Almost 22 percent or 21.9 percent of Canadian citizens are immigrants, the highest proportion in more than 85 years.
This ratio was shown in the results of the 2016 census published by the Statistics Canada federal agency on October 25.
The figure approaches the 22.3 percent reported in 1921. It is slightly above the 21.8 percent of the count in 1931 and exceeds 19.8 revealed by a similar report made in 2006.
The data comes to light just days before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government establishes in the House of Commons the limit for the entry of refugees, which now amounts to about 300,000 per year.
The country received 1.2 million new immigrants between 2011 and 2016, 60 percent of them admitted as individuals seeking a better economic situation, almost half of these last through the reception program of skilled workers.
More than 60 percent of the foreigners who arrived in that period came from Asia and the Middle East, while Africa (with 13.4 percent) surpassed Europe as the second most important region from which foreigners came.
The largest single source of new immigrants in the Philippines (15.6 percent), followed by India (12.1 percent) and China (10.6 percent), while Syria, which in 2011 ranked 50, is now in seventh place , plus that from France and the United Kingdom altogether the four percent of those who decide to reside here.
The report says that the number of Aboriginal communities is 1.7 million -4.9 percent of the country’s population – and by 2036 will reach 2.5 million, a group that grows four times more than the rest of the members of the Canadian society.
With a current total population of about 36 million, Canada allowed 1.2 million immigrants between 2011 and 2016, with approximately 30 percent arriving through the country’s skilled worker program.
Almost half — 48 percent — of Canada’s immigrant population came from Asia, according to Statistics Canada numbers. Europeans accounted for 21 percent. Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa made up another 21 percent. Seven percent came from the British Isles and 3 percent came from the United States.
In addition to more than 20 percent of the population being foreign-born, 37.5 percent of Canadians under the age of 15 have a parent who is foreign-born, as well.
That’s about a 3 percent increase since 2011, Statistics Canada found, and the number is expected to grow.
“This population of children with an immigrant background could continue to grow and could represent from 39.3 percent to 49.1 percent of children under the age of 15 by 2036,” the organization said.