Five major Canadian banks are headquartered in Toronto, and the Toronto Stock Exchange is the world’s sixth largest stock exchange as measured by market capitalization. The Toronto area is a major international economic centre for a great variety of industries: banking, insurance, manufacturing (motor vehicles, iron, steel, food, machinery, chemicals, paper, high technology), tourism, media, publishing and film production. The Toronto area is home to four major universities: the University of Toronto (established in 1827, Canada’s largest university), York University, Ryerson University, Ontario College of Art and Design and the University of Guelph-Humber. Furthermore, the University of Ontario Institute of Technology is located in Oshawa, a city 60 kilometres east of downtown Toronto. Toronto is also the seat of the government of the Province of Ontario and the location of hundreds of Canadian non-profit sector organizations.
With the growth of international trade and also due to the huge inflow of immigrant populations to Toronto and GTA, the importance of effective multilingual communication is increasing. Of growing importance are the substantial numbers of immigrants that have chosen Toronto as their new home. Toronto has one of the most diverse and ethnic populations in the world. After Miami, Toronto has the largest number of foreign-born residents, but in contrast to Miami, most of whose immigrants are mainly from Latin America, Toronto’s immigrants come from all over the world. More than 200 linguistic groups are represented in Toronto. Apart from native English and French speakers the major 3 prominent ethnic groups in Toronto are Italian, Chinese and East Indian.
Due to its diversified economic base and growing and population Toronto plays an important role in Canada’s economy. Every year about 250,000 new immigrants come to Canada, and about 43% of them settle in the Greater Toronto Area. According to Stats Canada the 4 major languages by mother tongue in Toronto (other than English) are:
- - Italian – 195,960;
- - Mandarin – 165,120;
- - Cantonese – 145, 490, and
- - Portuguese – 108,935.
This has given rise to an important new industry: ethnic marketing, which targets the different ethnic and linguistic groups represented in Toronto. The need to communicate effectively with these diverse populations is being recognized by government, business and non-profit organizations alike.
Based on industry reports Toronto is one of the biggest translation markets in the world as measured by average annual sales. The demand for linguistic services is projected to increase due to the above-mentioned international economic and local demographic developments.
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