Banff – 27.3 per cent population immigrants in 2011, not including temporary foreign workers

While debate about the future of the foreign worker program, and an increase in immigrants more generally, continues to rage across Canada, a different kind of discussion is taking place here. In the cafes and tourist shops that line Banff Avenue, the conversation centres not on whether transitory new immigrants are stealing jobs from long-time Canadians, but how the community copes with their burgeoning numbers. It is a new marriage that comes with a sometimes painful period of cultural adaptation, both for established residents and newcomers adjusting to changes in everything from finances to education, weather to wild animals.

Consider the numbers: According to the 2011 census, 27.3 per cent of Banff’s population was made up of immigrants, compared to just 16 per cent in 2006. The new totals contrast with 18 per cent for Alberta and 20.6 per cent for all of Canada. And for Banff, the immigrant figures do not include temporary foreign workers: 1,375 in 2011, compared to 805 in 2006.

Not surprisingly, the rush of new workers has had a cascading effect on many of the town’s most important institutions.

For instance, an eye-popping 38 per cent of the children attending kindergarten through Grade 6 at Banff Elementary School are classified as English language learners. The second most common language heard on the school grounds is also the second most familiar one detected in town: Tagalog, the native tongue of the Philippines. There are more immigrants from the Philippines in Banff than from any other country in the world (eclipsing the Japanese).

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at Banff’s changing labour landscape – The Globe and Mail.