here.........check out this article I just read.
It made me think of this thread.
Visible minorities to surpass 50% in big cities
CTV.ca News Staff
Over half the populations of Toronto and Vancouver would be made up of visible minorities in 12 years, according to a Statistics Canada report released Tuesday.
The study is designed to portray the cultural diversity of the Canada's population in 2017 -- the 150th anniversary of Confederation.
Projections show that the vast majority of visible minorities would settle in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal -- Canada's three largest urban areas -- with almost three-quarters residing in those metropolises in 2017.
Nationwide, the study shows that one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017.
Data from past censuses show that between 1996 and 2001, the visible minority population grew at a rate of 25 per cent -- six times faster than the total population which increased at a rate of just four percent over that period.
This represents an increase of between 24 per cent and 65 per cent compared to 2001 levels.
Meanwhile, the non-immigrant population is projected to experience a much more modest growth rate of between four to 12 per cent over the same period.
The most important factor behind the growth rate in the visible minority population is sustained immigration, says the study, titled Population projections in visible minority groups, Canada, provinces and regions.
About 70 per cent of Canada's visible minorities were born outside the country in 2001.
Twelve years from now, Canada's immigrant numbers are expected to reach between 7.0 million and 9.3 million in 2017 and would account for 22 per cent of the population.
Big city breakdown
Toronto's visible minority population would range between 2.8 million and 3.9 million in 2017, and would account for more than half the population of the metropolis.
More than one million of the city's minorities would be South Asian, and more than 735,000 Chinese.
This means more than half of Canada's South Asians and about 40 per cent of Canada's Chinese would be calling Toronto their homes in 2017.
In Vancouver, meanwhile, projections show that the Chinese will make up nearly half of the city's population.
Montreal's visible minority population would continue to feature quite a different ethnic makeup in comparison because of the high number of Blacks and Arabs.
The report shows that Blacks could represent 27 per cent of the city's visible minority population, and Arabs 19 per cent.
The report is the result of a project started in 2004 by the Department of Canadian Heritage's Multiculturalism and Human Rights Program.
