One in five Osoyoos residents is an immigrant, according to 2016 census data released last week by Statistics Canada.
This is just slightly below the Canada-wide figure that showed 21.9 per cent of the population immigrated to Canada – the highest level since 1921 when the proportion of immigrants in that year’s census was 22.3 per cent.
The information on Canada’s immigration and ethno-cultural diversity was the fifth release of data from the 2016 census. At the same time, Statistics Canada released data about Aboriginal peoples in Canada.
That data shows that for the first time, non-Aboriginals are a majority of the population on the Osoyoos Indian Band reserve.
While Osoyoos data shows that 975 residents came to Canada as immigrants, most of these – 630 – immigrated before 1981.
Statistics Canada normally rounds numbers to the nearest five to make it harder to identify individual respondents. The figures only cover the Town of Osoyoos and not the surrounding rural area.
Only 120 Osoyoos residents immigrated during the decade of 2006 to 2016.
The majority of immigrants – 645 – are of European birth, with the United Kingdom (170), Portugal (125) and Germany (105) being the main countries of birth.
Among non-European immigrants, 135 were born in Asia, with 120 of these from India.
There were also 170 immigrants born in countries in the Americas, with the United States being the main country of birth at 95 people.Smaller numbers were born in Mexico (20) and elsewhere in the Americas (55).
Canada-wide, Africa has become the second source continent for recent immigrants – behind Asia, but for the first time ahead of Europe.
That pattern is not reflected in Osoyoos, where only 10 people are reported to have been born in South Africa, the only African country of origin after statistical rounding.
Canada-wide, figures on the Aboriginal population show they are both young in age and growing in number. Aboriginal includes First Nations, Métis and Inuit.
In 2016, there were 1,673,785 Aboriginal people in Canada, accounting for 4.9 per cent of the total population.
This represents a 42.5-per-cent increase since 2006. While some of this can be attributed to natural growth – birth rates and life expectancy – another key factor is the increased number of people self-identifying as Aboriginal.
Within the Town of Osoyoos, 245 people are Aboriginal, including 155 Métis and 85 First Nations. There are no reported Inuit.
Figures for the Osoyoos Indian Band reserve, however, show 340 people as First Nations and 15 as Métis.
The majority of people living on the Osoyoos Indian Band reserve – 415 – were identified as non-Aboriginal.
The reserve includes several housing developments on leased land near Osoyoos and Oliver, including the Cottages on Osoyoos Lake.
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
