African community in Canada on the rise

As the African community in Canada grows, it has led to the regeneration of labor in communities with an obvious need for workers.

One of the cases of the African community in Canada is in Thunder Bay, this city of about 125,000 people in northwestern Ontario.

Here, it is seeing the emergence of new African-inspired business activity, with at least three stores set to open their doors this fall.

And taken as an example among the African community in Canada, Thunder Bay African Restaurant, which began operating its kitchen in early September, is already experiencing strong demand for traditional West African dishes.

Nkiru-Denky Okpulor, who runs the restaurant, said there was virtually no African food available when he first moved to Thunder Bay, and it is already representative of the African community growing up in Canada.

The restaurant specializes in West African cuisine.

Okpulor said its most popular dishes include egusi soup, pounded yam, jollof rice and catfish and pepper soup.

Another restaurant representing the African community growing up in Canada is called Na’madam’s African Cuisine, where they serve traditional Cameroonian dishes such as fufu, which actually comes from Ghanaian cuisine, and chicken in peanut sauce.

One of the suppliers of ingredients for these dishes is the small DenkyMax African Food Market, located in Thunder Bay’s north downtown.

It aims to offer familiar flavours and products to people who have come from Africa and the Caribbean, but also seeks to introduce new foods and ingredients to everyone in the city.

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African community in Canada on the rise

Census data does not show exactly how many immigrants from Africa live in the Thunder Bay district, but it does show that the population is growing.

The Canadian government’s economic statement presented last fall noted that immigration is fundamental to identity as Canadians, while also being a key driver of Canada’s economic growth.

Ottawa stressed that it wants to settle about 1.5 million new permanent residents in the country over the next three years.

In this case, the African community in Canada is one of the most diverse, but with a high example of work discipline.

But not everything is aimed at labor, as the Canadian government is now targeting African professionals.

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To address the shortage of healthcare personnel, the French-speaking Canadian province of Quebec has launched a major recruitment drive in Africa.

The goal is to attract 1,000 French-speaking nursing professionals within two years.

With this program, the provincial government hopes to help reverse the decline of the French language and encourage young families to settle in Quebec’s regions with an aging population.

In 2020, Canada’s African community came mostly from Cameroon.

Africans arriving in the country as refugees accounted for nearly 40% of the total number of people of African descent, and the trend in the origin of these people continues to shift from the Caribbean region to Africa, mainly Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal.