Ethno-Racial Inequality in the City of Toronto: An Analysis of the ...

Fully 96.1 percent of Torontonians who identify themselves as only Aboriginal speak only Englishin their homes and another 2.3 percent speak some English at home. For the considerably larger numberof people who describe themselves as having both Aboriginal and another, European origin English iseven more prevalent.Among the African, Black and Caribbean groups, less than 25 percent of Ethiopians and Ghanaiansspeak only English at home, compared to 47.5 percent of Somalis and 62.8 percent of people from “otherAfrican nations”; the percentage rises to over 80 percent for individuals with an African and non-Africanorigin. Nearly 95 percent of Torontonians who say that they are African or Black speak only English athome.Among East and Southeast Asians, 65.5 percent do not speak English or French at home, thoughthere is also considerable variation: 75.7 percent of the Chinese, 82.8 percent of the Vietnamese and 68.7percent of the Koreans do not speak English or French at home, compared to 26.2 percent of the Japaneseand 41.7 percent of Filipinos. Members of the British groups speak English virtually entirely; and justover 75 percent of the French also speak only English; just 19.6 percent of people whose origin is French(only) speak only French at home. Among the non-British, non-French Northern Europeans and Jews,about 85 percent speak only English at home. For groups from the Baltic region, Eastern Europe andSouthern Europe, an average of about 50 percent of speak only English, though there is considerablevariation among the individual ethno-racial groups.––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––With such large differences in the age distributions of ethno-racial groups we must question thedemographic generalities that seem to drive debates about social policy. Some ethno-racial groups donow face the dilemmas of an aging population; but others have had many years to adjust to decliningfertility and increased numbers of elderly. More striking, however, for many ethno-racial groupsconcerns about the effects of aging are many years off. Instead they have high proportions of relativelyyoung adults and children and must be primarily concerned with caring for their children. They are facedwith a broad economic context in which there has been a steady decline in poverty among the elderlyrelative to poverty among young people and children. In comparison, the large number of immigrants inour City and historical shifts in their origins are well known. What we can add, again, is that theEthno-Racial Inequality in Toronto: Analysis of the 1996 Census 33