Adapting to a new linguistic environment

For new immigrants to Canada, knowledge of one or both official languages is closely tied to their economic and social success. Immigrants who are able to converse in one of Canada's official languages have higher employment rates and better incomes¹. Conversely, lack of linguistic knowledge can be a major obstacle to such things as accessing education, employment and health care services. Many factors influence an immigrant's knowledge of either English or French upon arrival including: country of last permanent residence, mother tongue, immigration category, age and education.

The Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada (LSIC) data related to knowledge of official languages is based on self-assessment. Consequently, the results obtained depend both on the respondent's true ability to speak either or both official languages and on their perception of their skills. This chapter focuses on the immigrant's perception of their language ability.

Because French is the language most often used by the majority of the population in Quebec and English elsewhere in Canada , the analysis of the language ability of new immigrants has been done separately for immigrants who settled in Quebec and those who settled in areas outside of Quebec.

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Most immigrants able to communicate in one of Canada's official languages

Six months after their arrival 68% of immigrants reported at least some knowledge of English², 4% of French and 11% of both English and French (Table 5.1). The remaining 18% reported no knowledge of either English or French. These results are consistent with the 2001 Census.

Three quarters (76%) of the 139,530 immigrants who settled outside Quebec reported an ability to speak English and 5% reported being able to speak both English and French. While 44% of the 24,675 immigrants living in Quebec reported being able to speak both English and French, 23% were able to speak English only and 23% knew French only. The largest concentration of immigrants who reported knowing neither English nor French was in the province of British Columbia (26%).

Almost all skilled worker principal applicants (99%) reported being able to speak English and/or French, including 17% who were able to speak both French and English. This may reflect the selection criteria for skilled worker principal applicants. Nearly 85% of the skilled worker spouse and dependents reported that they were able to speak English and/or French.

Almost three quarters (72%) of economic immigrants other than skilled workers reported that they were able to speak at least one of the official languages, and 65% of both family class and refugee immigrants stated that they knew English and/or French.

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Perception of ability varies by age and level of education

Nine in 10 immigrants between 25 and 44 years of age were able to converse in at least one of Canada's official languages (91%), followed by 68% of immigrants between 45 and 54 years and 41% of immigrants 65 years of age and older. Also, 14% of immigrants between 25 and 44 years of age reported knowing both English and French, followed by 8% of immigrants between 45 to 54 and 3% of immigrants 65 years of age and older.

When looking at the relationship between language ability and age, the immigration category must also be considered. For example, nearly half of immigrants aged 25 to 44 years were skilled worker principal applicants and therefore more likely to speak English and/or French, while almost all immigrants aged 65 and over arrived in the family category which does not favour knowledge of an official language for admittance.

In the LSIC, an immigrant's self-perception of language ability seems to be associated with level of education. For example, among immigrants whose level of education was less than high school, 55% reported that they could carry on a conversation in either English or French, compared to 70% of immigrants with a high school diploma or its equivalent, and 87% of those with an undergraduate degree. Almost all (95%) of immigrants with a master's or doctoral degree reported that they were able to speak either English and/or French.

Immigrants with a college diploma or trade certificate were more likely than immigrants with a higher educational achievement to report knowledge of both English and French. Nearly one quarter (23%) of the immigrants with this level of education reported that they were able to speak both official languages, compared to 14% of immigrants with a master's or doctoral degree and 11% of immigrants who had an undergraduate degree.

These differences may be explained by the selection criteria for skilled workers where fewer points are granted for college diploma or a trade certificate than for a university degree. As a result, skilled workers with a college diploma or trade certificate must make up points elsewhere, language ability being one potential area. In the LSIC, 48% of all skilled workers with a college diploma or trade certificate reported being able to communicate in both official languages, compared to 16% of skilled workers with a university degree.

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One in five immigrants spoke English or French at home

Immigrants who speak English or French at home are more likely to speak English or French outside the home. Six months after arrival, 15% reported speaking English at home and 5% reported speaking French at home.

Among the 126,600 immigrants who settled in areas outside of Quebec and whose mother tongue is neither English nor French, nearly one in ten (9%) spoke English most frequently at home. In addition, one quarter (25%) of the 3,500 immigrants whose mother tongue is French spoke English most frequently at home.

In Quebec, 16% of the 20,670 immigrants whose mother tongue is neither English nor French speak French most frequently at home, and 4% speak English. Finally, nine in 10 (90%) immigrants whose mother tongue is English speak this language at home.

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Perceptions of linguistic competency

In the LSIC, respondents were asked to rate their speaking, reading and writing abilities in both official languages using a scale of "very well", "well", "fairly well", "poorly" and "cannot do". These questions were not asked to immigrants who reported English and/or French as their mother tongue and also reported speaking the same language most often at home - 7% and 2% respectively of all LSIC immigrants.

Perception of English language skill level

After six months in Canada , 152,390 immigrants reported that English was neither their first language nor the language they spoke most often at home. However out of those, 28% reported that they spoke English "very well", 26% "well" and 22% "fairly well", while 23% reported that they spoke English "poorly" or not at all.

As shown in Figure 5.1, 44% of immigrants reported being able to read in English "very well", while 16% reported their ability as «poor» or that they could not read. About 4 in 10 immigrants reported being able to write in English "very well" (37%), while 19% reported that they could write it "poorly" or that they could not write it.

Of those immigrants who reported having more than a limited knowledge of English, 91% reported that they had learned most of their English prior to their arrival³.

Immigrants think it is very important to improve English

Almost all recent immigrants to Canada think that learning or improving English is either very important (81%) or important (14%)⁴. Upon their arrival, two thirds (67%) of immigrants had plans to improve their English and many enrolled in training. For example, at time of interview 82% of those residing in a province other than Quebec and had plans to study or improve their English, had already started some form of training.

Among all those who reported taking action to improve their English, six in 10 reported taking language training, almost four in 10 (39%) were learning using English-language media, and 30% were using other means of self-learning.

Although two thirds of immigrants had plans to improve their English upon arrival, 39% of immigrants who settled in Quebec had not taken any measures to do so, compared to 18% of immigrants living outside of Quebec.

Of the 25,610 immigrants across Canada who reported not having the opportunity to learn English, half reported no need or interest in improving their English. This was more frequently cited for immigrants living outside of Quebec (58%) than for those who settled in Quebec (30%). Lack of time was also a frequently cited reason (27%).

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Perception of French language skill level

For immigrants residing in Quebec for whom French was neither their first language nor the language most frequently spoken at home, 37% reported that they spoke French "very well", 10% "well" and 15% "fairly well". Four in 10 immigrants (38%) reported that they spoke French "poorly" or "not at all".

Among immigrants for whom French was neither their first language nor the language spoken most frequently at home, four in 10 (42%) reported they could read French "very well" (Figure 5.3) while 35% reported their reading ability as "poor" or that they "could not" read in French.

When asked to rate their French writing skills, nearly four in 10 immigrants reported "very well", 8% as "well" 14% as "fairly well", 17% as "poor" and 23% reported they "could not" write in French.

Learning French very important for immigrants settled in Quebec

Of the 17,820 immigrants who settled in Quebec and for whom French was not their mother tongue but currently the language spoken most often at home, 34% reported learning most of their French after their arrival in Canada. At arrival, almost one in six (59%) immigrants indicated they had plans to improve their French and after six months, three quarters of these immigrants had started.

Methods of learning French parallel methods used to learn English. The most common method of learning French was through "language training" (72%), followed by "through the Francophone media" (36%) and very similar proportions for "self study" and "learned from family and friends" (21% and 20% respectively).

In Quebec, immigrants who reported that they could not speak French "very well" were asked about the importance of learning that language; nine out of 10 immigrants reported that learning French was either "very important" (69%) or "important" (22%).

Conclusion

A large number of recent immigrants perceive that they are able to carry on a conversation in at least one of the two official languages. It also appears that including language ability as part of the selection criteria for skilled workers has an impact on the language ability of new immigrants. For example, skilled workers set themselves apart from immigrants in other categories with respect to their ability to communicate in either or both English and French. Results from the next two waves will allow for a more complete investigation of changes in perception of language ability and perhaps the subsequent impact on integration experiences.

Notes

1. Statistics Canada. The Changing Profile of Canada's Labour Force, Daily release, February 11, 2003.

2. For the purpose of this analysis, respondents deemed to know the language were those who declared that they knew "quite well", "well" or "very well", or those for whom this was their first language and the language that they most frequently spoke at home. Respondents referred to as not knowing a language are those who reported that their knowledge of the language was poor or they did not know the language.

3. Excluding those whose first language was English and the language spoken most often at home.

4. These questions were not asked to immigrants who reported English as their mother tongue and also reported speaking English most often at home.