The number of foreign-born people in Canada is now one-in-five, an increase of 13.6 per cent from 2001 with the vast majority of them settling in Ontario, according to new census data from Statistics Canada.
released Tuesday focuses on immigration, language and migration trends across Canada.
The director general of the StatsCan census program says "6.2 million people in Canada were born outside of Canada. And that foreign-born proportion of the population is at its highest in 75 years."
"We see their growth rate to be four times that of the Canadian-born population," Anil Arora told CTV's Canada AM.
In the past five years, 1.1 million immigrants have made Canada their home, with most of them settling in Ontario, Arora said.
According to the statistics:
- 52.3 per cent settled in Ontario
- 17 per cent in Quebec
- 16 per cent in B.C.
"Some 86 per cent of all recent immigrants -- these are the people who immigrated to Canada between 2001 and 2006 -- made either Ontario, Quebec, or British Columbia their home," Arora said.
"But we're also seeing some other provinces now certainly benefit from that immigration, so we're seeing some increases in provinces like obviously Alberta, Manitoba, and Atlantic provinces."
And perhaps not surprisingly, almost two-thirds of the nation's foreign-born population settled in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal.
The census data also shows a surge in foreign-born immigrants from Asian and Middle Eastern countries, with those countries striding ahead of immigration from European countries.
Most foreign-born immigrants to Canada in the past five years -- 14 per cent -- were from China. India followed at 11.6 per cent, then the Philippines at 7 per cent and Pakistan at 5.2 per cent.
Those numbers are reflected in language statistics also released by StatsCan on Tuesday. The number of allophones, that's people whose mother tongue is anything but English or French, hit 80 per cent.
But the number of Canadians who can speak both French and English also rose to 17.4 per cent across the country.
Here is a list of the top-five mother tongues in Canada:
- Chinese -- 16 per cent.
- Italian -- 7 per cent.
- German -- 7 per cent.
- Punjabi -- 6 per cent.
- Spanish -- 5 per cent.
Jack Jedwab, of the Association for Canadian Studies in Ottawa, said the numbers are good news for Canada.
"Immigration is crucial in terms of offsetting the demographic dependency that Canada risks facing in the future," Jedwab told Canada AM.
"As the percentage of people over the age of 65 who are not part of the working population grows substantially, we'll need an important critical mass of people working age."
Quebec, immigrants and language
The 2006 census shows that Quebec's allophones, those whose mother tongue is neither French nor English, are increasingly speaking French at home.
Fifty-one per cent used French at home in 2006. In 2001, the figure was 46 per cent and in 1996, 39 per cent.
Three of four allophones who arrived in Quebec since 2001 use French at home.
"That will be very important based on the debates we've been having, whether it's about immigration or integration, or even reasonable accommodation," Jedwab told CTV Montreal.
The proportion of francophones in Quebec and the metropolitan Montreal region has decreased slightly, he noted.
The francophone population of Montreal is now measured at 64.9 per cent, the first time it is below 65 per cent, CTV Montreal reported.
"But that erosion is attributable to the growth of allophones, which is attributable to the higher numbers of immigrants we're receiving in Quebec -- and we need immigrants," Jedwab said.
However, both anglophones and allophones are increasingly speaking French, he said.
The census also showed that for the first time since 1976, the exodus of Quebec Anglophones has been stemmed.
In the past five years, the number of anglophones in the province increased by 16,000.
"I think that goes to show we have achieved a certain linguistic peace and political stability in the province," said Kevin Dobie of the Quebec Community Group Network.
He also said that anglophones are increasingly bilingual.
"I think there has been extra effort on behalf of the English speaking community of Quebec to learn French, and certain parts of French culture."
