Arabic is the most spoken nonofficial language in Hamilton: census data

Amid Canada's immigration drive to sustain its economy, Arabic continues to be the most spoken nonofficial language in Hamilton, according to the latest census data.

Mohammad Araf, program officer at the Hamilton Immigration Partnership Council, attributed the relatively new shift in nonofficial languages to immigration patterns and trends in recent years."

In the 2016 census - the first year Arabic became the language most spoken at home after English in the Hamilton area - more newcomers were coming from the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, which in Araf's opinion, explains the growing diversity of languages. An increased number of Syrian refugees over the last decade also added to the demographic of Arabic speakers.

There are a little over 8,000 Hamiltonians speaking Arabic as their mother tongue, a 30 per cent increase in the number of Arabic speakers compared to the 2016 census.

The 2021 census trends in Hamilton pointed at an increase in the number of people whose mother tongues were Arabic, Spanish, Punjabi or Tagalog, while there was a decline in the number of people speaking European languages - Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Serbian or German.

Italian, previously the long-standing nonofficial language spoken the most in Hamilton households, has declined further to only 3,810 people in 2021, compared to 5,100 in 2016.

In Hamilton, one in every eight individuals predominantly speak a nonofficial language at their home, the 2021 census data showed.

Arabic is both the top nonofficial mother tongue as well as the top nonofficial language spoken at home, according to the latest census.

Meanwhile, Italian is the second nonofficial mother tongue in Hamilton. Spanish, Portuguese, Punjabi and Tagalog are among the top 10 nonofficial mother tongues in the city.

With the growing prominence of minority languages in Steeltown, almost 14,000 Hamiltonians have expressed the need for federal communications and services in a minority official language, a Workforce Planning Hamilton infographic said.

More than 98 per cent of people living in this city have a working knowledge of English while 5.8 per cent of those can say the same for both English and French, according to the Hamilton Immigration Partnership Council.

Fewer than two per cent speak neither language.

Khadija Hamidu, executive director of Workforce Planning Hamilton, said changing demographics in Hamilton are reflecting in new job positions like translators at the City of Hamilton and Wesley because we know that there are a lot of new immigrants who are coming into the Hamilton region who don't speak the official language."

We want to be able to support them in that language side of things."

Ritika Dubey is a reporter at The Spectator. rdubey@thespec.com