, and life course factors on residential independence among elderly immigrants? What are the effects of immigrant-specific characteristics such as duration of residence and cultural background? Descriptive results show that elderly immigrants are less likely to reside independently, but the large gap of over 15 per cent is reduced to 5 per cent once economic, cultural, life course, and other factors are considered in the multivariate analysis. Effects of economic, cultural, and life course factors are mostly as expected, as are those of immigrant-specific characteristics such as duration of residence. Although aging immigrants have more-varied living arrangements than their Canadian-born peers, these are likely to increasingly include residential independence.