Southern European Canadians

Southern European Canadians are Canadians of Southern European ancestry. Southern European Canadian people can usually trace back full or partial heritage to Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Southern France, Yugoslavia, and other nations in, or ethnoculturally connected with, Mediterranean Europe.

Southern European Canadians
Total population
3,012,375[1]
8.7% of the total Canadian population (2016)
Regions with significant populations
Western Canada · Central Canada · Urban
less prevalent in the Atlantic and North
Languages
Canadian English · Canadian French
Acadian French · Spanish · Italian · Portuguese · Greek · Serbian
Other Southern European Languages
Religion
Predominantly:
Christianity
Minorities:
Irreligion • Islam • Judaism
Related ethnic groups
Southern Europeans · Southern European Americans · Southern European Australians · Southern European Britons

Background

Southern European Canadians have been studied and reported on by a wide range of publications and journalistic works, describing them as a distinct ethnic group or pan-ethnic grouping.[2] This includes research into the behaviour and health of South Europeans living in Canada.[3][4] The group can be subdivided into national subgroups, including Albanian Canadians, Greek Canadians, Italian Canadians, Maltese Canadians, Portuguese Canadians, Spanish Canadians, Cypriot Canadians, and Yugoslav Canadians (Bosnian Canadians, Croatian Canadians, Macedonian Canadians, Montenegrin Canadians, Serbian Canadians, Slovenian Canadians).[5]

History

In the early 1920s, the arrivals of Southern Europeans had been impeded by national policy changes to immigration, which discounted the group's ability for agricultural work based on various ethnic prejudices from the native-born population.[6][7][8] From 1896 to 1905, Clifford Sifton served as Minister of the Interior, under the premiership of Wilfrid Laurier. Sifton was tasked with finding European labor for the Canadian Prairies, and enacted discriminatory policies against the group, preferring immigration from Britain, and northern Europe in general.[9][10] Despite this, large numbers of Southern Europeans arrived from Mediterranean Europe between 1903 and 1914, with many of the male arrivals working in Canada's industrial sectors, such as mining, lumbering, manufacturing and on the railways.[11] Hundreds of thousands of Southern European immigrants came through Pier 21 in Halifax, Nova Scotia in the 1900s.[12]

The 1986 Canadian census, according to political philosopher William Kymlicka, revealed how the group, alongside French Canadians, were had one of the lowest average incomes in Canada.[13] A 1994 study showed that Southern Europeans, living in Toronto and Montreal, had the least social mobility of all ethnic groups in Canada, and that "immigrants from Southeast and East Asia behave in a somewhat similar fashion, particularly in Vancouver, where their relative concentration is the largest."[14] In 2011, political commentator Darrell Bricker noted that Southern European Canadians, who had historically tended to vote for the Liberal Party, had significantly switched to voting for the Conservative Party since the 2011 Canadian federal election.[15]

Demography
Southern European population by province or territory
Province / territory Population (2011)[16] Percentage Population (2016)[1] Percentage
Ontario 1,671,705 13.2% 1,772,160 13.4%
Quebec 515,745 6.7% 549,750 6.9%
British Columbia 303,170 7% 334,740 7.3%
Alberta 182,525 5.1% 215,725 5.4%
Manitoba 55,800 4.8% 59,915 4.8%
Nova Scotia 26,440 2.9% 28,680 3.2%
Saskatchewan 21,510 2.1% 27,415 2.6%
New Brunswick 12,245 1.7% 13,450 1.8%
Newfoundland and Labrador 3,985 0.8% 4,765 0.9%
Prince Edward Island 2,370 1.7% 2,650 1.9%
Yukon 1,380 4.1% 1,490 4.2%
Northwest Territories 1,135 2.8% 1,215 3%
Nunavut 390 1.2% 420 1.2%
Canada 2,798,395 8.5% 3,012,375 8.7%
Southern European population by country of origin
Country Population (2001)[17] Percentage Population (2006)[18] Percentage Population (2011)[16] Percentage Population (2016)[1] Percentage
Italian 1,270,370 4.3% 1,445,335 4.6% 1,488,425 4.5% 1,587,970 4.6%
Portuguese 357,690 1.2% 410,850 1.3% 429,850 1.3% 482,605 1.4%
Spanish 213,105 0.7% 325,730 1% 368,305 1.1% 396,460 1.2%
Greek 215,105 0.7% 242,685 0.8% 252,960 0.8% 271,410 0.8%
Croatian 97,050 0.3% 110,880 0.4% 114,880 0.3% 133,970 0.4%
Yugoslav (not otherwise specified) 65,505 0.2% 65,305 0.2% 48,320 0.1% 38,480 0.1%
Serbian 55,540 0.2% 72,690 0.2% 80,320 0.2% 96,530 0.3%
Maltese 33,000 0.1% 37,120 0.1% 38,780 0.1% 41,920 0.1%
Macedonian 31,265 0.1% 37,055 0.1% 36,985 0.1% 43,110 0.1%
Slovenian 28,910 0.1% 35,935 0.1% 37,170 0.1% 40,470 0.1%
Bosnian 15,720 0.1% 21,045 0.1% 22,920 0.1% 26,740 0.1%
Albanian 14,935 0.1% 22,395 0.1% 28,270 0.1% 36,185 0.1%
Cypriot 2,060 0% 3,395 0% 4,815 0% 5,650 0%
Montenegrin 1,055 0% 2,370 0% 2,970 0% 4,160 0%
Kosovar 1,200 0% 1,530 0% 2,760 0% 2,865 0%

Culture

Research has suggested that, with the progression of globalization, Southern European Canadians may become more, not less, involved with their ancestral country of origin, despite sometimes being from families which are multi-generation Canadian-born.[19] Published in 2003 in Canadian Studies in Population, a study revealed that Southern European young adults, living in the Vancouver area, left home at one of the latest stages of life, or remained home-stayers more often, compared with British, Chinese and Indian Canadians.[20] Related research published in the Journal of Comparative Family Studies in 2004, had similar findings for South Europeans in Canada.[5] Data from a 2004 Housing Studies journal article showed that, in statistics relating to housing, Portuguese Canadians are typical, or most representative, of Southern European Canadians in residential behavioural patterns.[21]

Academic research

In 2003, University of Alberta professor Frank Trovato's study, with Dr George K. Jarvis, found that Southern European people in Canada, particularly from Catholic backgrounds such as Italian Canadians and Portuguese Canadians, tended to have lower risk of suicide when compared with citizens from Northwestern Europe, such as German Canadians or Scottish Canadians. [4] The grouping has been used, from in-depth interviewing of around 500 parents in 2014, to compare intergenerational conflict with British Canadians, Chinese Canadians and South Asian Canadians.[3]

A 2017 Journal of the Canadian Historical Association study analyzed mid-20th-century representations of Southern Europeans; how a 1969 Scouts Canada handbook emphasized the British and French origins of the country, while regionally referring to South European people (and Eastern European Canadians) as a less significant and later progression in the history of the nation.[22]

See also

References
  1. "Census Profile, 2016 Census Canada [Country] and Canada [Country]". Statistics Canada. Retrieved June 24, 2020.
  2. The internationalizationof labour markets (PDF), International Institute for Labour Studies, 2010, p. 2, Source countries differ, with more Latin American and especially Mexican migrants in the US and proportionally more Asians and Eastern and Southern Europeans in Canada; and in the US the third generation visible minority group is much larger.
  3. Barbara Ann Mitchell; Yvonne Lai (2014), "Intergenerational conflict in ethnically diverse ageing families", Families, Relationships and Societies (Volume 3 ed.), Policy Press, p. 79-96, Data are drawn from in-depth interviews with 490 parents (mean age of 58) with at least one young adult child aged 18 to 35 living in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia belonging to one of four ethnic groups: British, Chinese, South Asian or Southern European Canadians.
  4. Frank Trovato (2003), Migration and Survival: The Mortality Experience of Immigrants in Canada, University of Alberta, p. 35-36, Trovato and Jarvis (1986) observed that foreigners in Canada from Southern European origins and a Catholic religious culture (such as Italians and Portuguese) tend to share low odds of suicide, whereas immigrants from predominantly Protestant and Anglo-Saxon countries share above average risks (i.e., American, German, Scottish).
  5. Barbara A. Mitchell (2004). "Making the Move: Cultural and Parental Influences on Canadian Young Adults' Homeleaving Decisions". Journal of Comparative Family Studies (Volume 35 ed.). University of Toronto Press. In particular, young adults from Greek, Italian, Balkan, Portuguese and many Asian origins remain at home the longest ... South European-Canadians, a more mixed pattern exists: for female young adults, forming a marital union is the most important reason
  6. "The Immigration Story of Robert Sapienza (Italian immigrant) - The New Canadian Magazine". Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21. 2003. Xenophonic feelings in Canada also resulted in immigration policies that limited the number of Southern Europeans in Canada and. Consequently, the Italians.
  7. John Douglas Belshaw (2016). "The Clifford Sifton Years, 1896–1905". Canadian History: Post Confederation. BCcampus Open Education. Sifton’s preferences as regards immigrant groups were explicitly in favour of northern Europeans over southern Europeans, Whites over non-Whites, and people with experience farming in prairie-like conditions.
  8. Donald Avery (1972). "Canadian Immigration Policy and the "Foreign" Navvy,1896-1914". Canadian Historical Association. This bias against southern Europeans had been evident in the immigration priorities established during Clifford Sifton's term as Minister of the Interior.
  9. Pamela Hickman; Jean Smith Cavalluzzo (2012). Righting Canada's Wrongs: Italian Canadian Internment in the Second World War. Lorimer. p. 44. ISBN 978-1459400955. Clifford Sifton was minister of the interior from 1896 to 1905 under Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier. Sifton's job was to settle the Prairies and bring in labour. He focused his campaigns on Britain and northern Europe but not southern Europeans.
  10. David Scott Fitzgerald; David Cook-Martín (2014). Culling the Masses: The Democratic Origins of Racist Immigration Policy in the Americas. Harvard University Press. p. 158. ISBN 978-0674729049. Sifton excluded southern Italy from recruitment because he considered southern Europeans inadequate to the challenges of life on the prairie ... By the early 1900s, Canadian eugenicists increasingly adopted the U.S. movement's proposals to restrict eastern and southern Europeans.
  11. David Goutor (2008). Guarding the Gates: The Canadian Labour Movement and Immigration, 1872-1934. UBC Press. ISBN 978-0774813655. From 1903 to 1914, more than one-quarter of all immigrants came from continental Europe, with a pronounced increase in the migration of Ukrainians, Poles, Italians and other eastern and southern Europeans ... a growing proportion of eastern and southern Europeans were brought in to do the rough, unskilled work in Canada's flourishing railway, mining, lumbering, and manufacturing sectors.
  12. "The Pier 21 Story" (PDF). pier21.ca. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2014-02-07. Retrieved 2019-08-13.
  13. Will Kymlicka (2001). "Home leaving trajectories in Canada: exploring cultural and gendered dimensions". Politics in the Vernacular: Nationalism, Multiculturalism, and Citizenship. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199240982. For example, 1986 Census statistics show that Arab-Canadians have a higher per-capita income than British-Canadians, and that South Asian-Canadians have a higher average income than either South European-Canadians or French-Canadians.
  14. Bali Ram; Y. Edward Shin (1999). "Internal Migration of Immigrants". In Leo Driedger; Shiva Halli (eds.). Immigrant Canada: Demographic, Economic, and Social Challenges. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0802081117. Earlier studies (Ram and Shin 1995; Ram, Shin, and Pouliot 1994) showed that southern Europeans living in Toronto and Montreal are the least mobile group, regardless of the period of immigration or the duration of residence in Canada.
  15. Laura Ryckewaert (November 14, 2011). "Grits neglected ethnic voters for last decade, plan to shower them 'with affection' from now on". The Hill Times. Mr. Bricker said, traditionally, Southern European Canadians were a Liberal bastion, but in the last election a lot of those votes were lost to the Tories.
  16. "2011 National Household Survey: Data tables". Statistics Canada. Retrieved June 24, 2020.
  17. "Ethnic Origin (232), Sex (3) and Single and Multiple Responses (3) for Population, for Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 2001 Census - 20% Sample Data". Statistics Canada. Retrieved June 24, 2020.
  18. "Ethnic origins, 2006 counts, for Canada, provinces and territories - 20% sample data". Statistics Canada. Retrieved June 24, 2020.
  19. Luis LM Aguiar (2007). "The New "In-Between" Peoples". In Vic Satzewich; Lloyd Wong (eds.). Transnational Identities and Practices in Canada. UBC Press. p. 214. ISBN 978-0774812849. Rather, the transnational practices of southern-European Canadians may increase as the forces of globalization, geographical effacements, and extended identities circulate within Canada
  20. Andrew V Wister; Barbara A. Mitchell; Ellen M. Gee (2003). "Home leaving trajectories in Canada: exploring cultural and gendered dimensions". Canadian Studies in Population (Volume 30 ed.). The University of Alberta. In this exploratory study, we profile variations in home leaving, home returning, and home staying behaviour among four ethnocultural groups in Canada - British, Chinese, Indian, and South European ... third of the South European-Canadians are home stayers – 35.6% and 36.3%,. respectively, for male and female young adults.
  21. Carlos Teixeira (2004). "Residential Experiences and the Culture of Suburbanization: A Case Study of Portuguese Homebuyers in Mississauga". Housing Studies (Volume 22 ed.). Taylor & Francis. In this respect, the Portuguese are typical of Southern Europeans in Canada. These immigrants' wish to move to a larger, modern house in the suburbs supports previous research in Canada in this area
  22. Kevin Woodger (2017), "Whiteness and Ambiguous Canadianization: The Boy Scouts Association and the Canadian Cadet Organization", Journal of the Canadian Historical Association (Volume 28 ed.), Canadian Historical Association, p. 95–126, Indeed, the 1969 Canadian Scout Handbook section on “Canada’s National Origins,” which purported to outline Canada’s contemporary ethnic and racial composition, continued to emphasize the British and French as the two founding nations, while detailing the myriad different national origins of northern, Eastern and Southern European Canadians.
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