Origin, birthplace, nationality and language of the Canadian people

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1794974814

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-182133

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Origin, birthplace, nationality and language of the Canadian people

Place of publication:: Ottawa

Publisher:: Acland

Year of publication:: 1929

Scope:: 224 S.; Diagramme

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Introduction

Collection:: Economics Books

DIFFICULTIES OF ORIGIN CLASSIFICATION 13 she biological and the cultural influence. It is known, for example, that biologically the Orientals are not assimilable in Canada, even if culturally assimilation were possible. On the other hand, neither Mennonites nor Doukhobors are easily assimilated culturally, though biologically an infusion could be effected. But the relative importance of the biological and cultural factors is not subject to quantitative measurement. Both, however, are com- bined under the term “ origin.” The term “ origin”, therefore, as used by the census, usually has a combined biological, cultural and geographical significance. It suggests whence our people come and the implied biological strain and cultural background. Following popular usage, the terms, “ English stock”, “ French stock”, “ Italian stock”, etc., are employed to describe the sum total of the biological and cultural characteristics which distinguish such groups from others. Such sage is familiar to the public in general, and only when our “origin” classifications follow such lines, can they be collected by a census, be understood by the people or have any significance from the practical standpoint of the development of a Canadian nation. PRACTICAL DIFFICULTIES IN THE ORIGIN CLASSIFICATION The term “origin”, as used here, has a combined biological, cultural anl geographical significance. In certain cases all three aspects are clearly defined; in others the classification means little more than geographical origin, being distinct from nativity classification mainly 1 that it includes not only immigrants, but their descendants. The situation is made clear oy examining the actual divisions in the origin tables of the census. First, there are cases in which the biological connotation included in the term “ origin” is pronounced, i.e, where the strains of the immigrating people are comparatively pure. Such are the coloured stocks, the Chinese, Japanese, Hindu, Negro and aboriginal Indians. In the case of many of the white peoples also the term “ origin” includes both biological and cultural elements, as in the case of the English, French, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Greek, Hebrew, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish, Syrian, and so on.. With such groups no serious difficulties are involved. With certain other groups, however, the problem of classification is not so simple. Nearly 10,000 people in Canada in 1921 claimed to be of “Swiss” origin. Here “origin” can only mean original geographical habitat (“Swiss” being a national term including French, German and other stocks), coupled with a more or less distinct culture, the product of the partial fusing of several North Western European stocks. The same may be said of the Belgians, of whom nearly 60 p.c. speak Flemish as the mother tongue, while a con- siderable proportion speak French, Belgium consisting of two distinct peoples, the Flemish and the Walloons. It is in the Eastern and Central parts of Europe, however, that the greatest difficulty arises. While there are certain groups like the Buigarians, Hungarians and Czechoslovaks where the mixture is not so confusing, there are groups found in the Canadian census like the Roumanians, 13 p.c. of whom spoke German as the mother tongue and 18 p.c. spoke one of the Slavic languages, arguing biologically a mixture of stocks. The intermingling is perhaps not so great with the Poles, 85 p.c. of whom spoke Slavie languages as the mother tongue and only a little under 10 pec. spoke German. The Serbo{Croats are preponderantly Slavs, judging from the data on mother tongue; but further difficulties emerge with the Russian, Ukrainian and Austrian groups. Of those reported as of Russian origin 40 pe. spoke German as the mother tongue—presumably those from the Baltic provinces of Russia—and 54 p.c. spoke one of the Slavic ianguages, the great majority Russian. Thus, while the majority of those classed as of Russian origin were Slavs, there was a considerable admixture of Teutonic stock. Of the Austrians, some 41 p.c. spoke German as mother tongue, and 53 p.c. one of the Slavic languages, nearly one-half of the latter speaking Bukovinian, Galician, Ruthenian or Ukrainian. Such a group is clearly mot a biological init. The term “ Austrian” in the “origin” tables merely designates a group of immigrant seople, most of whom are Slavs, and whose homes before coming to Canada in the pre-war days had been for many generations within common political boundaries and who had therefore the common traits begotten of a similar cultural and economic environment. .

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