With next Tuesday’s release of the fourth round of data from the 2006 Census, Dr. Doug Norris will be providing expert analysis of the latest trends involving immigration, language, mobility and migration. Norris, the senior vice president and chief demographer of marketing services company Environics Analytics, will discuss the findings with members of the media on December 4th and, a week later on December 11th, lead an online web seminar to help the general public and business leaders understand the implications of the new census data.

Census data released earlier this year hinted at the growing role immigrants are playing in shaping Canada’s population, according to Norris. “The new data will allow us to fill in the details on which immigrants are settling where,” he says. “Between 2001 and 2006, close to 1.2 million people moved to Canada. With one in five Canadians now foreign-born, the population is becoming increasingly diverse.” Although immigrants tend to settle in Canada’s largest urban areas—Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal—Norris predicts the upcoming findings will show newcomers migrating in higher numbers to the next largest cities, such as Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa-Gatineau, Quebec and Winnipeg. “There’s also evidence that increasing numbers of immigrants are moving to the suburbs of our large urban areas,” says Norris.

The increasing waves of immigrants also affect the rise in the number of Canadians who speak a language other than French or English. About 6 million Canadians, or 20 percent of the populace, report a different mother tongue than those traditional languages, which are still spoken by 90 percent of Canadians. The third most common language spoken in Canada today is Chinese, surpassing the Italian and German spoken by earlier immigrant groups. “About a million Canadians speak one of the Chinese languages,” says Norris, “and that represents a milestone for the country.”

Norris will offer more detailed commentary about the numbers during a web seminar and online discussion to be held Tuesday, December 11th at 1:00 pm ET. Pre-Registration is available online at www.environicsanalytics.ca A phone number will also be provided for audio.

In addition, media representatives interested in interviewing Norris for quotes and insight on the new Census findings should call Emma Flood at (416) 969-2733, or e-mail her at emma.flood@environicsanalytics.ca