Using data from 2006, the report said working-age immigrants born in Europe had labor outcomes similar to the Canadian born, while those born elsewhere in Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa all had higher unemployment rates and lower employment rates in 2006 than Canadian-born residents.

"In 2006, the estimated 70,000 very recent African-born immigrants had an unemployment rate of 20.8 percent, more than four times higher than that of the Canadian-born," the report said.

Despite a declining number of immigrants from Europe, they still represented the second-largest source region of all immigrants in 2006 after Asia, with the majority from Britain, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Romania, the agency said.