Michael Haan, in depth
Associate Professor

Biographical Information
Education
- PhD, Sociology, University of Toronto 2006
- MA, Sociology, University of Windsor 2000
- Honours BA, Sociology, Dordt College 1996
Career Highlights
Dr. Michael Haan has been Associate Professor in Sociology at Western since 2015. From 2015 to July 2020, he was Canada Research Chair in Migration and Ethnic Relations. In his former appointment as Associate Professor in the departments of Sociology and Economics at the University of New Brunswick, he was Canada Research Chair in Population and Social Policy.
During his career, Dr. Haan has led the Canadian Population Society, as Vice-President (2014-16) and as President (2016-19). He now leads the Federation of Canadian Demographers as President. His commitment to make research serve public policy has led him to preparing many research reports for government, and serving in positions advising government. For example, he serves as a Member of the Social Statistics Advisory Board of Statistics Canada, and in working groups for the Government of New Brunswick. He brings his research to academia, public policy, and to the public. You will find Michael Haan in television and radio interviews, and online presentations about population change and immigration.
Research
Michael Haan has been investigator or co-investigator on over $10 million dollars of funded research. In his research, Dr. Haan uses ‘big data’ to understand how people move around the globe, integrate into the labour market, and respond to changes in industry. Answers developed from his research inform debates on a wide range of topics, including employment insurance, labour market development, and immigration policy. Dr. Haan also researches as a member of several research partnerships, enabling researchers across these groups to tackle massive datasets and interdisciplinary questions.
Current Projects/Grants
- Universities and Municipalities, a New Research Partnership
Principal Investigator; $197,258 SSHRC Insight Grant (2017-2022); Robert Andersen | Daniel Henstra | Anders Holm | David Zarifa - New Brunswick's Population Dynamics
- The Migratory Implications of Industrial Change
Principal Investigator; $75,000 SSHRC Insight Development Grant (2016-2017) - Irregular Migrant Flows and Population Change
Principal Investigator; $25,000 SSHRC President's Innovation Fund (2016-2017) - Joint Program Initiative of the European Union on Migration and Demographic Change
Principal Investigator; $25,000 SSHRC President’s Innovation Fund (2016-2017) - Syrian Refugees Arrival, Settlement, and Arrival
Co-investigator; $25,000 SSHRC Targeted Research Grant (2016-2017) - What Can Administrative Data Tell us Abou Aboriginal Mobility?
Principal Investigator; $169,000 SSHRC Insight Grant (2015-2020) - Municipalities and Universities: Developing Infrastructure for Collaborative Research with Administrative Data
Principal Investigator; $197,258 - Evaluating the Economic Outcomes and Retention of Immigrants to Atlantic Canada
Co-investigator; $221,850
For past research, see full cv
Academic Knowledge Dissemination
- Consequences of parental benefits policies for family dynamics
May 2018; Canadian Population Society Annual General Meeting; Margolis, Hou | Haan | Holm - Exploring the Gendered Dimensions of Extreme Commuting
May 2018; Families, Work and Mobility Conference, Charlottetown, PEI; Haan | Rippey - Immigration to the United States and Canada's Spatial Mismatch and Policy Impact
Apr. 2018; Population Association of America Annual Meeting 2018, Denver, CO; Haan | Yu - Are People Still Moving for Money?: Insights from Canadian Administrative Data
Feb. 2018; Department of Sociology, Western University, London, ON - The Recruitment and Retention of International Students in Canada
Dec. 2017; Centre for Research on Migration and Ethnic Relations, Western University, London, ON - Are people still moving for money? Changes in the mover's premium over time
Nov. 2017; Canadian Research Data Centre Network 2017 National Conference, Montreal - Policy change and social change: Families' use of parental benefits in Canada 1998-2012
June 2017; Annual Meeting of the Canadian Population Society; Margolis | Hou | Haan - The Promise of Administrative Data for Criminology
June 2017; Annual General Meeting of the Law and Society Association, Mexico City; Michael Haan | Dale Ballucci - An investigation of PROs: New Brunswick’s Prolific Offender Database
Feb. 2017; Annual General Meeting of the Western Criminological Association - Trends in Immigrant Recruitment
Dec. 2016; University of Waterloo Sociology Department Speaker Series - Demographic Pressures on Labour Markets
January 2016; University of Calgary Economics Working Group, Ottawa
For more, see full cv
Research Groups
Publications
- 1 book (3 editions)
- 5 book chapters
- 40 refereed articles
- 36 reports
- 3 magazine articles
- 3 op-eds
- 9 book reviews
Books
- Haan, Michael, and Jenny Godley. 2017. An Introduction to Social Statistics for Canadian Social Scientists, 3rd edition
Oxford University Press (2nd Edition published in 2013, 1st edition published in 2009)


Refereed Articles
- "Studying the Social Determinants of COVID-19 in a Data Vacuum"
forthcoming; Canadian Review of Sociology; Kate H. Choi | Anna Zajacova | Patrick Denice | Michael Haan - "Mental Health and Economic Concerns from March to May during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada"
forthcoming; SSM - Population Health; Anna Zajacova | Kate H. Choi | Howard Ramos | Patrick Denice | Michael Haan | Anthony Jehn | Matthew Stackhouse - "Age of the oldest child and internal migration of immigrant families: A study using administrative data from immigrant landing and tax files"
2020; Population, Space and Place; Kate H. Choi | Sagi Ramaj | Michael Haan - "The Canadian Aboriginal Middle Class: a systemic approach"
forthcoming; International Indigenous Policy Journal ; Michael Haan | Jules Cornetet | Georgina Chuatico - "Correlation of Occupational Exposure and Risk of Genitourinary Malignancies: A Canadian Population Study"
2021; Medical & Surgical Urology; Shiva Madhwan Nair | Tina Luu Ly | Daniel Halstuch | Arnon Lavi | Yujiro Sano | Michael Haan | Nicholas E Power - "By the Numbers: The Canadian Construction Industry"
2020; Labour & Industry; Michael Haan | Christopher Hewitt | Georgina Chuatico - "Long-term Testis Cancer Survivors in Canada—Mortality Risks in a Large Population-based Cohort"
2020; European Urology Open Science; Arnon Lavi | Roderick Clark | Tina Luu Ly | Shiva M. Nair | Khalil Hetou | Michael Haan | Nicholas E. Power - "Visualizing the Geographic and Demographic Distribution of COVID-19"
2020; Socius; Patrick Denice | Kate H. Choi | Michael Haan | Anna Zajacova - "Job changing and internal mobility: Insights into the “declining duo” from Canadian administrative data"
2020; Population, Space and Place; Michael Haan | Miguel Cardoso - "Becoming Permanent: The Transition Characteristics of Temporary Foreign Workers to Permanent Residents in Canada"
2020; International Migration; Michael Haan | Yoko Yoshida | Jonathan Amoyaw | Natalie Iciaszczyk - "Aboriginal Earnings in Canada: The Importance of Gender, Education, and Industry"
2020; Canadian Ethnic Studies; Michael Haan | Georgina Chuatico | Jules Cornetet - "Will They Stay or Will They Go? Examining the Brain Drain in Canada’s Provincial North"
2020; Canadian Review of Sociology; Cathlene Hillier | Yujiro Sano | David Zarifa | Michael Haan - "Geographic Variation in Preventable Hospitalizations Across Canada: A Cross-sectional Study"
2020; BMJ Open; Piotr Wilk | Shehzad Ali | Kelly Anderson | Andrew Clark | Martin Cooke | Stephanie Frisbee | Jason Gilliland | Michael Haan | Stewart Harris | Soushyant Kiarasi | Alana Maltby | Kambiz Norozi | Robert Petrella | Sisira Sarma | Sarah Singh | Saverio Stranges | Amardeep Thind - "Bonding Social Ties: Relative Human Capital"
2020; Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies; Georgina Chuatico | Michael Haan - "Capturing trends in Canadian divorce in an era without vital statistics"
2019; Demographic Research; Rachel Margolis | Youjin Choi | Feng Hou | Michael Haan - "Work injuries in internal migrants to Alberta, Canada. Do workers' compensation records provide an unbiased estimate of risk?"
2019; American Journal of Industrial Medicine; Nicola Cherry | Jean‐Michel Galarneau | Michael Haan | Whitney Haynes | Katherine Lippel - "Use of Parental Benefits by Family Income in Canada: Two Policy Changes"
2019; Journal of Marriage and Family; Rachel Margolis | Feng Hou | Michael Haan | Anders Holm - "The return migration patterns of Canadian seniors: insights from the 1991 cancer cohort study"
2018; Journal of Population Research; Michael Haan | Ashley Calhoun | Zikuan Liu - "Migration and immigration: recent advances using linked administrative data"
2018; Journal of Population Research; Michael Haan | James Ted McDonald - "Love, Money, Location: The Interconnectedness of Marital Status, Income, and Location Choice of Immigrants to British Columbia, Canada"
2017; Journal of Demographic Economics; - "Individual and community-level determinants of retention of Anglophone and Francophone immigrants across Canada"
2017; Canadian Studies in Population;
For more, see full cv
Book Chapters
- (forthcoming) "Data options for studying migration in an unprecedented era of information" (with Howard Ramos) in Steffen Pötzschke and Sebastian Rinken, eds., Quantitative Migration Research in a Digitized World: Using Innovative Technology to tackle Methodological Challenges, Imiscoe
For more, see full cv
Reports
- Immigrant Recruitment and Retention in Hamilton
Michael Haan | Federico Eichelmann - Immigrant Recruitment and Retention in Peel Region
Michael Haan | Federico Eichelmann - Immigrant Recruitment and Retention in York Region
Michael Haan | Federico Eichelmann - Immigrant Recruitment and Retention in Halton Region
Michael Haan | Federico Eichelmann - Immigrant Recruitment and Retention in the City of Moncton
Michael Haan | Federico Eichelman - Estimating Parental Leave in Canada with Administrative Data
2017; Statistics Canada. Analytical Studies and Reference Materials; Feng Hou | Rachel Margolis | Michael Haan - Immigration Trends in Canada
2017; “More Years, Better Lives”, a Joint Program Initiative of the European Union Framework Programme for Research and Innovation; Michael Haan | Natalie Iciaszczyk - Attitudes to immigration and the Ageing of Societies
2017; “More Years, Better Lives”, a Joint Program Initiative of the European Union Framework Programme for Research and Innovation; Peter Huber | Fanny Delinger | Michael Haan | Natalie Iciaszczyk - Municipal Population Projections, 2011-2026
2015; New Brunswick Department of Environment and Local Government; John Calhoun | Michael Haan
For more, see full cv
Teaching
- Immigration Policy and Program Evaluation
- Public Policy Research
- Population Studies
- Population and Society
- Introduction to Population Studies
- An Introduction to Social Statistics
- Social Research Methods
- Social Policy
- Social Structure and Public Policy
Teaching Philosophy
"Although I lecture comfortably in big classes, my personal preference is the ‘oxbridge’ pedagogical style, which is a much more tutorial-based style of teaching and learning. I believe that students need to be able to ask questions as they arise, and that in the era of mega-classroom lectures this has become somewhat of a luxury. I understand the role that big lectures play in the modern university, but I believe that this format is usefully accompanied by some smaller sessions, which I try to include in all my classes, where students can interact with their professor, teaching assistants, and fellow students in a more intimate and personal manner.
Closely related to this, whenever possible I try to employ a ‘knowledge through discovery’ approach in my teaching. Typically, this translates into spending a considerable amount of time working with students on projects and homework assignments. I regularly work one-on-one with students, often in the Statistics Canada Research Data Centre (RDC), to conceive an original project, learn the necessary analytical techniques to conduct the research, analyze the appropriate data, and write a publishable paper. Students seem to find the experience to be incredibly rewarding, and now they have the skills to be able to work on similar projects, independently, or as research assistants for other faculty members. In the coming years, I’m optimistic that these will be the students that leave a mark in their respective fields."
Currently Teaching
- 4478F - 001 Advanced Program and Policy Evaluation
Graduate and Undergraduate Supervision
Sociology
- 9 Post-Doctoral Fellows completed
- 1 PhD completed, 7 PhD in progress
- 14 MA completed, 3 MA in progress
- 1 Honours BA completed
Economics
- 4 PhD completed
- 4 MA completed
Surgery
- 1 MA in progress
- authors on refereed publications: 9 post‑docs, 5 PhD students, 3 MA students
- presented at external conferences: 9 post‑docs, 3 PhD students, 2 MA students
- external grant funding: 1 post‑doc
Public Sociology
Dr. Haan is widely consulted by provincial and federal governments for policy advice in the areas of immigration, settlement services, the Canadian labour market, and population aging. He also makes time to speak to non-government organizations and the press, making his work accessible to the public.
Public Policy and Community Engagement
- Municipal Immigration Strategies
March 2019; Metropolis Halifax - The Recruitment and Retention of International Students in Canada
April 2018; Pathways to Prosperity and ICA Victoria Workshop - on local labour supply
June 2017; London Workforce Development Board - The Demographic Drivers of Economic Inequality
March 2017; Statistics Canada Speaker Series, Ottawa; Michael Haan | Miguel Cardoso - The Demographic Drivers of Immigrant Reception
Dec. 2016; Joint Program Initiative, More Years, Better Lives, Berlin - Data Gaps for International Comparisons in Studying Immigration
Oct. 2016; International Metropolis Conference, Nagoya - Data as Infrastructure
May 2016; Canadian Foundation for Innovation, Ottawa - Immigration to Canada
April 2016; Joint Program Initiative, More Years, Better Lives, Berlin - Immigration to Sault Ste. Marie: Challenges and Opportunities
April 2016; Local Immigration Partnership Annual Meeting, Sault Ste. Marie, ON - The Secondary Migration Patterns of Canadian Immigrants
March 2016; 18th National Metropolis Conference, Toronto; Haan | Prokopenko - Immigrant Recruitment and Retention with Administrative Data
March 2016; Metropolis National Conference, Toronto - Presentation on Measuring Immigrant Recruitment and Retention
Nov. 2015; Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada, Ottawa - Administrative Data and Program Evaluation
Nov. 2015; Pathways to Prosperity National Conference - Using Tax Filing Data to Illustrate Secondary Migration Tendencies
Nov. 2015; Pathways to Prosperity National Conference
For more, see full cv
In the Media
- 50 television interviews
- 75 radio interviews
- 76 print media interviews
- Census 2021: Canadians are talking about race. But the census hasn’t caught up.
May 4, 2021; Philippine Canadian Inquirer - Census 2021: Canadians are talking about race. But the census hasn't caught up."
May 3, 2021; The Conversation - "Statistics Canada considered delaying this year’s census to 2022 due to pandemic"
March 8, 2021; Toronto Star - Age of oldest child key to unlocking immigration mobility within Canada
Dec. 9, 2020; Western News - Canadian tech group spends $100K on billboards to lure anxious tech workers from U.S.
Aug. 13, 2020; CBC News - "Stress eating for two: we could be seeing the first signs of a pandemic baby boom"
May 28, 2020; CBC News - "Pandemic making Canada's economic future uncertain"
Apr. 17, 2020; Phys.org - Statistics Canada considered delaying this year’s census to 2022 due to pandemic
Mar. 8, 2021; Lethbridge News Now - "Canada cannot dust off gender roles in home"
Feb. 21, 2020; Phys.org - "London population growth rate among fastest in Canada"
Feb. 18, 2020; CBC News - What's in a name? Looking back at the top N.B. baby names of the past 40 years
Jan. 1, 2020; CBC News - "Number of New Brunswick births tumbles 17 per cent to record low"
Jan. 2, 2019; CBC News - "How many will call northern Ontario home in 2058? Population predictions hinge on immigration, climate change"
Oct. 22, 2018; CBC News - "Graduate growth: Province leading the country in growth in graduate degrees awarded"
Oct. 22, 2018; Memorial University Gazette - "International students at UPEI want on-campus support services"
Oct. 16, 2018; The Guardian - "Newfoundland’s new immigration program for very patient student entrepreneurs"
Aug. 3, 2018; Polestar Student Immigration News - "While some remain, most international students leave P.E.I. after graduating"
July 10, 2018; The Guardian - "Success! International students more likely to stay in Atlantic Canada"
June 11, 2018; Polestar Student Immigration News - "The importance of international students to Atlantic Canada"
May 9, 2018; The Conversation - "Out-migration cause of low birth rates, says population expert"
Apr. 3, 2018; CBC News - "Martin: Mayor's happy talk doesn?t mesh with reality"
Dec. 22, 2017; The London Free Press - "London is number 1 when it comes to people who don't work"
Nov. 29, 2017; CBC News - "1 in 6 Londoners identify themselves as visible minorities, census shows"
Oct. 26, 2017; CBC News - "2016 Census: London leads in refugees, lags in luring immigrants"
Oct. 25, 2017; The London Free Press - "More and more, 'average Canadian' is anything but, says latest 2016 census"
Oct. 25, 2017; InfoTel News - "New Census Finds That 'Average Canadian' Looks Like Anyone In The World"
Oct. 25, 2017; Huffington Post - "Thunder Bay has Canada’s highest proportion of urban Aboriginals"
Oct. 25, 2017; The Chronicle Journal - "Almost 1 in 5 Londoners are now foreign-born"
Oct. 25, 2017; CBC News - "Visible minorities may comprise one-third of Canadians by 2036"
Oct. 25, 2017; Maclean's - "Face of 'average Canadian' is anything but, says latest 2016 census"
Oct. 25, 2017; CityNews - "Even as long-form census data returns, Statscan readies for day without it"
Oct. 24, 2017, CBC News -
"Immigrant Retention: Immigration is New Brunswick's hope for population growth"
Oct. 9, 2017; CBC News -
"NB Newsmaker Jan 3"
Oct. 7, 2017; CBC New Brunswick News -
"More seniors than under 15s"
Sept. 12, 2017; CBC News