Immigrants should learn the Official languages to integrate with Canadian culture

Immigrants and Official Languages

In the year 2009, Canada received more than 250,000 permanent residents from countries like China, Philippines, India, United States, France, Pakistan, Iran and many such countries which are mostly Non English Speaking.

Mother tongue of 60% population is English, for 23% it is French and the remaining 27% of the population has various mother tongues like Chinese, Italian, Spanish, Punjabi, Gujrati and many more.

The Immigrants are likely to face tough times after the announcement made by Immigration Minister Jason Kenney.

Kenney discourages the immigration scheme that allows province to choose immigrants depending upon the local labor needs.

Kenney says, “What we are saying does not make a lot of sense to invite someone to Canada who doesn’t speak any English.”

Immigration lawyer Richard Kurland informs that “enclaves have a negative impact on the earnings growth for male and female immigrants.”

Narendra Kang, Immigration Lawyer informs, “British Columbia employers recruit employees with specialized skills without English fluency. Such skilled immigrants would not qualify any longer.”

According to a report about 60% of the immigrant population could not converse in English.

There is a possibility that these immigrants may get employed in an ethnically sheltered or enclave economy. These enclaves pay a very discouraging remuneration to the employees.

The report also suggests that skilled labors with little or no knowledge of English or French are not aware of their rights in terms of health and safety.

Social integration is another challenging issue for the immigrants and their children who are not fluent with the official languages of Canada.

There are problems galore if English is not learnt before arriving Canada. There is no income security for the immigrants who are not able to speak in English or French.

Jason Kenney, Immigration Minister says that, “The immigrants who cannot speak in English or French well would be denied citizenship.”

The Minister was speaking at a conference on immigration in Calgary and informed that the immigrants must have to learn one of the two official languages, English or French to integrate into the society of Canada.

To know the rights and integrate with the culture it is important for the immigrants to learn any of the two official languages. This will help both the people of host country and the immigrants to exchange messages and blend well with each other.