Concept: Number of Years of Permanent Residence in Manitoba

Introduction

This concept describes how Number of Years of Permanent Residence in Manitoba is operationalized for immigration-related research at MCHP. The concept includes the following sections:


• a brief definition,
  
• a list of Data Sources where the data comes from,
  
• a description of the Methods employed,
  
• links to Research Findings reported in MCHP publications,
  
• any Cautions / Limitations found during development of this concept,
  
• a relevant SAS® code example in the SAS code and formats section.

Definition: Completed years of permanent residence in Manitoba are calculated based on the sum of all non-overlapping days of coverage from the later of landing or coverage start date, up to the end of coverage or end of the study period.

Data Sources

The data used to operationalize this concept came from the following Repository databases:


• Manitoba Health Insurance Registry data
  
• Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) – Permanent Residence Database

Methods

The general method involves finding the landing date of immigrants living in Manitoba, for anyone listed in the Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) – Permanent Residence Database who are also found in the Manitoba Health Insurance Registry (MHIR) crosswalk (linkage) file. It then finds the first MHIR coverage episode ending after the landing date, and calculates the number of years of permanent residence in Manitoba.

For immigrants who may have already resided in Canada under one or several temporary immigration categories before applying for permanent residency, we did not consider healthcare coverage episodes that began and ended before the individual’s landing date and only considered the first episode of an immigrant as one that begins on or after the landing date, or includes the landing date if it begins before it. We refer to this as the “first coverage on or after landing.” This concept does not count a person’s time spent in the province as a temporary immigrant unless the person stayed in the province until becoming a permanent resident.

The following describes the basic algorithm in developing the methodology for this concept. It summarizes the SAS® code example that is provided in the SAS code and formats section below.


1. develop formats to categorize landing years and years of residence;
   
2. create the immigrant cohort file from the IRCC crosswalk file for all immigrants found in Manitoba;
   
3. create a landing file containing the arrival and landing dates from the two IRCC legacy and current landing files;
   
4. sort the landing file, and then merge with the immigrant cohort file using the unique IRCC identification number (IDNO);
   
5. sort the landing file by scrambled PHIN and landing date to identify and retain the earliest landing record per scrambled PHIN;
   
6. create a registry_coverage file using the MCHP REGCOV macro and then sort this file by scrambled PHIN, coverage start date and coverage end date;
   
7. merge the landing file with the registry_coverage file to identify coverage episodes during or after landing;
   
8. keep the first coverage episode on or after landing, and then calculate the number of years of permanent residency based on the end of coverage date or the end of study period date;
   
9. produce output tables summarizing the counts of individuals by landing year and range of years.

Research Findings

In the The Diversity of Immigrants to Manitoba, Migration Dynamics and Basic Healthcare Service Use deliverable by Urquia et al. (2020), they investigated the years of permanent residence in Manitoba among immigrants born in different areas of the world, by landing year, 1985 to 2017. For more information on the research findings produced in this deliverable, see:


• Figure 3.15: Years of Permanent Residence in Manitoba Among Immigrants by Landing Year, 1985-2017
  
• Appendix Figure 3.5: Years of Permanent Residence in Manitoba Among Immigrants Born in North or South America by Landing Year, 1985-2017
  
• Appendix Figure 3.6: Years of Permanent Residence in Manitoba Among Immigrants Born in Europe by Landing Year, 1985-2017
  
• Appendix Figure 3.7: Years of Permanent Residence in Manitoba Among Immigrants Born in Africa by Landing Year, 1985-2017
  
• Appendix Figure 3.8: Years of Permanent Residence in Manitoba Among Immigrants Born in Asia by Landing Year, 1985-2017
  
• Appendix Figure 3.9: Years of Permanent Residence in Manitoba Among Immigrants Born in Oceania by Landing Year, 1985-2017

Cautions / Limitations

The following limitations were identified during development of this concept:


• Coverage start and end dates in the Manitoba Health Insurance Registry are a proxy for the start and end of residence period. This is an approximation and may not fully capture duration of residence. For example, the "cannot locate" code as reason for cancellation of coverage in the Registry may indicate that a resident has moved away, or the resident may still be in Manitoba but has not made contact with health services for over a year.