Newcomers to Canada tone down expectations as they look to survive rising prices, survey says

financialpost.com:

More than 80 per cent of newcomers who arrived in the past decade say Canada is too expensive to live in as they try to establish themselves amidst rising costs and employment-related obstacles, according to a new survey.

Nearly half of the roughly 2,100 newcomers interviewed by research group Leger Marketing Inc. said Canada turned out to be “significantly more expensive” than they expected, while 35 per cent said that it was “somewhat more” expensive.

Despite feeling the pinch, more than 80 per cent of the study’s respondents said they felt welcome in Canada.

“There’s no question that newcomers are at a degree of financial risk that is greater than the financial risk of established Canadians,” said Ian Large, Leger’s executive vice-president of consumer insights. “But (the survey suggests) they are still managing to establish themselves personally, professionally and financially.”

Canada relies on immigrants to boost its economy and replace its aging population. But record population growth in the past two years in the midst of a housing crunch has led economists and think tanks to urge Ottawa to provide more clarity on how it plans to accommodate hundreds of thousands of newcomers every year.

This is the first time Leger, which frequently measures the country’s sentiment on different issues, has conducted a survey involving such a large group of newcomers, a section of the population that is often missed in its general public surveys, Large said.

It takes an average of about 20 months for newcomers to become self-sufficient and able to cover their living expenses such as housing, food, health care and transportation without external support, the survey said.

That figure falls to 12.6 months for immigrants who arrived