Last November, Peter Liang, a communications officer for Statistics Canada in Vancouver, told his story to a forum on diversity organized by our office. Born in China, Peter had done graduate work in England before coming to Vancouver and, some time later, joining Statistics Canada. For a variety of reasons—including his work—he decided to learn French.

The financial resources available on the job were limited, so Peter focused on free learning resources, including those on the Internet. Through the Canada School of Public Service and the Vancouver Public Library he found a wide range of on-line learning tools. “For example, the Vancouver Public Library offers an electronic resource called ‘Press Display,’ which allows users to access French-language newspapers around the world,” he observed. “One can not only read the papers but also listen to them through the audio feature.” And he used the tools that were available at work as well. “The Web site of Statistics Canada, in itself, is also a wonderful learning resource—every day, we publish a number of reports on a wide range of topics in both English and French,” he added. “I have found our Web site an invaluable tool of learning, particularly in terms of French vocabulary.”

Like Peter, many immigrants come to fully adhere to the value of linguistic duality and integrate smoothly into Canadian society and the job market. There are many examples of this in the current issue of our on-line newsletter.

Despite the many examples of successful integration, we still too often consider Canada's language policy as an insurmountable obstacle to newcomer integration.

It is worth noting that 90.7% of newcomers can conduct a conversation in English or in French. For those whose first language is neither of the official languages, this proportion is still 88.5%.¹

And of course, knowledge of one of the official languages does not guarantee that newcomers adapt more easily. As you will see in the article entitled Double challenge: Dropping the anchor in a bilingual province, if they speak English or French before coming to Canada, some will realize once they are here, that they should further their knowledge of that language or learn the basics of the other language to better integrate into Canadian society.

Statistics Canada’s Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada: Progress and Challenges of New Immigrants in the Workforce indicates that language learning is first on the list, after getting a job, among difficulties that immigrants face during their first four years in Canada.² The articles in our special feature illustrate the scope of these obstacles, not to mention culture shock.

Although linguistic adaptation is a real challenge for many immigrants, based on data from the 2006 Census, the problems lessen with time. In fact, the longer immigrants stay in the country, the more they use English or French.³

We also have to look at the situation from another point of view: Canada as a host country. By exposing ourselves to the other official language, linguistic duality prepares us for welcoming others because learning a language is a bit like being an immigrant. Exploring a new linguistic world involves being aware of cultural differences and the difficulties that newcomers face.

Learning another language, and working through the stages of comprehension and accent and syntax to achieve understanding and competence is, in some ways, to mirror the immigrant experience. It is a humbling experience; one that leads to greater empathy and understanding of what those who have come to this country have had to do in order to feel comfortable.

In that sense, Canada’s linguistic duality has made it possible for the country to welcome others.

The challenge that remains is to enlarge, continually, our sense of “us;” to expand our definition and our understanding of what it means to be a Canadian. Canadian literature in both official languages has done this, opening its arms to those who bring their pasts with them, whether those pasts are in Sri Lanka or small-town Italy, in Haiti or in China, in Mumbai or in Beirut.

The country as a whole now has to open its arms and its hearts wider, to embrace the changes that are already redefining the country and understand that diversity in Canada is occurring in both official languages.

Graham Fraser

1. Statistics Canada, Immigration in Canada: A Portrait of the Foreign-born Population, 2006 Census, Product no. 97-557-XWE2006001 of the Statistics Canada catalogue, 2007.

2. Statistics Canada, Canadian Social Trends, Product no. 11-008 of the Statistics Canada catalogue, 2007, Special Edition.

3. Statistics Canada, Immigration in Canada: A Portrait of the Foreign-born Population, Census 2006, Product no. 97-557-XWE2006001 of the Statistics Canada catalogue, 2007.