URBAN RESIDENTS AMONG THE FOREIGN BORN IN THE PROVINCES 109 
as a whole. The provinces may be arranged in order of the percentages of foreign born 
living in urban districts as below: — 
P.c. of total 
“oreign born 
resident 
in urban 
ommunities 
84-70 
72-09 
53-56 
3-88 
12-64 
12 1a 
ar of 
Province 
Rank 
Quebec. . 
Ontario........... 
Nova Scotian. .......c... oon un Ce. 
British Columbia.............. pes ge wr —_— 
New Brunswick. ..........coooiiiiiiinan. | JAA 3 VA gh GRA CREA Ph 
Manitoba......... + wr Sh 6 BHRAT 8 8 Sty LH Bh 2 SH ES 5 
ALDOrta. cries wwe 
Prince Edward Island. ........cooviniiniiinannnn.. 
Saskatchewan........ 
A comparison of the above table with that for the population as a whole will reveal 
the fact that the relative positions of the various provinces are somewhat changed. Quebec, 
Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island have moved up and Ontario, 
British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba have moved down. These changes 
may probably be partially explained in the light of the discussion in Chapter IV, which 
emphasized the different population structures of the various provinces, and also by 
occupational differences between the Canadian and foreign born sections of the populations. 
For example, it was shown that in New Brunswick nearly 80 p.c. of the foreign born were 
from the United States, These were largely immigrants of French origin who took up other 
than agricultural occupations. This fact probably accounts for the change in New Bruns- 
wick’s position. As opposed to New Brunswick the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan 
moved down. It is recalled that in these provinces there was a much larger percentage of 
immigrants from Scandinavian countries than in any other province in Canada. As a group 
the Scandinavians are the least urban and in Alberta and Saskatchewan they are almost 
exclusively engaged in agricultural occupations. These two examples are given merely to 
suggest the method of approaching the study of this phenomenon. 
Attention is called also to the magnitude of the differences between the percentages 
urban for the foreign born and for the total population in the various provinces. Were the 
foreign born contrasted with the Canadian born the differences would be greater than 
appear above. However, in certain cases the spread shown in the tables is quite significant. 
Quebec leads, with the foreign born showing a 28 p.c. higher figure in urban districts than 
that for the population as a whole. Immigrants going to the province of Quebec obviously 
concentrate to a very marked degree in the cities and towns. The spread for that province 
is twice as great as for Ontario, which shows a difference of 14 p.c. between the percentage 
of the foreign born who reside in urban districts and the percentage of the total population 
urban. The number of immigrants in Prince Edward Island is so small that the difference 
of 3 p.c. for that province is not representative. In the other Maritime Provinces the 
spread is much greater, in Nova Scotia a 20 p.c. larger proportion of the foreign born being 
urban and in New Brunswick a difference of over 10 p.c. occurring. With the exception of 
Alberta, the contrast between the behaviour of the total population and the foreign born in 
the West is not nearly so marked as in the eastern provinces. The figures for Saskatchewan 
show the widest variation, namely, 8 p.c., which is lower than the spread for any of the 
eastern provinces except Prince Edward Island. 
One must not immediately conclude, however, that the difference in the percentages 
urban for the foreign born and for the population as a whole, is a direct index of differences 
between the foreign born and the native born. Separate figures are not available for the 
native or Canadian born, and consequently the percentages for the total population include 
not only the Candaian born but also the foreign and the British born. In the West, the 
percentage of foreign birth in the population is much greater than in the East, so that the 
figure giving the proportion urban for the total population in the Prairie Provinces is 
reduced considerably by the large proportion of foreign born within the borders of those 
provinces. In the East, on the other hand, with much smaller percentages foreign born, the 
proportions living in urban districts, as given for the total populations in the various prov- 
inces. would not be so radicallv different from the percentages for the Canadian born alone,