Origin, birthplace, nationality and language of the Canadian people

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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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Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter XII. Relation of origins to fertility, infant mortality, blindness and deaf mutism

Collection:: Economics Books

216 RELATION OF ORIGIN TO FERTILITY AND INFANT MORTALITY The sbove equation is a generalized statement based on the experience of eighteen origin groups in Canada and contains information of general scientific interest as well as of special consequence to the Dominion. First, stocks showing a preference for rural life normally have higher birth rates than the more urban. Rural residence per se is probably more favourable to fertility. The existence of such a causal connection could be demonstrated by comparing the birth rates of the rural and urban sections of each stock. It is of minor importance, however, from the point of view of this study, whether high fertility is the result of rural environment or of biological and social characteristics associated with rural preferences. The essential fact is that rural peoples have high fertility. Second, illiteracy and high fertility go together. The larger the percentages of an origin group unable to read or write any language, the higher is the birth rate. In the report on illiteracy to which Teference was made in Chapter IX, it is shown that high illiteracy and low educational status among the literate of the same origin go hand in hand. The percentage of illiterates, then, reflects in a very adequate manner the educational standard of the group. In view of this fact, the high positive correlation between fertility and illiteracy 1s exceedingly significant. Third, the positive relation appearing between birth rate and the percentage North American born suggests that the birth rate of immigrant peoples normally goes up rather than down in the second and in some cases possibly in the third generation of Canadian residence. The word “normally” is intended to imply that the statement is applicable to most immigrant stocks. The generalization is’ applied . explicitly to immigrant stocks, because sixteen out of the eighteen groups examined were of foreign origin. The pre- sumed tendency towards higher birth rates is associated with the second generation because she percentage of most non-British and non-French stocks resident in Western Canada for three or more generations is very small. The presumption in favour of this interpretation 's strengthened by the fact that when the analysis is pursued further by the method of partial and multiple correlation it becomes clear that the use of the proportion North American born (21 and over) as an index of length of residence is not vitiated by a transient abnormality in sex distribution. An impetus to the birth rate following immigration to a new country is not without historical precedent. It is reasonable to suppose that ‘Canada is more favourable to large families than are the countries of Europe from which many of our immigrants come. Thd pressure of population on natural resources is certainly not so great; indeed, in rural dis- tricts the child is an asset. This is especially so in a growing country where agricultural labour is both scarce and expensive. A stimulus to the birth rate would also occur wherever ‘he rise in the standard of living failed to keep pace with increased earnings. Many other contributory causes could be suggested, but whatever the explanation or explanations may be, the correlation at least draws attention to the cumulative effect on our population structure of the introduction of large bodies of immigrant agriculturists. While the association of higher birth rates with larger proportions North American corn (after allowances are made for illiteracy and rural and urban residence), seems to warrant the aforesaid influences, one should not overlook the possibility of the percentage of adults of North American birth reflecting more than length of residence. The explana- tions in the last two paragraphs, therefore, should be regarded as tentative until such time as more detailed classification of both vital statistics and census data makes direct verifica- ion possible. When the standard deviations of X, X3 and X4 are related to the regression equation, another important fact is revealed. Illiteracy is more than twice as important in the squation in accounting for a high fertility as either rural domicile or length of residence in Canada. Illiteracy and low educational standards probably cause high fertility. That she causal connection works in that direction is not proven by our data. It has been demonstrated, however, that origin groups that tolerate low educational standards have high birth rates and that the two are clearly associated characteristics peculiar to certain stocks in Canada.l T1See also Illiteracy and School Attendance in Canada, page 129,

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