Immigration and Official Language Communities in Ottawa and Gatineau from the 2011 National Household Survey

1. Immigration and Official Language Communities in Ottawa and Gatineau from the 2011 National Household Survey Jack Jedwab Executive Director Association for Canadian Studies May 2013

2. Introduction • The National Capital region is undoubtedly one of the more fascinating areas for research into the relationship between English and French speakers. Given the predominance of English-speakers on the Ontario side of the NCR in Ottawa and the predominance of French on the Quebec side in Gatineau and the level of commuting by people on both sides of the provincial border there are valuable insights to be gathered about bilingualism, language use in the workplace and language retention. That which follows employs data from the 2011 National Household Survey conducted by Statistics Canada to briefly examine the language choices made by newcomers on both sides of the provincial border. The research invites many questions about the motivation and perceptions of newcomers that others have investigated in more detail. The ACS has laid out the findings with the hope of stimulating further research in an area widely seen as important to the vitality of our official language communities.

3. Overall more francophone immigrants choose to settle in Ottawa over Gatineau; Between 2006 and 2011 francophone immigrants still likely to choose Ottawa over Gatineau

4. Immigrants that arrived between 2006 and 2011 with French mother tongue chose Ottawa more than Gatineau

5. Overall Ottawa francophones are more likely switch to English in their homes than were anglophones to switch to predominant French home use in Gatineau

6. However amongst immigrants that arrived between 2001 and 2011 anglophones in Gatineau and Francophones in Ottawa were just as likely to switch to home use in the other official language