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Originally Posted by YOWetal
Yeah you are probably right on average ethnic diversity levels in the two cities. The public service doesn't seem to attract them though. Ottawa's Arab and Somali population are woefully under-represented. Language may or may not have anything to do with this.
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Based on what I know I wouldn't say that about the capital region's Lebanese community. There are quite a few of them in the federal government among my friends, neighbours and acquaintances. I think you're probably right about the Somali community though.
In terms of knowing English and French, there is a very high degree of bilingualism and even trilingualism among the Lebanese community in the region. Many or even most Lebanese families have a long-standing history with French that goes back to the old country and this has been somewhat maintained here, and of course they also learn English from living in Ottawa.
Even the Somali community has a decent level of English-French bilingualism within it. A lot of people identified as "Somalis" in Ottawa are actually from Djibouti which is a former French colony that still teaches and uses that language. Also, for some reason even a lot of the people from Somalia itself send their kids to French schools in Ottawa. (As do a fair number of recently-arrived Syrian refugees, so it seems.) French (public, not Catholic) schools in Ottawa have many, many Somali students, especially in the south and west ends.