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Their understanding of Canada’s language landscape boils down to personal bilingualism — that not only are public services and resources delivered in both languages, but that the languages are regularly used by individuals.

“They don’t see bilingualism as something the federal government is supposed to do,” Mr. Galiev said in a news release. The way Canada promotes itself abroad leaves these immigrants with the impression that everyone can speak both official languages, when in reality, only 17.4% of Canadians are bilingual, according to figures from the 2006 Census.

The survey included short interviews with recent immigrants. One such interviewee said “in Mexico, when somebody talks about Canada, we know everybody speaks French and English.”

He said immigrants who arrive in Calgary are flummoxed by the lack of French-speaking there (the same Census data found only 0.7% of Albertans speak French fluently). Why, then, does Canada market itself as bilingual? they wonder.

New Brunswick is the only officially bilingual province in Canada incorporating French and English, and the “bilingual belt,” which boasts the highest concentration of French and English speakers is far from Calgary — along the southernmost strip of Quebec and New Brunswick.

Despite their surprise at the lack of French speaking in the area (or perhaps in reaction to it), these recent immigrants still want their children to learn both official languages, Mr. Galiev said, and aspire to pick up the languages themselves.

“They want their children to learn French for reasons of employment,” he said. They feel it will broaden their prospects across the country, especially eastward towards Ottawa and Quebec where it is a near-requirement to find work, especially in the government.

It is critical that future debates on bilingualism include recent immigrants, Mr. Galiev said, especially with the current Statistics Canada projection that by 2031, between 25% and 28% of the population could be foreign-born.