Immigration.ca - Canada Immigration News - February 2008
It is expected that in 2008, India will surpass China as Canada’s lead source for immigrants. According to the latest census data, the amount of Punjabi speakers in Canada will continue to grow and it shall soon become Canada’s fourth most spoken language.
Punjabi is currently Canada’s sixth most spoken language, after English, French, Chinese, Italian and German. However, the significant growth of the language since 2001, up 35 per cent, combined with continuous Indian immigration, will inevitably bump the language in ranks, according to Balwant Sanghera, president of the Punjabi Language Education Association.
Already, many communities in the province of British Columbia are seeing a dramatic rise in Punjabi speakers, where it has already jumped to fourth most spoken.
“More than 150 million people in 150 countries speak this language,” Sanghera said. “Here in Surrey and Abbotsford cities [in B.C.], Punjabi is the second most spoken language after English.”
Indeed, there are many indications of the Punjabi’s growth in the province. Several of B.C.’s top universities are teaching it, and many hospitals, airports, markets and banks display signs in Punjabi. Most government documents are even issued with a Punjabi translation and the mayor of Vancouver, one of Canada’s most populous cities, speaks Punjabi himself.
Sanghera and others are working toward official federal recognition of Punjabi, and hope that the latest census data will work toward changing an out-of-date two-language policy that no longer realistically reflects the demographics of the Canadian population.
