http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brampton#Religion

everything you ever wanted to know about Brampton but were afraid to ask

Oh, so Oakville has been ghettoized by the British, right... (an immigrant is an immigrant is an immigrant)? I am the grandchild of British immigrants and I really loathe it when British immigrants make derogatory remarks about other immigrant groups.

It's not about colour of skin for me, it's more a cultural thing. I'd sooner my kids were in a community where people have similar values to our own. My current neighbours are Pakistani, they're really nice and our kids often play together. However, my 7 year old is now asking lots of questions about gods and prayer. I'd sooner she wasn't exposed to stuff like that until she was older and less impressionable.

Really? I love conversations like that with my 6 year old. She usually manages to get me to think about things from a different perspective, and I love the fact that she's learning about the world. Don't they teach your child about different religions etc at school anyway?

My daughter got pretty upset over easter when her local school decided to tell the kids all about jesus getting nailed to a cross. She started drawing pictures of people will blood pouring from their hands, had nightmares and regualrly woke up crying, and repeated things like "he suffered for us" all the time. I took her out of the school and put her in a different one, things are much better now. I have no problem with people believing whatever they wish. I do have a problem when they start pushing their beliefs on vulnerable minds. She was 6, she shouldn't have to listen to stuff like that. Well, that's my opinion anyway.

Yes. And the Beach. The GTA is a series of ghettos.

Show me such a remark on this thread. I think the closest you come is me saying something to the effect that the driving of new immigrants from Asian oxcart economies is indistinguishable from that of cradles.

South Etobicoke? South of Rathburn near to subway and lake (and airport and 427)

dbd33 indicates another problem with Brampton here indirectly and that is outside of rush hour there is no GO Train.

You are then restricted to a coach and that does not run between the hours of 12 and 4 and when it does run it is once an hour.

You should really loathe it when any group make's derogitary remarks about any group and stop this rediculous double standard.

Why be so prejudice and pick on British immigrants and why be so foolish as to come and do that on a British expats forum?

You are teeing yourself up...........

Not an obvious choice. That's mainly run down light industrial, especially along the railway tracks. The numbered streets have been "next for gentrification" since I've been in Canada but don't seem very gentrified, the lakeshore still has more pawn shops than boutiques. Easy commute though and more character than Mississauga. Lots of eastern Europeans and so good if you want perogies.

My opinion on Brampton
I lived there for 6 years and now live slightly north in the Caledon region and I work right by the side of Pearson airport.
It does have one of the biggest collections of non cradle Canadians going, it was referred to as the first stop for an immigrant, it was almost implied that all immigrants should do some time in Brampton, and to a point I’d agree! It’s one of the few places where multiculturism works. Granted there are a few ghetto spots that one or another group dominate but these tend to be in the lower housing cost regions within Brampton just like any major city.
I’d personally liken it to Slough its reasonably well planned with easy access to parks and good bike lanes within the parks and connecting the parks, traffic not as bad as other parts of the GTA even without a full Go- train service and at least we have our own highway (410) which really only serves Brampton and isn’t a commuter through way (well maybe for Orangeville but north of Brampton on highway 10 traffic is light). Shopping is good with many standard big box malls, easy access to the airport and other major highways. The one thing they didn’t bother taking into account when they expanded Brampton was looks, having said that, you can find some very visually appealing property in the Peel village but it’s not cheap.
The city is predominantly a middle class immigrant area with one of the lowest crime rates in Canada, the style of house, the type of car, and the goods on sale will tell you you’re in suburbia.
It’s a great place to get started on a new life, it’s a good stepping stone, one thing about attracting immigrants is it has a dynamic and active housing market, even when other areas are slow, you can buy here and when you do find a more interesting location, selling is easy.
Other personal pluses for me was being able to run across cricket games to watch in the parks, being able to get a good Indian takaway, good access to all aspect of a major city, accessible countryside ( Niagara escarpment)

on the button, mike!

judging by some (not all) of the comments on this thread, it makes you wonder why those with, shall we say, "colonial" views, bother to emigrate at all, if all they want to do is vent their anger at this group or that from such-n-such part of the world living together in one location etc...

i come from just such part of the world where the rulers, at that time, all lived in one area, maybe for convenience or proximity to their own kind or whatever.
as far as i can recall, there were never any comments made why those people all lived together in one place, rather than assimilating themselves with the local population.

so, for the life of me, i cant understand what the problem is if asians, chinese, africans, brits, scots, irish or whoever, deem it good to all live close to, or nearby each other, whether thats in england, india, canada, africa, jamaica or timbuktu.

there will always be some kind of problems with any area...whether its lived in by one particular group of people is immaterial.

lets stick with the purpose of the OP, which in my eyes was to ask if brampton is a reasonable place to live....

so far, mikeuk is about the only person who has answered succinctly.

It's an unattractive suburb, very much like Mississauga. It has a large Indian population.

Succinct enough?


("Like Slough" was good though, can't argue with the need for friendly bombs in Brampton).

And an even larger population of European descent.

I don't think you can establish that from the available data, all the people born in Canada and living in Brampton might have Indian, or indeed Malaysian, parents.

In any event, what distinguishes the various suburbs of Toronto, Brampton, Woodbridge, Markham, etc. is the ethnicity of the population. Brampton need only have more Indians than Markham to make it "the Indian suburb".