Edmonton Journal

TALK OF THE TOWN

Census shows spike in Edmontonia­ns whose mother tongue is neither English, French

- JONNY WAKEFIELD

Edmonton is fast becoming one of Canada’s most linguistic­ally diverse big cities, with more people speaking languages such as Tagalog, Punjabi and Arabic than ever before.

New census data Wednesday shows the number of people in Edmonton who use a language other than English or French as

their mother tongue surged 31 per cent between the 2011 and 2016 censuses — a faster rate than in any of Canada’s other big cities.

More than 345,000 Edmontonia­ns claim a non-official first language, nearly double the number of the 1996 census and making up around a quarter of the metro area’s 1.3 million people.

Of those, 87,115 regularly speak

an “immigrant language” at home, according to Statistics Canada.

“Recent immigrants continue to change the linguistic landscape of the province. That’s not a surprise,” said Alison Yacyshyn, a professor at Concordia University of Edmonton.

“We see this when we’re out in the community ... we hear people talking different languages in our neighbourh­oods.”

TAGALOG STILL TOP ‘IMMIGRANT LANGUAGE’

Statistics Canada distinguis­hes between Aboriginal languages, English and French, and languages from immigrants to Canada in the post-colonial period.

Around 7.6 million Canadians told census takers they speak a nonEnglish or non-French language at home — equal to around 21 per cent of the population and an increase of nearly one million people (14.5 per cent) over 2011.

Two-thirds of Canada’s immigrant language-speaking population­s live in Toronto, Vancouver or Montreal, but Alberta saw the largest relative gains since the last census.

After Edmonton, Calgary saw a 28-per-cent increase in people reporting an immigrant mother tongue. Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver still had larger overall immigrant language-speaking population­s, but rates of growth in those cities cooled in the last five years.

Tagalog was the most common immigrant language in every western province and territory with the exception of British Columbia, where Punjabi was on top (Cantonese and Mandarin are reported as distinct languages).

The Filipino language was also Edmonton’s most common immigrant language, the mother tongue of 42,525 Edmontonia­ns — 3.3 per cent of the total population.

Punjabi and Cantonese followed with 30,115 and 23,955 native speakers in Edmonton, respective­ly. Mandarin and Arabic each had around 20,000 speakers.

Edmonton’s growing linguistic diversity was no surprise to Patti Hergott, a dean at NorQuest College with a focus on language programs.

The college is one of Alberta’s largest destinatio­ns for students looking to improve their English for both work and immigratio­n exams, with around 3,300 students enrolled in English-language courses each year.

NorQuest is also contracted to provide language and settlement classes to refugees and newcomers through Immigratio­n Canada.

“That number has consistent­ly grown over the last five years. This is probably an all-time peak for us,” she said, saying some of that has to do with the influx of Syrian refugees.

Arabic was one of the fastest growing immigrant languages in Edmonton, adding nearly 7,000 native speakers in five years.

Ibtissam Nkaili contribute­d to

I’m starting to be comfortabl­e with English and I feel like I’m becoming more social. But at the start, it stopped me from being who I am.

that trend.

When Nkaili came to Canada in 2008 to study for an undergradu­ate degree at Universite de Moncton in New Brunswick, she completed her courses in French. English has been a more recent acquisitio­n for the Moroccan citizen and new permanent resident in Canada.

While Nkaili is fluent in both of Canada’s official languages, it’s in her native Arabic that she feels most like herself.

“When I’m in Morocco, I talk to anybody and they’d say, ‘Oh she’s extroverte­d,’” said Nkaili, who moved to Alberta in 2013, became a chartered profession­al accountant in English and works for an auditing firm in downtown Edmonton. “Here, I’ve had comments like when I do a personalit­y test, people think I’m introverte­d, because I didn’t speak.

“Now I’m starting to be comfortabl­e with English and I feel like I’m becoming more social. But at the start, it stopped me from being who I am.”

 ?? GREG SOUTHAM ?? Ibtissam Nkaili grew up speaking Arabic. She came to Canada in 2008, moved to Edmonton in 2013 and completed a CPA in English. The latest census data suggests the number of Edmonton residents whose native language isn’t one of Canada’s official...
GREG SOUTHAM Ibtissam Nkaili grew up speaking Arabic. She came to Canada in 2008, moved to Edmonton in 2013 and completed a CPA in English. The latest census data suggests the number of Edmonton residents whose native language isn’t one of Canada’s official...
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