In 2007 BC received Newcomers from a total of 182 countries!

In total they spoke 148 languages!!

Although newcomers arrive in Surrey from all over the world. The top 4 countries for all immigrants coming to Surrey between 2001 and 2006 were:

India (42%)

Phillipines (13%)

South Korea (7.3%)

China (5.4%)

Canada welcomes two kinds types of Newcomers; Permanent Residents and Temporary Residents.

Permanent Residents

1. The family class is comprised of foreign nationals sponsored by close relatives or family members in Canada and includes spouses and partners, dependent children, parents and grandparents.
2. Economic immigrants are people selected for their skills and ability to contribute to Canada’s economy, including skilled workers, business immigrants, provincial and territorial nominees, Canadian experience class and live-in caregivers.
   1. Skilled Workers:This includes immigrants who are able to demonstrate their ability to enter the labour market and successfully establish in Canada by meeting selection criteria that assess factors such as education, English or French language abilities and work experience.
   2. Business Immigrants: This includes those who invest their money in an approved venture, those who intend to run their own business, or those who intend to be self-employed. Business immigrants become permanent residents on the basis of their ability to become economically established in Canada. The spouse and children of the business immigrants are also included in the Business Class count. Business immigrants come as:
      • Investors: Immigrants who are required to make a substantial investment in Canada for economic development and job creation.
      • Entrepreneurs: Immigrants who are experienced business persons who will own and actively manage businesses in Canada that contribute to the economy and create jobs. They must demonstrate business experience and have a minimum legally obtained net worth of CAN $300,000, and are subject to conditions upon arrival in Canada.
      • Self-Employed People: Immigrants who are selected on the condition that they can and intend to create their own employment in Canada and that they can contribute significantly to the Canadian economy or to the cultural or athletic life of Canada.
   3. Provincial Nominee Program: The Provincial Nominee Program allows the Province to select prospective immigrants, based on its economic needs and priorities, and to recommend (nominate) them for permanent residence. The program was launched on a limited scale in 2001 to attract and retain foreign-trained nurses and doctors. It has since been expanded to include a wide range of skilled occupations and now also has a separate category for business immigrants.
   4. Canadian Experience Class: Applicants must have worked for at least two years full-time (or equivalent) as a temporary foreign worker in a job in one of the following Canadian National Occupational Classification (NOC) classifications – managerial, professional or technical /skilled trades. Alternatively, they must be a foreign graduate from a Canadian post-secondary institution with at least one year of full-time (or equivalent) skilled work experience in Canada. In both cases they must also meet official language proficiency standards. NOTE: This is such a new program that statistics for this class are not yet readily available.
   5. Live-in Caregivers: These are temporary foreign workers who are granted permanent residence after their participation in the Live-in Caregiver Program. Initially, live-in caregivers must be qualified to provide care for children, sick or elderly people, or persons with a disability. Successful candidates are granted temporary resident status and a work permit and, after two years, are eligible to apply for permanent resident status.
3. Refugees include government-assisted refugees, privately sponsored refugees, refugees landed in Canada and dependants of refugees landed in Canada who live abroad. CIC (2008)
4. The Other category Permanent Residents includes post determination refugee claimants in Canada, deferred removal orders, retirees (no longer designated under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act), temporary resident permit holders, humanitarian and compassionate cases, sponsored humanitarian and compassionate cases outside the family class, and people granted Permanent Resident status based on public policy considerations.

Temporary Residents
Temporary Residents are defined as temporary foreign workers, foreign students, humanitarian (including refugee claimants) and other temporary residents.

1. Foreign workers are those other than Canadian citizens or permanent residents, who enter Canada solely or primarily for work and have obtained a work permit to legally perform such activities. In this report, a temporary resident is reported as a foreign worker if his or her main reason for staying in the country relates to employment whether or not this person is also a holder of other permits (e.g., a study permit).
2. Foreign students are in Canada primarily to study, although they too may have other permits.
3. Individuals in the humanitarian population are primarily refugee claimants, but this group also includes other foreign nationals allowed to remain in Canada on humanitarian or compassionate grounds under “special considerations."
4. The other humanitarian cases include a small number of individuals who have never filed a refugee claim but who were processed under special programs established to handle refugee-like cases.