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Refugee immigrants are reporting higher incomes to the Canada Revenue Agency than investor-class immigrants, according to data compiled by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC).

Furthermore, the rate of investor immigrants reporting any income whatsoever is far below the Canadian average.

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The findings, reported last week by Ian Young of the South China Morning Post, may indicate the expected social and economic benefits of the investor-class program have not shown dividends.

“The data that suggests many investor migrants tend to treat Canada as some kind of holiday resort or educational/retirement bolt hole, while doing business back ‘home’ is quite clear,” wrote Young on his website.

While the investor-class program was scrapped last year, a similar, smaller pilot program, the Immigrant Investor Venture Capital, was announced last December.

In the old program, more than half of all investors chose B.C. as their destination in the late 2000s, with over 5,000 coming into the province annually, according to CIC.