The Hongcouver | Many millionaire migrants are exiting Canada but leaving their families behind there, census reveals

More than 40 per cent of the breadwinners for recent millionaire migrant households in Canada appear to have exited the country, although many left families behind there, according to new census data that illustrate the extent of a widespread phenomenon among rich Hong Kong and mainland Chinese immigrants.

Overall, only 52.6 per cent of the 52,507 investor migrant households that moved to Canada between 1986 and the May 2016 census still had their original breadwinner, or “principal applicant”, living in Canada, according to the South China Morning Post’s analysis of the data.

From 2006-2010 – the most recent census period for which comparable immigration arrival data exists – 13,152 households arrived under the federal and Quebec investor programmes for millionaire migrants. But by the 2016 census, only 7,590, or 57.7 per cent, of the original breadwinners remained.

By contrast, 79.2 per cent of their spouses and dependent children were still in Canada.

Comparing the census figures, released in October, with pre-existing arrival data helps illustrate both the large scale of reverse migration among the rich, and their tendency towards “astronautism”, in which immigrant households remain in Canada but are supported by absent, foreign-earning breadwinners.