Canada’s open immigration policy has often been hailed as a positive thing, contributing to the building of the country. Yet the Trudeau government’s decade-long determination to drive immigration numbers ever-higher – a policy that public outcry now has it scrambling away from – has obscured an important and discouraging phenomenon. Every year, tens of thousands of Canadians leave the country, taking their skills and ambitions with them, and leaving Canada diminished.

Emigration is the flipside of the immigration issue — a side that has been largely ignored. Statistics Canada estimates that more than 104,000 people left Canada in 2023-2024, a number than has been rising for the past few years. Another study put the number of Canadian citizens living abroad in 2016 at between 2.9 million and 5.5 million, with a “medium” scenario of 4,038,700 — or about 12.6 percent of the Canadian population that year (the latest for which this kind of analysis exists).

This trend isn’t just an abstract problem; it undermines the very economic goals policymakers hope to achieve through immigration. Emigrants are younger, better educated, and earn higher incomes than the average Canadian, according to Statcan’s study: “The departure of people with these characteristics raises concerns about the loss of significant economic potential and the retention of a highly skilled workforce.” Canada is losing its best and brightest, many of them to the U.S. A survey by the U.S. Census Bureau this year said the number of people moving from Canada to the U.S. was up 70 percent from a decade ago.

Canada’s economic decline is big reason for the exodus. In 2022, all 10 Canadian provinces had median per capita incomes lower than the lowest-earning American state. Canada’s per capita GDP growth has also stagnated, with projections placing the country dead last among OECD nations out to 2060. Our productivity is in decline and business investment is moribund, meaning employers in other countries are able to pay more and compete for qualified labour.

The high cost of living, particularly skyrocketing housing costs, is an increasingly large factor pushing skilled Canadians abroad. A recent survey by Angus Reid reported that 28 percent of Canadians are considering leaving their province due to unaffordable housing, with 42 percent of those considering a move outside Canada.

Even immigrants to Canada are losing faith and moving on. A recent report from the Institute for Canadian Citizenship, entitled The Leaky Bucket, found that “onward” migration had been steadily increasing since the 1980s. A follow-up survey of more than 15,000 immigrants and found that 26 percent said they are likely to leave Canada within two years, with the proportion rising to over 30 percent among federally selected economic immigrants—those with the highest scores in the points system.

“While the fairy tale of Canada as a land of opportunity still holds for many newcomers,” wrote Daniel Bernhard, CEO of the ICC, there is undeniably a “burgeoning disillusionment. After giving Canada a try, growing numbers of immigrants are saying ‘no thanks,’ and moving on.” It’s a particularly stark phenomenon considering that most immigrants have come from much poorer, less developed and often autocratic or unsafe nations; that these people find Canada – for decades considered the ultimate destination among those seeking a better life – to be such a disappointment that the best response is to leave is a damning indictment.

Consider Elena Secara, an immigrant from Romania who built a life here only to find Canada’s economic reality falling short of her expectations. After nearly two decades, Secara plans to return to Romania, a country she sees as improving, while Canada, she says, “is getting worse and worse. Canada is declining…In Romania there are much more opportunities for professionals, the medical system is better, the food is better.” And, she adds with a laugh, “Even the roads are better.” One of her sons has already voted with his feet, and is now living in Romania.

That a country like Romania, for years one of Europe’s poorest and most corrupt nations, can now attract emigrants from Canada should be sobering for policymakers. Canada is facing ever-greater competition just as it enters the second decade of what may be its longest and most serious economic deterioration since Confederation. 

Each emigrant lost represents not just an individual choice but a systemic failure to provide opportunity at home. As the revolving door of emigration spins faster, Canada faces a reckoning. Our political leaders must address the housing crisis, lower tax burdens, and foster a more competitive economy to retain the talent Canada desperately needs. Without action, Canada’s silent exodus risks becoming a defining national failure—one that leaves the country less resilient, less innovative, and less prepared for the future.

The original, full-length version of this article was recently published in C2C Journal.

Scott Inniss is a Montreal writer.