How inevitable was it that the GTA would be the main hub for immigration rather than other cities?

[wild goose chase]

I think the number is like 40% - 50% of newcomers settle into the GTA and I know many people who immigrate first to other towns and cities end up in Toronto too.

Was it inevitable that after Montreal was overtaken as biggest city, Toronto would be the biggest draw?
I could image a hypothetical situation where immigration was more divided evenly among the Canadian cities the way it is in the US, so that even if Toronto was like a New York analogue, other cities would pick large shares too.

One particular thing I find interesting is how for so many ethnic communities, Toronto has the highest population in either absolute or relative terms. In the US, you have ethnic minorities being far more regional (eg. Mexicans in the Southwest, Italians in Northeast, Chinese in California etc.) as opposed to going to one big city. We are almost more like London, UK in how we draw immigrants to our country.

Even East Asians have greater population in Toronto than Vancouver, unlike the US where East Asians are heavily West Coast, primarily Californian, but British Columbia, with its cities like Vancouver or Victoria never kept up having the lion's share of Asian Canadian immigration the way California did. I'm curious why though both countries more or less started having Asian migrants on the same count, Canada's biggest city drew Asians eastward to Toronto unlike eastern US cities.

I could imagine a hypothetical scenario where the new immigrant communities are very distinctly localized to a city (so that say Vancouver has the most of groups A, B, C... Calgary has the most of groups, D, E, F... Winnipeg has the most of ... you get the picture etc.), but that never really happened and Toronto just ends up being the hub for everyone, not known for any one group (it is kind of the case for Montreal for some communities that are Francophone or Arab/North African such as groups like Lebanese, Haitians etc).

 

[Skeezix]

The number of new Canadians settling in the Toronto CMA is declining. In the 2006 Census, 40.4% of recent immigrants at the time settled in the Toronto CMA. In the 2011 NHS, it was 32.8%. It's still be far the largest share of any CMA, it represents almost one third of all immigrants to this country, and it is double the Toronto CMA's share (16.5%) of the overall Canadian population. Toronto still attracted 381,700 newcomers, versus say 70,700 for Calgary.

Over that period, the number of immigrants settling in Ontario and B.C. dropped. Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Quebec all increased their respective shares, with Manitoba and Saskatchewan in particular seeing jumps (albeit in their relatively small shares of the overall total - Manitoba went from 2.8% in 2006 to 5% in 2011, while Saskatchewan went from 0.7% to 2.3%). Both provincial governments had put a lot of effort into attracting immigrants. Alberta, obviously, remained a draw with its oil-fueled economy -- we'll see how the 2016 numbers compare.

 

[wild goose chase]

So it could be conceivable that in the near future, perhaps even around a generation, we could see the diversity of immigrants spread around much more considerably, perhaps being more similar to the US in that no one city is seen as the hub for immigrants, even if the largest city, like New York, has the a plurality of the immigrants and absolute largest population of immigrants, and many other smaller and mid-sized cities at least have a decent share too.

Another factor I wonder about is whether or not Toronto's share of immigrants themselves might move around and perhaps spill over to nearby Ontario towns or further afield in the province itself. Already, I feel Southern Ontario, in places like Kitchener-Waterloo or London are slowly getting more diverse than I remember even a decade or two ago.

 

[Johnny Au]

Even Hamilton is having a large Chinese population (especially in Westdale, close to both McMaster and Columbia International College (which is actually a private high school heavily advertised during the Cantonese programming block in Omni 2)).

 

[Surrealplaces]

So it could be conceivable that in the near future, perhaps even around a generation, we could see the diversity of immigrants spread around much more considerably, perhaps being more similar to the US in that no one city is seen as the hub for immigrants, even if the largest city, like New York, has the a plurality of the immigrants and absolute largest population of immigrants, and many other smaller and mid-sized cities at least have a decent share too.

Another factor I wonder about is whether or not Toronto's share of immigrants themselves might move around and perhaps spill over to nearby Ontario towns or further afield in the province itself. Already, I feel Southern Ontario, in places like Kitchener-Waterloo or London are slowly getting more diverse than I remember even a decade or two ago.

Over the coming years you will see immigration spread more evenly around the country. Toronto and Vancouver will always be big draws, but certain factors are at play. There are a limited amount of immigrants coming into Canada every year, and immigrants tend to go to cities where they have friends or relatives. As other cities like Ottawa, Hamilton, Calgary, etc.. build up their immigrant communities, they will be drawing increasingly more and more out of that finite pool. Calgary's international immigration numbers have been steadily climbing, and even in this downturn are still strong.

Here's recent numbers from Statscan for International immigration. Even with the economy tanking immigrants still tend to go where they have friends and relatives. and this has kept the numbers solid for Alberta.

Immigrants, Q3 2015

Ontario: 29,112
Alberta: 13,982
Quebec: 13,502
BC: 10,651
Manitoba: 4,052
Saskatchewan: 3,611

Statistics Canada
Quarterly Demographic Estimates - July to September 2015
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/91-002-...3/t025-eng.pdf

If you look at Q1, Q2, and Q3 of 2015, you'll see that Ontario as a province took 38% of the international immigrant total, but of course that is also spread across Hamilton, Ottawa, etc.. I'm not sure what Toronto's share would be, but I'm guessing it'll be around 30%

 

[stanko]

Even Hamilton is having a large Chinese population (especially in Westdale, close to both McMaster and Columbia International College (which is actually a private high school heavily advertised during the Cantonese programming block in Omni 2)).

That's strange. If a private school wants to tap into the market of new-money Chinese immigrants in the GTHA, then wouldn't they place their advertising in Mandarin-language outlets, considering how these people speak Mandarin?

 

[prosperegal]

That's strange. If a private school wants to tap into the market of new-money Chinese immigrants in the GTHA, then wouldn't they place their advertising in Mandarin-language outlets, considering how these people speak Mandarin?

Maybe the Cantonese speaking community is less likely to consider Columbia International College (and prefer to send their children to old-line schools like BSS or UCC (or in Hamilton, Hillfield-Strathallan)? It's about marketing to a group which might be interested, but has not been tapped?