Migration Patterns

Immigration in Kitchener dates back to 1796 when the German Mennonites bought the land in which Kitchener was laid on and settled there. Later on, in the 1800's more German families moved into this area, and it continued to the point when the city was named Berlin after the capital of German. It wasn't until after the First World War that different nationalities came to Kitchener.

Kitchener is a very diversified city that consists of a variety of people with almost 100 different ethnic backgrounds. Immigrants and citizens of German background dominate the area with a population of 47380 people. Not far behind are the English, Irish, and Scottish, followed by the French. Overall the cultural make-up of this city is mostly of Europeans; top 9 most populated ethnic groups are from Europe. 15.4% of the population is part of a visible minority groups such as Black (3.2%), South Asian (3.1%), Latin American (2.2%), Southeast Asian (2.0%), Chinese (1.4%), and others.

Besides English and French, the language most spoken in Kitchener is Portuguese, with 9, 625 speakers as of 2011. German comes in second with 9,215 speakers, then Spanish with 7,815 speakers. According to the 2001 Census, 78.85% of Kitchener's population follows Christianity, 41.3% of them are Protestants and 32.4% of them are Roman Catholics. Islam takes up 2.24%,  Hindi takes up 1%,  and other religions such as Buddhism, Sikhism, Judaism takes up 2.31% of the population. 15.6% do not follow a religion.

In Ontario as a whole, Europeans take up a large percentage of the immigrants, Asians and Middle East. As of 2013, 103,494 immigrants settle in Ontario. In 2013, 23,090 immigrants from Africa and Middle East, 56,670 immigrants from Asia and Pacific, 9,995 immigrants from Europe, 3,815 from the US, 9,626 immigrants from South and Central America, and 268 other immigrants settle in Ontario.

There is a drawback in immigration though. Immigration can draw in more crimes and social/political issues such as racism. Overpopulation could be a problem too, but with a population density of 1.602/sq.km, Kitchener will not face much of a problem.