Jeff Outhit The Record Tue., Nov. 1, 2022
WATERLOO REGION — Immigration has exploded in this region after years of decline, and racial diversity is surging.
Waterloo Region received 27,840 immigrants between 2016 and 2021, twice as many as it received in the previous five years, according to new census findings.
It’s why cinemas are showing movies from India, the country that supplied the greatest number of recent immigrants at 6,580. It’s why grocers are selling products from around the world, and why foreign students are filling campus classrooms and hallways.
Of the nation’s 41 biggest urban areas, only four others saw a greater acceleration in immigration in the past five years, Statistics Canada reports. This represents a turnaround after the region attracted an ever-smaller share of immigrants between 2001 and 2016.
Racialized people now account for 29 per cent of the population, almost one in three. Compare this to a generation ago in 1996 when fewer than one in 10 residents was racialized (a category including all racialized groups plus Indigenous identities).
Dutch immigrant Lucia Harrison identifies three reasons why immigration is surging. She’s chief executive of the Kitchener-Waterloo Multicultural Centre, an agency that helps immigrants settle.
- Canada has boosted immigration by 10 per cent since 2016. And while Toronto remains the top immigration magnet, high housing costs are leading more newcomers to settle outside Toronto.
- The federal government sees the region as a good place to settle refugees from Syria and Eritrea.
- University and college campuses are drawing foreign students (mostly from India and China) under a program that puts them on track to immigrate.
There is a payoff for everyone as immigration rises, Harrison says. “I keep saying we’re not having enough babies and immigration is the way that we will grow our economy,” she said. “To me, it just adds to the richness of a country that was already diverse.”
She expects governments and agencies will face more calls to erase systemic barriers that impede racialized people.
“The issues of systemic racism in our policies, it’s more likely that they will be challenged as the number of racially diverse people increase,” she said. “I think that’s a good thing.”
One example is policing, where data reveals the disproportionate use of force against Black people and the disproportionate documentation of Black people who are not suspected of a crime.
Another example is education. After counting racialized students for the first time, local school boards intend to examine barriers that may impede minority students.
The high cost of housing is a burden for immigrants as it is for others, Harrison said. “We’re welcoming so many new people into our country and into our community. Housing has not kept up at all,” she said.
“There are plenty of jobs, but it’s really hard for people to take jobs. They don’t know where they’re going to be living. It’s hard to get your kids settled in school if you don’t know where you’re going to be living, or if you’re in transient housing. So to be able to settle, people need housing.”
She worries also about a shortage of family doctors that is leaving immigrants and others without access to primary medical care.
“People come here and there have been many studies that when people first arrive, their health declines,” she said. “And a big part of that is they don’t have access to equitable health care.”
The 2021 census found that one in four residents of this region is an immigrant. This is slightly higher than the national average. It is higher than most big cities, but it is far below the Greater Toronto Area where almost half of residents are immigrants.
India supplied the most immigrants to the region in the last five years at 24 per cent of the total. Other leading countries include Syria that supplied nine per cent of the total and Eritrea that supplied eight per cent. China and Hong Kong supplied five per cent of recent immigrants.
Waterloo is the most racialized city where 36 per cent of the population is not white. In Kitchener, 34 per cent of the population is racialized and in Cambridge, the least diverse city, 26 per cent of the population is racialized.
South Asians are the top racialized group in the region, followed at a distance by people who are Black and by people who are Chinese.