Canadians use a bit of jargon that would typically be part of a linguist’s vocabulary.  There are anglophones, francophones, and allophones.  Then, there are saxophones — an ill wind that no one blows good.  Anglophones and francophones are speakers of English and French, and allophones speak another language. On December 4, Statistics Canada announced some results from the 2006 census.  At that time, 20% of the population was immigrants, with the same percentage allophones, though 93% of them could carry out a conversation in English and/or French.  Between 2001 and 2006, the population of Canada increased by 1.6 million, to 31,613,000.  Of that increase, 1.1 million was due to immigration. In 2006, 70% of foreign-born Canadians had an allophonic mother tongue.  Five per cent of the immigrants had Arabic as their first language.  The greatest number of allophones spoke one or more of the Chinese dialects. Of newcomers to Canada between 2001 and 2006, 58% were from an area including Asia and the Middle East.  The top countries in that area, in order, were China, India, the Philippines, Pakistan, and Iran.  The picture in the National Capital Region, including Ottawa and Gatineau (across the river in Quebec) was somewhat different.  There, Arabic is the most common third language, with 30,890 speakers in 2006. Arabs came to Ottawa for two main reasons, a push and a pull, as Christopher Assad, president of the Syrian Association of Canada, explained.  The push was the desire to escape the turmoil and violence back home.  The pull was economic opportunity, especially in information technology.  As well, one finds many Syrians and Lebanese operating restaurants and small retail shops.  Handi Mohamed, executive director of Ottawa Community Immigrant Service Organization (OCISO), complains that many immigrants are underemployed because their foreign credentials are not recognized.