Highlights of the census of immigration, citizenship and language- ZT

十年移民路_

Highlights of the census of immigration, citizenship and language
Kirsten Smith, CanWest News Service
Published: 9:18 am
2 E8 N' c) t- P1 x1 \- On census day, May 16, 2006, almost 20 per cent of the population,  or 6,186,950 people, were foreign-born.

6 F3 P3 p4 I' X: [; M- More than one million of these people arrived in Canada between January 1, 2001 and census day.

* z; b& i1 ~7 Y7 r* Q- Since the 2001 census, the foreign-born population increased by 13.6 per cent or four times the growth rate of the Canadian-born population.
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) W. `! n' {6 MFont:****- More than half the recent immigrants came from Asia and the Middle East, then Europe, followed by Central and South America and the Caribbean, and lastly Africa.

- Canada has a higher proportion of foreign-born than the United States, 19.8 per cent compared to 12.5 per cent.

' Z3 o% J- L- n: G6 e1 t7 R- Among western countries that are immigrant-receiving countries, only Australia has a higher proportion of foreign-born population than Canada.

- Over 70 per cent of new Canadians use English as their mother tongue.

- 17.5 per cent of the foreign-born population that live in Quebec report French as their only mother tongue.

- Of the new immigrant whose mother tongue is neither English nor French, the largest groups are Chinese languages, at 18.6 per cent.
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- Italian, Punjabi, Spanish, German, Tagalog (from the Philippines), and Arabic are the most common mother tongues after English, French and Chinese for foreign-born people.
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: I. n+ Q: u+ s& F+ s8 w9 d$ t! [( D4 N- 93 per cent of the foreign-born population could conduct a conversation in either French or English in 2006.

- Almost 70 per cent of new immigrants settled in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.

- Between 2001 and 2006, more new immigrants than before opted to settle into smaller census metropolitan areas.
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9 W& Z" ^' P2 E3 u/ g$ p- If a new immigrant settled in the CMAs, they tended to live downtown, not in the suburbs.

- Just over 85 per cent of foreign-born residents who were eligible for citizenship in 2006 became citizens.

0 [  U! A1 l! O# y- 2.8 per cent of the population hold citizenship of another country in addition to Canadian. Eighty per cent of these citizens are foreign-born.

0 H% L8 @* T2 D- Of the foreign-born Canadian citizens who have a second citizenship the largest groups are from the United Kingdom (14. 7 per cent), Poland (6.6 per cent), then the United States (5.4 per cent)

- In 2006, the number of foreign-born residents from Asia and the Middle East exceeded that of Europe for the first time.
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- The main source country for new immigrants in 2006 was the People's Republic of China (14 per cent), India (11.6 per cent) the Philippines (seven per cent), and Pakistan (5.2 per cent). These countries held these positions in the 2001 census as well.
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. l( T7 n: h, t# Q- F+ g; @5 ]- Rounding out the top ten source countries for immigrants are: the United States, South Korea, Romania, Iran, the United Kingdom and Colombia.
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- Leading source countries from Central and South America are Colombia and Mexico.

- Leading source countries from Africa were Algeria and Morocco.
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8 P9 f& P( w& {- Our new immigrants are young. Almost 58 per cent who came in the past five years were between 25 and 54. By contrast, only 42 per cent of the Canadian-born population is in this age bracket.

- One in five new immigrants were under age 14.
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- n' P( B. o& z2 Y- Only 3.5 per cent of newcomers were over age 65, compared to 11.5 per cent of the Canadian-born population in this age bracket.

8 x) o9 ^6 E$ i' o% A9 _- Ontario, which has 39 per cent of the total national population has 55 per cent of the immigrant population. Of the immigrant population that arrived between 2001 and 2006, 52.3 per cent are in Ontario.
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- Foreign-born people account for less than four per cent of the total population of Atlantic Canada.
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- A slight increase in newcomer immigration to Atlantic Canada almost offset the decline in the Canadian born population in the region.

- Americans were the primary source of immigrants to the Maritimes with people from the British Isles more likely to go to Newfoundland and Labrador.
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1 M: P$ j. Z' I! Z% f2 a- The percentage of foreign-born people in Quebec increased 20 per cent between 2001 and 2006, the highest-ever level.
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- Nearly 87 per cent of new immigrants to Quebec settled in Montreal.
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' y/ r1 @* G  a! j' k& o- In the Prairies, most new immigrants chose to live in Alberta or Manitoba.

; f" d$ Y, v8 ^$ z, \" t4 e- Alberta has half a million foreign-born people, just over 16 per cent of the population. By proportion, this places Alberta third behind Ontario and British Columbia for immigrant population.
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1 k/ `7 F0 ?" ?2 Q( h. b- British Columbia's immigrant population increased slightly from 26.1 per cent in 2001 to 27.5 per cent in 2006 to 1,119,200 people.

- Of recent immigrants, about 16 per cent settled in British Columbia.

& o' |' V" O8 c; ~. ?( G- p  f0 }- Only about 6,300 foreign-born individuals live in one of the three Northern territories, with 1,000 of them arriving in the past five years.
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- One quarter of new northern immigrants are from the Philippines.

- The proportion of the foreign-born populations of Toronto and Vancouver exceed those of American cities like Miami and Los Angeles.
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LANGUAGE

- 98 per cent of the population speak one of both official languages.
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- 58 per cent reported English as their mother tongue compared to 22 per cent who reported French.
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- Chinese languages are the third-largest mother tongue group at three per cent.
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- L& B. v) U# u# J; S- The share of anglophones and francophones in the population declined slightly as more allophones (people whose mother tongue is neither French nor English) immigrate.

- Allophones make up 20 per cent of the population, compared to 13 per cent in 1986.
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6 I6 L0 V9 j' e5 U! r+ n& R- Nearly 80 per cent, just over 900,000, of new immigrants were allophone in 2006.
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- w' }( j" d; R- k8 `8 f- Both Vancouver and Toronto have over 40 per of the population that identify as allophone.

- There are nearly 200 mother tongues reported in Canada.

0 `- R$ [. h! Q# Q  `/ Q- Nearly 84 per cent of francophones who live outside Quebec report that they are bilingual. For francophones within the province of Quebec, the number drops to 36 per cent.

' g6 g4 A. F; F- w7 W9 T7 k- Only 7.5 per cent of anglophones who live outside Quebec report they are bilingual, compared to almost 69 per cent who live in Quebec.
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- p% D  @+ c% `- Nationally, 17.4 per cent of Canadians reported being bilingual in 2006.
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- For Canadians as a whole, after English and French the largest language groups are Chinese languages (16.1 per cent), Italian (7.4 per cent) and German (7.2 per cent).
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4 s$ S5 d" N8 c& f7 n- The longer an immigrant has lived in Canada, the more likely they speak English or French at home.

6 f! m5 f( o* J- The rate of language transfer from francophones to English continues to increase.  Language transfer refers to the language most often spoken at home that is different than the mother tongue.

liyong

So, we should ask Canadian government set mandarin as an official language.