More Immigrants Using Their Native Language
The latest census figures released Tuesday by Statistics Canada show a large number of Canada’s new immigrants are working in a native tongue which is neither of the country’s official languages. The large rise in immigration over the past five years of people whose mother tongue is neither French nor English did not necessarily mean that more of them were using non-official languages in the workplace.
But in B.C. and Ontario, the provinces where most immigrants land, a large number reported using a language other than English or French at work. The proportion held steady at 30 per cent in B.C. over a five-year period and dipped only slightly to 20 per cent from 21 per cent in Ontario.
