According to a new study, Canadian immigrant children are more likely to smoke because they feel it is needed to be a part of the social scenario there.

The number of new immigrant youngsters are less likely to smoke than kids born in Canadian but by the time they spend 10 years here the numbers are nearly the same.

About 1,959 children who were 9 to 12 years old in 24 schools in multi-ethnic inner city neighbourhoods in Montreal, were spoken to by researchers. These kids were a mixture of Canadian-born youngsters who had Canadian parents, foreign-born and Canadian-born who had foreign-born parents.

Results stated that 10 per cent of immigrant children who are in Canada for five years or less reported they had ever smoked. This number became 21 per cent of children who have been in Canada from six to 10 years and the number further went to 28 per cent of those who lived in Canada for more than a decade. About 29 per cent Canadian children who had Canadian parents smoked.

It was also found that children in poorer neighbourhoods smoked because they belonged to poorer neighbourhoods and wanted to follow the trend at other places as well as a hunger to fit in, said O'Loughlin.

O'Loughlin, who holds a Canadian Research Chair in Early Determinants of Adult Chronic Disease said, "I use the example of Chinese girls. In their own country, they don't smoke. They come to Canada and by the time they're 12 or 13, they're smoking as much as Canadian girls."