Is this Canada or India？ Exploring Brampton, Ontario
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Summary
Brampton, a city in the GTA, has a reputation for being one of Canada's most ethnically diverse cities. But is it also one of the most culturally diverse cities in Canada? In this episode, we take a look at the demographics of Brampton, and try to figure out if it deserves that label.
Transcript
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We're Canadian, we're multicultural, but come on.
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If we're going to their country, we would have to adapt to their culture, right?
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I do feel like I'm a stranger in my own country.
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One of the most obvious consequences of the federal government's diehard commitment to
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mass immigration would be the creation of ethnic enclaves, cities and towns across the country
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that don't look very Canadian and don't feel very Canadian.
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But one of the most infamous examples of that in our country is Brampton here in the GTA.
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Let me just take you through some of the most recent demographic data that we have available
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Now, keep in mind, Canada's population has spiked since 2021, and the majority of immigrants
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And it appears that Brampton is where most of them happen to end up.
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The 2021 census data shows that Brampton is more than 80% visible minority.
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Well, you break that data down even further, you start to figure out where everyone who lives
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The top ethnic origin in the Brampton 2021 census data is India, unsurprisingly.
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180,300 people who live in Brampton come from India.
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Why they are separated into different categories, I'm not quite sure, but 57,000.
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If you keep going further, you see that Hindu and Pakistani both come in right around 26,000.
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Now, what's most remarkable about Brampton's demographic data is that from 2016 to 2021,
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Brampton lost 6,000 people who were originally born in Canada.
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Meanwhile, in that same period of time, Brampton's foreign born population increased to 343,690,
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an increase of 11.3% compared to the decrease of 2.16% of Canadian born residents in Brampton.
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Non-permanent residents who live in Brampton in 2016 went from 9,000 to 40,000.
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And we know, of course, that Canada's temporary immigration has spiked in the same period of time.
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So this data, it's safe to say, is quite out of date.
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But even still, that tells you a lot about the makeup of Brampton.
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That tells you a lot about the makeup of this ethnic enclave.
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So we're here to try and figure out if Brampton really deserves its reputation as one of the most infamous ethnic enclaves in Canada.
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We're going to explore the city, take a look around, and see what we can find in Brampton for ourselves.
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15 years on this side of town and 5 years on this side of town.
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Wow, and so you must have seen it change quite a lot.
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Well, yeah, the other side's modern, but it's a nice modern.
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They're turning this into an ugly kind of modern.
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You look everywhere you look, you're the same thing.
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My place is getting torn down for a parking lot.
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My apartment I've been in, I've been in it for 4 or 5 years.
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We just spoke with a man who says he's been here for 15 to 20 years.
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He says the city has completely changed since when he first seen it.
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The demographics are so noticeable that it's almost hard for him to bear.
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He also said something very interesting, which is that they're tearing down apartment buildings
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where he says the majority of Canadians actually live, and they're replacing them with parking lots.
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They're replacing them probably with larger high-rise buildings to make way for more people coming into this country.
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It does say something very strange about what's going on here,
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which is you have Canadians who feel like a minority in this city who've been here for a long time,
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and now they're being kicked out of their rental apartments to make way for parking lots and other things.
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That's just the first person we've actually spoken to here in Brampton in the downtown area,
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and I can imagine that we might hear some very similar things,
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but we don't just want to speak to people who have been here for a long time.
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We also want to speak to people who are new to this city and what they make of living in this city
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and what they think about the reputation it has across the country.
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Did you guys know, one of the things that a lot of Canadians think about Brampton is that it's very Indian.
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There are a lot of Indian people who live here.
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Yeah, did you guys know that before you came to Brampton?
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Is it known back in India that Brampton is like that?
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Because there are a lot of fallout opportunities.
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We're just asking people if they like living in this city and what they think about it.
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Then again, it's like a mini India in short.
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You would see a lot of Indian people going around.
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If you just go around, you'll see Indian people.
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It feels more like an Indian city than it does like a Canadian city, right?
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You think that maybe there are too many Indian people in Brampton?
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Because they say that the demographics are pretty intense.
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It's the people that have nothing you've got to worry about.
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You've got more than they've got, they're going to take it over.
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In one shot, you had new immigrants to Canada who say that, in their opinion, they're from
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They say that Brampton has too many Indians in the city.
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And then, as we're talking to them about that, you've got Canadians who come here, through
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the shot, who say that the city is full of crime, it's dangerous, it's a place that's
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worse than they imagined it to be, and it's gotten much worse over a period of time.
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And what a stark contrast you can see just in that one interaction about what this city
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is really like, because I've got to tell you, it's just, it's strange to walk around
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here and seeing what appears to be poor, homeless, white people, and a very large influx
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of newly landed immigrants, all specifically from India.
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And it's not just me saying that, it's the Indians themselves who have said that themselves.
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And it's not just me saying that, it's the Indians themselves who are saying that.
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Well, we've been tipped off by more than one person who we've spoken to, that the dangerous
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It's heading north out of downtown toward the park, where there's a lot of tents and a lot
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In fact, it's right behind this 7-Eleven, apparently.
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And I just have to say again, the contrast is shocking, really.
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A large number of white people who are homeless, poor, drug-addicted, who are homeless, poor,
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drug-addicted, who complain about the state of the city, not due to the demographics, but
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actually due to the crime and due to the economic situation in this city.
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And then, basically, every immigrant we've spoken to who lives in Brampton, they've all
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They're from India, and they say there's too many Indians who live in this city.
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Do you think the immigration situation in Brampton has played a role in some of the downturn
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Yeah, we don't want to be racist, but you know what?
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That's actually, that's how the topic was a little ancient.
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You just spoke, you spoke about that a few hours ago?
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I mean, every which way you go, it's this, that, and you can't even listen to yourself
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anymore because they're talking their own language.
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We're Canadian, we're multicultural, but come on.
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But I remember Brampton when only this side was here.
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It has gone down, but most of the rift raft, I hate to say it, they're all dead now.
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Is that because, is that because of drugs and fentanyl?
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It's getting into the country and it's killing people, and that's what the sad part of Brampton
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And yet, we've seen that the population of Brampton continues to increase at an incredible
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It's not really, it's not Canadian people that are producing.
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I'm just saying that most people in Canada have one or two kids, but so many newcomers have
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So I do feel like it's, I'm a stranger in my own country.
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We have very nice parks in Brampton, which I like, for riding bikes and walking, hiking,
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But something that I don't like, and my neighbors don't like, and a lot of people don't like,
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Has it really gotten noticeably worse over the past few years?
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Oh yes, because on my street, someone sold their house, and then you ended up with one
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fell house, and they live 15 in the house, you know, and then they're not very clean.
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And then the garbage are all over the place, and we have to talk to them, these clean up
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I'm French, but I speak English, I don't speak French.
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And the thing is, they should adopt our culture.
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They, they choose to come here, choose to get, what's called, the culture, you know?
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If we're going to their country, we will have to adapt to their culture, right?
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They should do the same thing here, but here it's like, uh, people, you know?
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I mean, the immigrants in Duquesne come here and still everywhere else.
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And why, why do you think they all choose to live in Brampton?
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All right, folks, well, that wraps up our field trip to Brampton, of all places.
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It's not your typical field trip location, but it was well worth the trip because we
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got to witness and got to see firsthand what this city actually looks like, what this ethnic
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Besides the data, what is life like every single day?
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Our field trip started off with a trip to the Hindu temple where we got to see the famous
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And then, of course, we also went to check out some very ornate, very large Sikh temples
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But then we went to downtown to start talking with some locals, started asking people what
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they make of living in Brampton, if Brampton feels like a Canadian city to them, and the
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change that Brampton has gone through over the past few years.
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The 2021 census data tells us that the overwhelming majority of foreign-born people who live in
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The census data also says that Brampton, as of 2021, was 81% non-white.
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And I think it lived up to that, if not even more, from what we saw in this just short few
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But there was one thing that really struck me, and that was the contrast in this city,
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the living standards in this city, for people who have come to this country, come to this
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city, just a few months ago even, for some, as we spoke to, and even just a few years ago
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for others, most of whom were international students studying at international colleges
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And then, for people who have been living in this city for many years, since the 80s,
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Now, what really surprised me, and what you don't hear about in the news when it comes
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to Brampton, is the sheer amount of drug use and homelessness that the Canadian population
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We went underneath a tunnel, and it was as if we went into a completely different city.
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What we did see, however, were very large numbers of white Canadians who were homeless,
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addicted to drugs, and relying on a church to provide them with some assistance, hopefully
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That was not something that I was expecting to see here.
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However, when we spoke to people, that's what they told us life was like in Brampton.
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It was not just an ethnic enclave, but in fact, it was a place where there is an unbelievable
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amount of newcomers to this city, people who are bringing their own culture, and that's
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But in fact, it's the Canadian-born population who are struggling the most, and whose lives
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Funny you don't hear about that whenever we hear about Brampton.
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They obviously said that Brampton is taking in too many immigrants, that life here is
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Some were optimistic, but the majority were not, and the majority had noted that the city
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had changed rapidly since their time living here.
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We also managed to speak with a lot of immigrants who live in Brampton, and actually, they themselves
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said, in one case, that there were too many Indians in Brampton.
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So if they're saying that, then maybe there's something to it.
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Nonetheless, I have to tell you, this is really something to behold, because the population
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The demographic change is very noticeable, and one group of people who live in Brampton
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They seem to be studying, getting diplomas, living fine.
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Another group in Brampton, however, don't seem to be living so well.
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And that was something that I think people should really start to consider when they think
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All right, well, that's going to do it for us for our coverage here in Brampton.
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My name is Harrison Faulkner, and this is Ratioed.