My brother Tim (loyal reader, commenter too) requested additional posts of facts. Today’s gives a dozen highlights of Canadian immigration.
- Canada has welcomed over 19.5 million immigrants since 1867, the year of Confederation.
- The Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 is in Halifax, a location chosen because Pier 21 received almost one million new immigrants to Canada between 1928 and 1971.
- Waves of Irish immigrants arrived in the early 19th century and, during the Great Famine of Ireland (1845–52), 340,000 destitute Irish Catholics emigrated to British North America (Canada). By 1871, the Irish comprised the largest ethnic group in every big town and city excepting Montréal and Québec City. The 2016 census shows descendants of these Irish immigrants constitute almost 13 per cent of the Canadian population.
- Canada is home to 1.4 million people of Ukrainian descent — the world’s second largest Ukrainian diaspora after Russia and the third largest population of Ukrainians in the world. The promise of free land on the Prairies (plus active recruitment by then Minister of the Interior Clifford Sifton) attracted the first wave of 150,000 Ukrainian immigrants between 1891 and 1914. Other large waves came after each World War. Today about 11 per cent of the population in the three Prairie provinces claim Ukrainian ancestry.
- On January 20, 1899, after a 29 day voyage from Russia, the S.S. Lake Huron steamed into Halifax’s harbour with 2100 Doukhobors on board — the largest single body of emigrants ever to have crossed the Atlantic in one ship. When the last shipload of Doukhobors arrived five months later, about 7000 had settled in Western Canada. (Leo Tolstoy aided the emigration of the repressed Doukhobors.)
- Prior to 2021, the highest number of immigrants recorded in a year — more than 400,000 — was in 1913. Other record levels occurred during political and humanitarian crises. In 1956 and 1957, for instance, 37,500 Hungarian refugees arrived in the country. A considerable number of Ugandan, Chilean, Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotian refugees came in the 1970s and 1980s. Since the early 1990s, an average of 235,000 new immigrants arrive annually.
- In 1967, Canada became the first country in the world to introduce a points system to assess immigration candidates based on human capital characteristics such as age, education, language skills, occupations, and work experience. Other countries such as Australia and New Zealand later adopted our model.
- In 1968 Quebec became Canada’s first province to launch a dedicated immigration ministry. Quebec recognized the vital role immigrants could play in maintaining its Francophone character and political influence within Canada.
- In 1998 Manitoba became the first province to sign a Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) agreement with the federal government. Today each province and territory, apart from Nunavut and Québec, operates its own PNP to meet economic and demographic needs.
- 25 Canadians are Nobel Laureates, four of whom are immigrants. For Chemistry: Gerhard Herzberg, a German-Canadian, won in 1971, John Polanyi, of ethnic Hungarian origin, in 1986, and British-born Michael Smith in 1993. For Physiology or Medicine: Scottish-born John Macleod won in 1923.
- “According to the 2011 National Household Survey, Asia (including the Middle East) is now the main continent of origin of the immigrant population, although Africa’s share has also increased. For the first time since 1867 China and India have surpassed the UK as the country of birth most frequently reported by foreign-born people.”
- The federal government’s Budget 2022 provides the funding necessary to admit immigrants who will drive innovation and growth in the years ahead. According to John Ibbitson of The Globe and Mail: “Canada brought in more than 405,000 immigrants last year, a record number… The intake is projected to increase this year and next, reaching more than 450,000 annually in 2024.”
Please add your facts and stories about immigration in the comments below. •
P.S. To personalize this post: beginning in the middle of the 1970s over one million refugees fled war torn Vietnam. By 1985, 110,000 “boat people” had settled in Canada; my brother Tim and his wife Nina sponsored a Vietnamese family in Toronto at the time. In 2022 my brother Brian and his wife Dana are hosting a Ukrainian refugee family of three in Ottawa.
Sources: The Canadian Encyclopedia, CIC News, Statistics Canada, The Promised Land: Settling the West 1896-1914 (1984) by Pierre Berton
Catherine says
My husband’s family immigrated to Eastern Ontario by Cornwall in 1787 from Scotland. One of the towns was named after his mother’s family, Youngstown. They likely immigrated as things were pretty dire in Scotland for many years after the Jacobite rebellion.
My own ancestors initially immigrated to the USA (from England and Austria) through Ellis Island at the turn of the century and settled in Chicago and Detroit. They eventually were drawn north and west with the promise of land.
Pam McPhail says
Have you had occasion to visit Ellis Island, Cathy? If not, I highly recommend it.
Catherine says
I haven’t yet although I did go by it when I was in New York in 2005. My cousin in Missouri was able to obtain a copy of the passenger logs from my Austrian grandparents arrival there and even got a picture of the ship they sailed on.
Pam McPhail says
Nice. A cool bit of your family history captured.
Christine Krueger says
My parents immigrated to Canada in 1951-2 days after they were married.
My mother came from Germany as did my father. My father’s family moved to the Ukraine to farm in a German community. During WW2 they went to bed with travel clothes and a bag of dried bread laid out. They didn’t know if the Germans or the Russians were coming. The Germans came and they were taken by cattle cars to Germany. Had circumstances been different I could be in Ukraine now!
Pam McPhail says
Better to be in Calgary than Kyiv these days, Chris.
Sonya R Bardati says
This is very enlightening. Since I lived in Hamilton before meeting my future husband in 1960, I thought the Italians had run in droves away from Mussolini and the area was full of Italians. Surprise that they were not. Roberto, my late, was a descendant of both mother and father, being first generation Canadian-Italian, he was proud of his inheritance.
Ian says
Thanks for this excellent post, Pam, and congratulations to your kin for actively welcoming new arrivals to Canada. The great thing about immigrants to our country is that they all seem to get on with one another, and the rest of us as well. There must be something in the water here that calms people down. BTW, my own sister is an immigrant, actually an emigrant, as she has lived in the UK since graduating from university many decades ago. On rare occasions, when anyone voices anti-immigration sentiments to her, she quietly will say: Don’t forget, I am an immigrant myself. Please keep the Fun Facts coming!
Barbara Richardson says
An interesting topic Pam! I worked in the Immigration department for several years including 3 years as a visa officer in the Philippines. Many Canadians don’t realize the amount of research, analysis and work that takes place each year to determine Canada’s annual immigration levels and then to process the applicants globally. The target levels are determined to ensure that Canada has the workers it needs to fill critical labour market gaps and support a strong economy into the future. The rate is about 1% of Canada’s population. Without immigration Canada’s economy would be unsustainable. Our fertility rate is now 1.66 children per woman – well below the OECD average. As well, Canada’s population continues to age. We’ve moved from a pyramid shaped age distribution to a pear-shaped one. One in five of us are now over 65. Covid restrictions internationally further slowed the pace of population growth dramatically. 2020 rates were half the growth of 2021. Hopefully the pace will recover.
Linda Richardson says
A very timely Fun Facts post Pam. You mentioned Pier 21 in Halifax. Rick and I visited there in 2017. With the help of a family advisor there, I was able to trace my Nana’s family’s emigration from Scotland. My great-grandfather brought 9 children from Scotland to Nova Scotia in the early 1900’s after my great-grandmother had died in childbirth. My Nana and a sister and brother came first with my great-grandfather. They were followed later by the remaining children and a maiden aunt or cousin who was listed in the ship’s manifest as my great grand-father’s wife but who was actually just acting as a guardian for the children because they couldn’t travel on their own. My Nana’s age was listed as younger than she actually was. The family advisor told us that because of poor nutrition, many children emigrating appeared younger than they really were and could obtain a less expensive ticket if they were under a certain age. Nana hadn’t brought a birth or baptismal certificate with her and so was able to put a younger age on her job applications. This enabled her to work a number of years after she was actually 65.
Glen Wickens says
Until reading your post, Pam, I didn’t realize that almost 13% of Canada’s population is of Irish descent. My Scottish grandfather (Edwin Walkinshaw) on my mother’s side of the family left home as a teenager, sailed around the world on a tea clipper, and eventually settled in Vancouver to be close to the sea. So many street names (e.g. Nelson, Trafalgar, Victoria and so on) in Vancouver, indeed the very name of the city, speak to the importance and cultural dominance of British immigration in the early years.
Tim McPhail says
Pam, you mentioned the sponsorship of Vietnamese “Boat People”. My experience with one family of four refugees included much assistance by the Holy Blossom Temple here in Toronto. The membership of the congregation had a few survivors of the Holocaust concentration camps. They contributed to the sponsorship of dozens of Vietnamese families. Successful refugees helping a new wave of refugees.
Ken McLean says
Thanks for this interesting post, Pam. I am an immigrant from the UK, coming here at the age of 10 in 1957. I was born in Wales, lived there for 3 years, then in my father’s country, Northern Ireland for 4, then in my mother’s Lancashire for another 3 before coming here.My father often said coming to this country was the best decision he ever made.
Pam McPhail says
Thank you everyone for adding informative, engaging comments. I enjoyed reading your remarks and stories about Canadian immigration.