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Lethbridge

What’s with all these Africans?

Over the last year or two, I have noticed an increase of Africans and Caribbeanians (?) in the Lethbridge area. They seem to have taken over Heritage Day. A few months ago, an Ethiopian restaurant opened downtown. Just today, I came across an African/Caribbean store on 9 Avenue.

I welcome my African/Caribbean brother and sisters. I hope one day Lethbridge may even have a Little Africa like Dublin. It’s nice to bring in such diversity in a city still under 100,000 people.

I just don’t understand what’s attracting them. I mean, why not more South Americans. Or for that matter more of the Chinese and Japanese who have been here for generations? What could Africans and Caribbeanians possible see in Lethbridge that they don’t see in the larger centres or say Kamloops or Hamilton?

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By Kim Siever

I live in Lethbridge with my spouse and 5 of our 6 children. I’m a writer, focusing on social issues and the occasional poem. My politics are radically left. I recently finished writing a book debunking several capitalism myths. My newest book writing project is on the labour history of Lethbridge.

I’m also dichotomally Mormon. And I’m a functional vegetarian: I have a blog post about that somewhere around here. My pronouns are he/him.

4 replies on “What’s with all these Africans?”

People from the Caribean have been soing seaonal work out in the eastern proviences forever. If i had to guess i would assume many of these people are now citizens looking for more perminant employment. Or schooling. Alberta has a strong enconomy and really low unemployment. Addtionally the praries are a lot more simaler to savvanah than the montain and big city type areas. you also see less crime and in this area and it is a great when you want to raise a family.

When i lived in Guyana and Trinindad I always recomended Alberta a place for perminant employment to those who talked to me about emmigration.

anyway that is my two cents

I was talking to two fellas from Zimbabwe this morning and a fella from Uganda this afternoon. I presented each of them with the same question.

The fellas from Zimbabwe are exchange students at the U of L and they think that most of the Africans are students coming here to go to school. They also think the majority of Africans here are from Nigeria, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. It’s quite possible their limited exposure (they’ve been here since just September) has been with university students.

the fella from Uganda is a refugee. He came to Canada from a 90,000-person refugee camp in Uganda. The government assigned him to Lethbridge. He’s currently unemployed, but going to school at the college for ESL.

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