EDMONTON – Alberta recorded a modest increase in its share of immigration, with Calgary drawing more newcomers than Edmonton in the last five years, according to data released Wednesday from Statistics Canada.
Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver were still home to the majority of immigrants to Canada between 2006-11. About 32 per cent of newcomers settled in Toronto, while 16 per cent settled in Montreal and 13.3 per cent in Vancouver.
About six per cent — or roughly 70,700 people — settled in Calgary, while 4.3 per cent — or approximately 50,000 — of the national total settled in Edmonton.
According to StatsCan’s 2011 National Household Survey — the replacement for the long-form census, which was scrapped by the Conservatives in 2010 — more immigrants are choosing to settle in Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
Benjamin Ofori and his wife chose to come to Edmonton despite the fact his cousins live in Toronto. He said he wanted a fresh start.
“I’m solely independent; I want somewhere I don’t have to rely on them, so I chose somewhere different,” said Ofori, 52, who lived in London and Oxford for 22 years after leaving Ghana.
His wife, Afia Mensah-Ofori, visited Toronto in 2004 and fell in love with the country. But Ofori said a Canadian government-sponsored orientation program he took while still in Britain subtly suggested No MTV: No Montreal, Toronto or Vancouver, because those cities already have a lot of immigrants.
“We had a little child and for some time, we were thinking we want a better place to raise our child,” said Ofori, whose daughter Isabella is two years old. The family arrived in Edmonton on July 9, 2012, to temperatures of 34 C.
Two weeks later, Ofori landed a job as housing support worker at the Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers, which was the same work he was doing in England. His wife hopes to eventually qualify to work as a registered nurse.
“Then we’ll start laughing,” Ofori said.
Shikha Grover, 35, did extensive research from India’s northern Punjab province before picking between Toronto, Vancouver and Edmonton. Friends in Alberta suggested Edmonton was booming.
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“It was just the cold part that we were terribly worried about. They said Edmonton is terribly cold. It’s ‘Deadmonton.’ What about the social part?” said Grover, who came to the city in 2010 with her husband and son, now six years old. The first winter was mild. The second winter made Grover cry.
She works as an employment councillor at the Mennonite Centre and her husband works in sales for a renovation company.
The family lives in an apartment building where six or seven other families also hail from the same Indian city.
“This is the best choice, I think,” Grover said. “A lot of friends who moved to Vancouver or Toronto, they’re still struggling with their jobs. I consider myself lucky and give myself credit for the research. I picked the realistic point of view.”
Overall, Alberta’s share of immigrants to Canada was 12.4 per cent in 2011, up from 9.3 per cent in 2006. Meanwhile, Ontario dropped nine per cent. About 43 per cent of newcomers settled in Ontario, down from 52 per cent five years ago.
The figures are based on questions about country of origin in the National Household Survey.
Erick Ambtman, executive director of the Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers, said Edmonton is trying to boost its reputation on the world scene.
“The word is, in Edmonton and Calgary and particularly northern Alberta right now, there’s really great employment opportunities,” he said. But people tend to recognize Calgary first because of the 1988 Olympics.
“We’re a quiet city, we just get things done and go about our business,” Ambtman said. “Calgary makes a lot of noise and is really splashy and got there sooner than we did.”
In both Calgary and Edmonton, just over 60 per cent of immigrants in the last five years came from Asia, including India, China and the Middle East.
In Edmonton, the second major source of immigrants was Africa at 14 per cent, and Europe was third.
It remains difficult to lure immigrants away from big cities where there are already strong, established immigrant communities from many ethnic groups, said Janice Schroeder of Advanced Education, the provincial department in charge of immigration and labour market issues.
“Immigrants tend to go where there is already supportive community,” she noted.
The province did not manage last year to fill its quota of immigrants allocated under the provincial nominee program. The federal government allows each province to bring in a set number of immigrants where there is a specific need.
Under that program, Alberta is allowed to bring up to 5,000 immigrants directly to the province for specific jobs, but it only brought in 4,000 nominees. These immigrants bypass the federal immigration process, but to qualify, they must have a job offer from an employer.
Schroeder noted that the program is driven by employers who must apply, but she predicted the program will be fully subscribed his year.
Meanwhile, labour critics questioned the commitment to immigration, pointing out that the province brings in more temporary foreign workers than it does immigrants.
In 2010, about 32,642 immigrants settled in Alberta. At the same time, the number of temporary foreign workers hit 57,774. The peak of temporary workers was 65,671 in 2009, according to a 2011 provincial government study. In 2000, the number of temporary foreign workers was 9,439.
Jim Gurnett, an advocate for immigrant communities in Edmonton, said Alberta could attract more immigrants if it offered better settlement assistance, helped people get appropriate credentials or training.
“Many come lured by myth of high pay and good job — only to find low paying jobs and expensive housing,” said Gurnett. “If they don’t get jobs in the oil economy, it’s tough to make ends meet.”
According to the survey, Canada’s foreign-born population stands at nearly 6.8 million, or 20.6 per cent of the population, compared with 19.8 per cent in 2006.
Of all G8 countries, Canada continues to have the highest proportion of foreign-born residents. Outside the G8, Australia continued to surpass Canada with foreigners accounting for nearly 27 per cent of its population.
Between 2006 and 2011, nearly 1.2 million foreigners immigrated to Canada, more than half of them from Asia and the Middle East. European immigrants were the second largest group of newcomers, accounting for 159,700 newcomers or 13.7 per cent of all recent immigrants.
Nearly 60 per cent of those who came to Canada between 2006 and 2011 were between the ages of 25 and 54, while children under the age of 14 accounted for nearly a fifth of the newcomer population.
With files from Postmedia News
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