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:: Chapter II. Distribution of various stocks and of foreign born according to length of residence

Collection:: Economics Books

30 DISTRIBUTION OF STOCKS BY LENGTH OF RESIDENCE by 1,129, but this amounted only to 42:77 p.c. of the natives of Greece resident in Canada in 1911. When people from a given country commence coming to Canada on a considerable scale the percentage increases of the foreign born are usually high merely because of the small number of those who had previously come, which number is used as a base for com- outing the proportionate increase. Though not so determining a factor, the death rate is usually lower for the “newer” ‘mmigration than for the “old.” On the whole, the age distribution of the former is more favourable to low mortality. Few of the young men and women immigrating to Canada in the prime of life have had time to grow old in the case of the stocks who have come to Canada in recent years in large numbers. While differences due to this cause may be of comparatively minor importance in comparison with the other factors mentioned above, that such differences do exist must be pointed out if attention is to be drawn to all aspects of the problem. Thus considerable care should be taken in using and interpreting the data given in these tables. To analyze them in detail is beyond the scope of this report. A few comments may be offered. First, as is brought out clearly in Table 24 (p. 62), there was an actual decline in the number of foreign born from the north of Europe and notably from Germanic countries during the past decade. Neither the comparative cessation of immigration during the war nor the rather high death rate among the German born because of their longer residence in this country, are adequate to account for this phenomenon. With the Germans, one deter- mining factor is undoubtedly emigration. According to the census there were 14,311 fewer native born Germans in Canada in 1921 than in 1911, in spite of the fact that just over 20,000 new immigrants of German nationality arrived during the decade. High emigration just before and early in the war probably accounts for a very considerable percentage of the decrease. To emigration and death there must be added, in explaining so large a discrepancy, the fact that there is certain evidence to substantiate the statement that in 1921 wrong birth places were reported in many cases. After the war many of the German born claimed to be of Dutch or Swiss birth. How far this was the case cannot be stated without further research, but it was undoubtedly a contributory factor in explaining the phenomenal decline in the numbers of foreign born Germans recorded in the census. In the last decade there were among the Northern Europeans two other cases of actual decline in numbers born in the Mother Country and demiciled in Canada, viz. the Ice- landers and the Swedes. It is difficult to determine without further investigation the relative importance of the various forces responsible for those decreases. However, the combined effect of decreases in the three cases mentioned, viz, the Germans, Icelanders and Swedes, was to make a slight reduction in the numbers of North Western European birth resident in Canada in 1921 as against the numbers here in 1911. In this decade a net decline of 1.39 p.c. appears in the figures for North Western Eurove, as contrasted with an increase of 131.31 p.c. in the previous ten years. The figures for the South, Central and Eastern sections of Europe show an actual increase, though a relative decline, as against the previous decade. The high rate of growth of the Czechoslovaks is worthy of note, also the absolute decrease of 14.77 pe. and 20.22 pc. for the Austrians and Hungarians, respectively. The Austrians and Hungarians, like the Germans, were enemy peoples during the war, and what was said of the Germans probably applies to them with similar force. Immigration from Greece commenced very energetically in the decade 1901-1911, and while the percentage increase dropped greatly in the second decade, it was still high as compared with the average rate of increase of the other stocks in the South, Central and Eastern groups. Turning to the linguistic groups, among the Scandinavians the increase in the numbers born in Norway and Sweden was very marked in the first ten years of the century, and the Danes also came in relatively large numbers. On the other hand, the increase in the percentage of Icelanders born overseas in the first decade of the century was not only the lowest among the Scandinavians but was less than that of any stock from any other part of the world. For that decade it was less than half as great as the increase of German born, which was the next lowest. Between 1911 and 1921, as has been pointed out, there was an actual decrease in the number born in Iceland who were resident in Canada.

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