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Old 10-29-2017, 05:19 PM
Deer Hunter Deer Hunter is offline
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Default Calgary becoming magnet for ethnic migrants - interesting stats

http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-...f-2965572f29f1
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Calgary becoming magnet for ethnic migrants, new StatsCan data shows


Bill Kaufmann Bill Kaufmann
More from Bill Kaufmann

Published on: October 28, 2017 | Last Updated: October 29, 2017 9:50 AM MDT
​ From his refuge in Lebanon after fleeing Syria’s civil war, Mohamed El Daher weighed his immigration options by the click of a mouse.

After perusing a host of Canadian cities, he settled on Calgary.

“Here, there are many jobs in the future,” said vegetable farmer El Daher, 40, who arrived in the spring of 2016 with his wife and three children.

“Calgary looked very, very nice.”

A brother also settled in Calgary, lured by the same qualities, said the man from Hama, Syria, adding he’d advise others to follow in his footsteps.




But El Daher might just as well have been following the advice of more than 200,000 other immigrants who’ve made Calgary their home since 2001.

According to Statistics Canada census data released this week, the immigrant count in the Calgary metropolitan area grew from 197,175 in 2001 to 404,700 last year.

That’s increased the immigrant percentage of Calgary’s population from 20.9% to 29.4%.


In 1959, one out of 350 Calgarians was a visible minority; today that number is one in three compared to a national average of one in five.

The profusion of ethnic festivals in the city and the explosion of diversity in its eateries are only two outwards signs of the city’s multi-hued transformation.

Leading the way in immigration from 2011 to 2016 are those hailing from the Philippines, followed by India, China, Pakistan then Nigeria.

Native Filipinos are now the most numerous immigrant group in the city, more recently supplanting south Asians and Chinese.

In his office strategically located in the Pacific Place Mall, a multi-ethnic hub of culture and commerce in Calgary’s northeast, David Hohol scans his own agency’s numbers that dovetail with Statistics Canada’s.

“We’ve jumped three or four years ago from serving 7,000 people a year to 10-12,000,” said Hohol, manager of community relations for the Calgary Centre for Newcomers, which helps immigrants settle in the city.

“Our growth is expanding past our funding.”

For now, the most numerous of the centre’s clients originate from Eritrea, said Hohol, which is in keeping the national census showing Africans are now the second-most numerous immigrants to Canada, eclipsed only by Asians.

“We’ve heard a lot about Syrian refugees lately but they’re not even in the top list,” he said.

Much of the growing attraction of prairie cities to immigrants is economic and the maturing faces of those urban areas driven partly by the newcomers themselves, said Hohol.

“Even a place like Saskatoon is very attractive. It’s growing and becoming more modern, and Calgary is even moreso,” he said.

Those newcomers turn increasingly to extensive online research of prospective adopted cities, and what that often tells them is that places like Calgary offer more affordable homes than traditional newcomer magnets like Vancouver and Toronto, said Hohol.

One indication of that could be figures showing that, for the first time in memory, Alberta attracted more immigrants last year than B.C.

From 2011 to 2016, the province took in 17.1% of the country’s immigrants compared to 6.1% in 2001.

Amid that influx, said Hohol, Calgary now has five full-time immigrant settlement agencies to ensure newcomers’ absorption runs relatively smoothly.

“The vast majority of these people feel very welcome and they’ll tell you that,” he said.

Syrian newcomer El Daher enthusiastically echoes that sentiment, praising his new neighbours as vital to his family’s progress.

“The Canadian people here are very nice, they help me with everything,” said El Daher, who lives in the Ranchlands area.

In the coming weeks, his wife Nahiama will give birth to the couple’s fourth child, their first in Canada, completing a circle of immigrant destiny.

“We’ll have a Canadian citizen,” said El Daher.

BKaufmann@postmedia.com

On Twitter: @BillKaufmannjrn

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Old 10-29-2017, 05:27 PM
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I wonder what Calgary will look like when all these refugees/immigrants return to rebuild their homelands.
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Old 10-29-2017, 07:09 PM
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The cold would be a big shock to them. Eritrea south of Sudan. The population is poor. They are Muslim , in religion. The live in grass huts, with many camels. Many live a primitive lifestyle. They are good people, However a little on the soft side. For many, they probably worked in Saudi Arabia. Saudi have many Egyptians, Sudanese, and Eritreans working in there country.
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Old 10-29-2017, 07:16 PM
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I have a friend from South Africa who worked in Saudi. Quite an experience.

Most Canadians don't have a clue about Saudi or Africa, I believe.
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Old 10-29-2017, 07:32 PM
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Great to see others recognize Calgary has huge future potential.
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Old 10-29-2017, 08:01 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Redfrog View Post
I wonder what Calgary will look like when all these refugees/immigrants return to rebuild their homelands.
They will build there homeland here..within 25 years they will be the majority. We will be wondering what happened.
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Old 10-29-2017, 08:10 PM
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Why are we importing vegetable farmers? Especially since our farms are so dangerous. Immigration used to be dependant on worth of the individual coming in eg: do you speak an official language, are you a doctor or hold some other degree, do you have a recognized trade, do we have a shortage of skill set from said applicant? etc, etc...
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Old 10-29-2017, 08:16 PM
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They will build there homeland here..within 25 years they will be the majority. We will be wondering what happened.
North Americans once thought the same about the Irish.

Give it a rest.
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It is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself. Charles Darwin
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Old 10-30-2017, 09:41 AM
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Originally Posted by Sundancefisher View Post
North Americans once thought the same about the Irish.

Give it a rest.
And the Ukrainians, and the Italians, and the Jews... They were all threats to "our culture".

Here's the thing. Immigrants can seem... foreign. Much different than us. At least outwardly. But inwardly they pretty much want the same things we do. Peace, prosperity. And later on, their Canadian-born kids are just like yours and mine. They listen to the same music, wear the same clothes, play the same sports, grow up and work in the same companies.

Now you can make them feel welcome, or make them feel unwelcome. Which path do you think will lead to better integration?
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In this case Oki has cut to to the exact heart of the matter!
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Old 10-30-2017, 10:01 AM
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Im glad we have set up 5 government agencies to ensure their prosperity. Thank you NDP. Keep bringing in the voters....
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Old 10-30-2017, 10:19 AM
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I was actually fired from a job for being an east coaster when I moved here in 2002. Not his actual words or what the reason was on the slip. But what he told other managers (whom I hung around with outside of work) was “stunned Newfie, they all need to go back to were they’re from”
I guess some mentalities never change.


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Old 10-30-2017, 11:29 AM
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Originally Posted by DisplacedCaper View Post
I was actually fired from a job for being an east coaster when I moved here in 2002. Not his actual words or what the reason was on the slip. But what he told other managers (whom I hung around with outside of work) was “stunned Newfie, they all need to go back to were they’re from”
I guess some mentalities never change.


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Maybe you got fired for the "Newfie" part; maybe you got fired for the "stunned" part.

Glad things worked out.
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In this case Oki has cut to to the exact heart of the matter!
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Old 10-30-2017, 11:35 AM
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Originally Posted by Okotokian View Post
And the Ukrainians, and the Italians, and the Jews... They were all threats to "our culture".

Here's the thing. Immigrants can seem... foreign. Much different than us. At least outwardly. But inwardly they pretty much want the same things we do. Peace, prosperity. And later on, their Canadian-born kids are just like yours and mine. They listen to the same music, wear the same clothes, play the same sports, grow up and work in the same companies.

Now you can make them feel welcome, or make them feel unwelcome. Which path do you think will lead to better integration?
Very well said!
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Old 10-30-2017, 11:38 AM
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Ibtl
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Old 10-30-2017, 12:24 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Okotokian View Post
And the Ukrainians, and the Italians, and the Jews... They were all threats to "our culture".

Here's the thing. Immigrants can seem... foreign. Much different than us. At least outwardly. But inwardly they pretty much want the same things we do. Peace, prosperity. And later on, their Canadian-born kids are just like yours and mine. They listen to the same music, wear the same clothes, play the same sports, grow up and work in the same companies.

Now you can make them feel welcome, or make them feel unwelcome. Which path do you think will lead to better integration?
Exactly. People are people.
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Old 10-30-2017, 12:29 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Okotokian View Post
Maybe you got fired for the "Newfie" part; maybe you got fired for the "stunned" part.

Glad things worked out.


I had that coming lol


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Old 10-30-2017, 04:38 PM
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Nenshi is probably why they go there.
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Old 10-30-2017, 05:39 PM
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Are we not all refugees in a way?
The majority of early Canadians, including first nations, left Europe looking for a better place to live.
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Old 10-30-2017, 05:39 PM
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Closed. Find a new forum to post this crap on.
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