I live in a suburban Ontario town where the visible minorities are now the majority.
Brampton – a.k.a. “Browntown,” “Bramladesh”or “Singhdale” – is just like the nicknames imply: mostly brown.
On our street of new semi-detached houses, I see brown and black families, mostly immigrants. Strip malls consist almost entirely of Indian-only Best services providers brampton grocers, stores selling fancy South Asian clothes and sweet shops. My drive home off Highway 427 is lined with palatial Sikh gurdwaras, a monumental Hindu mandir and a soon-to-be-built mosque – the only church in the area is a tiny historic landmark.
At the walk-in clinic, brown and black families. At Service Ontario on a weekend, 30 people in line – only two are white and they are related. At the nearby library, an entire section carved out for Punjabi and Hindi books. And on Diwali, the night sky above Gore Road is lit up on both sides, crackling with competing fireworks displays.
It doesn’t surprise me any more when staff at a local Canadian Tire speak to me in Punjabi, or grocery stores advertise Diwali and Eid sales. Sobeys recently opened a supermarket in the heart of Brampton called “Chalo Freshco,” or “Let’s Go, Freshco,” marketing it as the first Canadian grocery store designed for “desis,” or those of South Asian descent, serving everything from spices and basmati rice found at an Indian grocery store to Indo-centric vegetables and ready-to-eat tandoori chicken and snacks.
On any given day, groups of women in colourful shalwar kameez (tunic and baggy pants) stroll vigorously along the sidewalk, getting in their daily exercise. Men in brightly hued turbans and flowing white beards bike to the neighbourhood park to hang out with friends.
Sometimes, I wonder if I live in India or Canada.
But I am not complaining. For someone who has lived her entire life as a minority – and a very visible one, thanks to the hijab covering my hair – this environment is a welcome change. I am with my own kind.
According to the 2011 Census, visible minorities made up two-thirds of Brampton’s population – five years later, that number is likely higher (and it renders the venerable bureaucratic label “visible minority” completely obsolete). Nearly 40 per cent of Brampton is South Asian, with Sikhs making up almost 20 per cent of the population. What are the top four languages spoken in Brampton after English? Punjabi speakers make up 19 per cent of the town, Urdu 3.1 per cent, Gujarati 2.3 per cent and Hindi 2.3 per cent. Not surprisingly, they’re all languages originating on the South Asian subcontinent.
