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FM AMCONSUL TORONTO
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RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 0031
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RUEHDIR/IRAN RPO DUBAI

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 TORONTO 000044 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR WHA/CAN AND NEA/IR 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PINR CVIS CA IR
SUBJECT: Toronto's Iranian Diaspora 
 
TORONTO 00000044  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
Sensitive but Unclassified: Please Protect Accordingly. 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY:  At over 60,000 residents, Toronto's Iranian 
Community is a small but visible group in a city where over half of 
its 4 million people are foreign-born.  Concentrated in the northern 
neighborhoods and suburbs of Canada's largest city, Toronto's 
Iranian community is constantly growing, sustained by liberal 
Canadian immigration policies, the draw of family already here, 
employment opportunities, excellent educational institutions, and 
changing political conditions in Iran itself.  Drawing on 
conversations with Iranian community representatives, 2006 Canadian 
Census data, online resources, and consular databases, this cable 
profiles a small, strategically important, but in our experience 
politically disengaged immigrant community in Canada's most diverse 
metropolis.  END SUMMARY. 
 
------------------------------ 
Iranian Immigration to Toronto 
------------------------------ 
 
¶2. (U) The first substantial wave of Iranian immigration to Toronto 
(as well as Montreal and Vancouver, the other major Canadian 
immigrant destinations) arrived in the decade following the 
1978-1979 Islamic revolution, as the Iranian diaspora sought havens 
in Western Europe, the United States, and Canada.  Canada's 
relatively liberal immigration and refugee acceptance policies have 
allowed a steady stream of family and employment-based immigration 
to Canada over the past three decades, a trend that gained momentum 
in the 1990s, when over 20,000 Iranian nationals immigrated to 
Canada. Throughout, a plurality has settled in Toronto; recent 
Statistics Canada census data shows that 44% of Canada's Iranian 
community lives in the Greater Toronto Census Metropolitan Area 
(CMA).  Of the nearly 28,000 Iranian immigrants arriving in Canada 
between 2001 and 2006, 14,010 initially settled in the Toronto CMA, 
with Montreal, Vancouver, and Ottawa absorbing most of the rest. 
 
-------------------------- 
A Self-Contained Community 
-------------------------- 
 
¶3. (U)  In a city with over 180 nationalities, the Iranian community 
is relatively small, particularly compared with the massive and 
largely unassimilated Chinese and South Asian communities, and the 
more assimilated, but still prominent Italian and Portuguese 
communities.  Based on census data surveying "mother tongue" (which 
includes Iranian citizens as well as residents of Iranian ethnicity 
that have Canadian or other citizenship), 65,025 or 1.2% of 
residents in the Toronto CMA are Farsi speakers.  In comparison, 
nearly 400,000 Toronto CMA residents count a Chinese dialect as 
their mother tongue, and 190,000 residents indicate Italian is their 
preferred language.  The number of Farsi speakers is roughly equal 
to French speakers (an official language for all government services 
in Toronto and Ontario), and slightly ahead of the number of Arabic 
speakers. 
 
¶4. (SBU) The Iranian community is concentrated in the northern 
reaches of the City of Toronto, and the near north suburb of 
Richmond Hill.  Census data shows that Farsi speakers live in a 
self-contained, almost insular, community. 
 
¶5. (SBU) In 11 of Toronto's 1,076 CMA census tracts, Farsi is the 
second most common mother tongue (after English).  Seven of those 
tracts abut a 2 km. stretch of Yonge Street, Toronto's major 
North-South thoroughfare, with the remainder scattered throughout 
the city.  In 49 other census tracts clustered primarily in the 
northern suburbs, the concentration of Farsi speakers is higher than 
the 1.2% Greater Toronto CMA average. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Many Iranians speak only Farsi at home.  Of the 22,795 
Farsi-speaking City of Toronto residents (as opposed to the much 
larger Census Metropolitan Area), nearly 64% reported using only 
Farsi in their homes.  In nearby Richmond Hill, one of the 
wealthiest suburbs, 55% of 6,815 Farsi speakers use the language 
exclusively at home. 
 
TORONTO 00000044  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
 
¶7. (SBU) The physical landscape of these neighborhoods of northern 
Toronto reflects this preference for using Farsi in daily life. 
Farsi signs dominate storefronts along several blocks of Yonge 
Street.  Restaurants, news kiosks, money changers, real estate 
agents, and banks all make active efforts to court Farsi-speaking 
customers.  Several Shi'a mosques in Toronto cater to the Iranian 
community.  Annual Nowruz celebrations in North York draw tens of 
thousands.  The same area is home to a large number of Chinese and 
Korean immigrants, and abuts a Russian, largely Jewish neighborhood. 
 All seem to coexist peacefully. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Toronto is also home to a vibrant Farsi media. Iranian 
satellite television channels based in Los Angeles are available on 
cable systems, and two basic cable networks run regular programming 
in Farsi.  Toronto-based Iranians publish internet blogs in Farsi 
and English, and several Farsi newspapers publish on a weekly basis. 
 Based on Farsi-language newspaper and TV advertising, one could 
gain the impression that the overriding passions of the Iranian 
community are real estate and matchmaking services.  Hundreds of 
real estate agents of Iranian descent advertise in Toronto's Farsi 
media, focusing on the condo boom that is particularly intense in 
the northern suburbs heavily populated by the Iranian community. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) statistics suggest 
concerted efforts to compete for the "Iranian Pocketbook" are 
well-justified.  Iran is regularly among the top 10 countries of 
origin for recipients of investor and entrepreneur immigrant visas 
to Canada. 
 
-------------------------------------- 
Little Appetite for Political Activity 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶10. (SBU) Contacts in the Iranian community, when queried about 
their attitudes towards political developments in Iran, assert that 
the Iranians in Toronto are by and large disengaged from 
developments in their homeland.  Mohsen Taghavi, editor of the 
Farsi/English weekly "Salaam Toronto" told Poloff that the 2008 
Majlis elections, and other political events in Iran, have generated 
little or no interest in the community.  Taghavi, who immigrated to 
Canada in the late 1990s asserted that interest may rise again if a 
credible reformer were to run for high office, but in the meantime, 
a wide cross-section of the Iranian immigrant community has 
disengaged from political events in their homeland. 
 
¶11. (SBU) Behnam Esfanizadeh, chairman of the Toronto Iranian 
Community Group, a North-York based organization, lamented that it 
was impossible to organize the community around any sort of 
political issue, either in Iran or Canada.  Esfanizadeh detailed 
difficulties in founding the "Iranian Canadian Congress" in November 
2007, as a forum for focusing the Iranian community in Toronto on 
broader political issues.  While active, Esfanizadeh admitted the 
organization had not achieved the hoped-for goal of politically 
energizing Iranians in Toronto. 
 
----------------------- 
Students: The New Wave 
----------------------- 
 
¶12. (SBU) The Iranian student community is a large, organized, and 
visible presence at all major universities in Ontario.  CIC 
statistics suggest the number of Iranian students in Canada has 
doubled since 2003, with many, if not most studying at Ontario 
universities.  Some institutions, like the University of Waterloo 
(UW) and the University of Western Ontario (UWO), host a significant 
number of Iranian graduate students in the sciences.  Many graduate 
students in Toronto are studying physics, mechanical engineering, 
and biology.  Others study nuclear engineering (NOTE:  UW and UWO, 
in conjunction with McMaster University, offer a master's degree 
program in nuclear reactor design called the University Network of 
Excellence in Nuclear Engineering.  END NOTE). 
 
¶13. (SBU) Based on anecdotal evidence from U.S. visa interviews, 
 
TORONTO 00000044  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
many Iranian students are here temporarily on scholarships from the 
Iranian Government and fully intend to return to Iran at the 
completion of their studies.  Given the technical background of many 
students, their U.S. visas are subject to administrative processing 
and review.  Over the past couple of years, however, only one 
Iranian visa applicant-a female engineering student-has been denied 
a U.S. visa on national security grounds (in 2006). 
 
¶14. (SBU) Generally, Iranian student organizations appear to be 
apolitical, serving primarily as a social hub for students of 
Iranian descent.  The executive membership (and we assume the 
membership at large) is almost exclusively students in the 
engineering professions and life sciences, career choices that are 
near certain pathways to well paying jobs after graduation.  The 
events offered (lectures, social events, tutoring, etc.) are similar 
to those offered by student organizations of other nationalities. 
Indicative of their non-political orientation, Iranian student 
organizations criticized a 2007 conference organized by Conrad 
Grebel University of Waterloo (a Mennonite institution) that invited 
Iranian scholars from the Imam Khomeni Education and Research 
Institute in Qom. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
From the Visa Line:  One week in Los Angeles, Please 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
¶15. (SBU) From February 2007 to February 2008, Consulate General 
Toronto issued 811 visas to Iranian citizens.   Younger applicants 
and long-term residents are usually well prepared, polite and 
cooperative during their interviews.  Much of Toronto's Iranian 
population arrived in Canada in the 1970s and '80s as young adults 
and became Canadian citizens, who do not need visas to visit the 
U.S.  Their now-elderly parents frequently appear at the Consulate 
after being in Canada for a short time, seeking visas to visit 
relatives in the United States.  Few of these applicants speak 
English, and they rely on their children to translate for them. 
These applicants have often successfully traveled to the United 
States in the past.  Others have been refused in Dubai or Ankara and 
are trying their luck in Toronto (previously refused applicants 
generally receive the same answer in Toronto).  Due to the 1 entry, 
3 month validity of U.S. visas for Iranians, many applicants are 
"repeat customers," appearing several times per year.  However, we 
see relatively few applicants who have been in Canada longer than 
the three year period required for Canadian naturalization, 
suggesting that many Iranians become Canadian citizens at the 
earliest possible opportunity.  We have heard that the Canadian 
federal government carefully screens every Iranian citizen who 
applies for Canadian citizenship or permanent residence. 
 
¶16. (SBU) COMMENT:  The Iranian community in Toronto, due to its 
geographic concentration and relative wealth, has a visibility in 
the region far exceeding its actual size.  A variety of 
"pull-factors" including a liberal, qualifications-based immigration 
system, family ties, accessible higher education, and the critical 
mass of services, mosques, and marriage prospects in the area all 
work together to ensure that Toronto's Iranian community will 
continue to grow.  The comparative difficulty of immigrating to the 
U.S., along with Canada's acceptance of large numbers of Iranians 
after the Islamic revolution and hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong 
Chinese in the mid-1990s, reinforce Canada's reputation as a safe 
haven for Iranians or others seeking an antidote to their homeland's 
political uncertainty and cultural and economic malaise.  Toronto's 
Iranians seem to focus on the usual economic pursuits of recent 
immigrants.  We found them to be comparatively uninterested in 
domestic politics (Canadian or Iranian) and international relations. 
 END COMMENT. 
 
NAY