URBAN RESIDENTS AMONG THE IMMIGRANT POPULATION 107 
Galicia, with a percentage practically equal to that for the Swedes. The Finns, Austrians 
and Hungarians, with percentages ranging between 35 and 40 p.c., are also considerably less 
urban than the average for the group, or for the population as a whole. The proportions 
for the balance of the South, Eastern and Central European group are between 40 pe. 
and 50 p.c. urban. 
it is difficult, therefore, to speak of the urban distribution of the South, Eastern and 
Central Europeans as a group because of the great variation in the - extent to which 
immigrants from the respective countries in that section of Europe exhibit a predisposition 
to urban life. While on the average the South, Eastern and Central Europeans are much 
more urban than immigrants from North Western Europe, settlers from such countries as 
Galicia, Finland and Austria show appreciably smaller percentages of urban domicile in 
Canada than does the total North Western European group. 
However, in turning to certain linguistic groupings (Table 53) less variation appears, 
which seems to suggest that the tendency to urban life is associated with peculiarities of 
cultural rather than geographical origin. The Scandinavian immigrants show a more or less 
uniformly low percentage urban. While the figure for the Icelanders is somewhat higher 
thap the average, on the whole the immigrants from Iceland have been longer in Canada 
than those from any other European country, and the tendency to move cityward, which 
increases with residence on this side of the ocean, should be more marked in their case. it 
is impossible with the data at hand to trace the movement of the Icelandic population within 
the country, but the comparatively small immigration from Iceland since the beginning of the 
century would favour the cityward movement of the older settlers being reflected in the 
percentage of the urban to the total population in 1921. 
Among the Germanic peoples the uniformity in the proportions of the immigrants urban 
and rural is very marked. The percentage of urban for the group is higher than that for the 
Scandinavians, and with the exception of very minor overlapping as between the Germans 
and Icelariders, the percentage for every element in the Germanie group is higher than the 
highest in the Scandinavian. 
Among the Latins and Greeks, however, no such uniformity is discernible. The lowest 
percentage urban in that group is 10 points higher than the highest in the Germanic group, 
but the figures for the Greeks and Italians are far above those for the French and Rouman- 
jams. As a group the Latins and Greeks clearly tend toward urban life, but within the 
group itself the decided aversion to rural life displayed by immigrants from Greece and 
Italy places them in a class by themselves. 
What has been said as to lack of uniformity among the Latins and Greeks in respect 
of percentages living in urban districts, may be reiterated of the Slavie peoples. They 
differ radically in concentration in urban districts. The Galician immigrants, with less 
than = quarter of them living in incorporated cities, towns and villages in Canada, may be 
contrasted with the Poles, who have over two-thirds of their numbers living in urban 
communities. Such differences are difficult to explain. The Poles and Russians show the 
highest percentages of urban immigrants, and from those two countries a very large pro- 
portion of our Jewish immigrants come. As will be shown later, of all origins in Canada, 
the Jews show by far the highest percentage in our largest cities, and with a considerable 
proportion of immigrants from those two countries of Jewish extraction it is not surprising 
that the percentage urban among those born in Poland and Russia should be somewhat 
higher than for the other Slavic countries. Just how far this accounts for the differences 
cannot be ascertained, and just what other forces and influences are at work to bring about 
the remarkable variation in percentages, can only be discovered and evaluated after careful 
study. It is questionable, however, whether the proportion of Polish Jews among the irmmi- 
grants of Polish birth is large enongh to account for the extremely high percentage of urban 
residents shown by that group.