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Gayle Swain often hears how “amazing” it is that not only she, but her parents, were born in the city of Vancouver.

Swain’s mother and father were born in East Vancouver during the First World War. Their house still stands on Keefer Street. Swain’s grandparents had arrived in B.C. from Russia and Lithuania, so were what Statistics Canada defines as “first generation.”

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In most cities of the world, it would not be special to be a third generation resident. But some say Swain’s family, particularly her fourth-generation children, are as scarce as unicorns here.

Two out of three inhabitants of the city of Vancouver were either born in some other part of Canada or, even more likely, in a foreign country. Of major Canadian cities, Vancouver proper has the fewest residents born in the same province.

Montreal, Ottawa and Fredericton are among the many Canadian cities that have much stronger homegrown populations, with scholars maintaining such Eastern cities (in the U.S., too) enjoy a stronger sense of community because the residents are less mobile.