The issue
Two systems, built separately. No one owns the gap.
Canada has strong immigration and retirement-income systems, but little attention goes to how they interact across a working life. People who arrive as adults can reach retirement with different CPP contribution histories, OAS residence histories, workplace pensions, savings and foreign pension entitlements. That does not mean immigrants as a group are underprepared. It means timing and history matter, and we need to see where.
Arrival age changes the arithmetic
Full OAS needs 40 years of Canadian residence after age 18
Someone who arrives at 40 and claims at 65 has 25 of 40 years, or a partial OAS of 25/40. CPP, workplace pensions, foreign entitlements and income-tested supports such as GIS each follow their own rules.
Risk concentrates where later arrival meets thin pensions
Poverty rate among women aged 65 and over, by immigrant status
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census (income year 2020), Market Basket Measure, women aged 65 and over. Recent immigrants arrived within five years of the census. On the relative LIM-AT measure the gap is narrower: 19.8%, 17.4% and 16.7%.
What the data shows
Early-career families start with less accumulated wealth
Among families aged 25 to 44, recent immigrants hold less net worth and fewer pension and registered savings assets than Canadian-born families. The pattern is a reason to look closely, not a conclusion about any one person.
Statistics Canada, 2023 Survey of Financial Security, families aged 25 to 44. RRSP figures exclude the wealthiest 5% of families. In Nova Scotia, recent first-time buyers contributed to RRSPs at 28.3% compared with 43.5% for the Canadian-born.
What CIRI would do
One focused institute, four areas of work
The mission is to strengthen retirement security among immigrants in Canada through research, practical interventions, partnerships and evidence-informed policy.
Research
Research and data
Age at arrival, years in Canada, CPP, OAS and GIS, workplace pensions, housing, debt and foreign pension pathways.
Practice
Pathways Lab
Co-design, test and evaluate retirement-navigation approaches with immigrant communities.
Policy
Policy and knowledge
Policy briefs, roundtables, reports and public evidence products for governments and communities.
Partners
Partnerships
Work with settlement agencies, universities, governments, employers and communities.
CIRI will not sell financial products or give investment advice, will not act as an immigration consultancy or pension administrator, and will not claim that all immigrants face retirement disadvantage.
The first project
A Nova Scotia pilot to test what works
The proposed pilot asks whether financial education combined with hands-on administrative help leads adult immigrants to complete real retirement-planning actions. Success is measured by completed actions, not workshop attendance.
- Recruit and consentThrough trusted community channels, with research consent kept separate from service.
- Baseline assessmentPublic benefits, employment, workplace pension, savings, housing and foreign pension pathway.
- Pathway summaryWhat is confirmed, what to verify, possible gaps and next actions, in plain language.
- Financial educationHow CPP, OAS, GIS, workplace pensions and foreign benefits fit together, then a personal action plan.
- Hands-on administrative helpGetting CPP statements, tax filing, GIS and OAS eligibility checks and application readiness, and foreign pension and social-security-agreement checks.
- Follow-up supportsChecklists, reminders, official links and referrals to regulated professionals.
- EvaluationActions, understanding, confidence and experience, reported with positive, neutral and negative findings.
A short pilot cannot show improved lifetime income, and CIRI will not claim that it does. The pilot would advance to wider replication only if evidence supports it.
Independence
Built to be trusted by governments, funders and communities
CIRI is incorporated as a federal not-for-profit. Two founding directors have agreed to serve, with names to be announced, and the board is planned to grow to five to seven skills-based directors. A founding steering committee will advise, and a compensated advisory council of people with lived immigrant experience will challenge assumptions.
The first 24 months
Gated by evidence at every stage
Months 1 to 6
Foundation
Hold the directors' first meeting, convene the steering committee, formalize partnerships, review evidence, set ethics and privacy arrangements.
Months 7 to 12
Pilot launch
Recruit participants, complete baselines and begin navigation sessions.
Months 13 to 18
Evaluation
Follow-up, analysis by subgroup, first findings and a government-community-research roundtable.
Months 19 to 24
Refine and decide
Refine the model, prepare a replication toolkit and decide whether and how to scale.
Get involved
Help build it
CIRI is at the founding stage. We are speaking with researchers, settlement and community organizations, government and policy colleagues, employers and prospective steering committee members. Roles can be as small as technical advice or as large as co-designing the pilot. Funding conversations come later. Nothing is committed until agreed in writing.
Research and community partners
Methods, ethics, evaluation, recruitment, co-design and participant support.
Government, data and employer partners
Technical review of benefit content, data guidance and workplace-pension navigation.
Steering committee members
Advise on the concept, governance and pilot, with no legal duties. Skills in pension policy, settlement, data, governance, finance, privacy or lived experience.