DATE OF IMMIGRATION OF IMMIGRANTS IN PENITENTIARIES 199 
Date of Immigration of Immigrant Penitentiary Population—Before concluding 
this chapter there is a further question which is of general interest. How soon after 
their arrival in this country do the immigrant offenders get into trouble? The answer 
is suggested in Table 125, which distributes the total male immigrant penitentiary, 
population by date of arrival in Canada, and also gives separate figures for countries 
of birth showing the greatest numbers in penitentiaries. The proportion of all immigrants 
in penitentiaries is greatest for the group which came between 1915 and 1918. The same 
applies to the European males and to each of the European countries from which large 
numbers of our criminals have come. The rate was smaller for those who arrived after 
1918, and it decreased with length of residence prior to 1915. What then is the inference? 
One is first reminded that the census of penitentiaries in 1921 does not give the date of 
admission but rather records the actual number in penitentiaries at that time. If we 
assume that on the average the foreign born inmates of penitentiaries had already served 
one and a half years of their sentences at the date of the Census, and further that those who 
were reported as coming between 1915 and 1918, had, on the average, been in the country 
four and a half years prior to 1921, it would appear that the most common length of 
residence prior to committing an offence sufficiently serious to merit a penitentiary sentence, 
was about three years. 
The reason for this is a matter of conjecture, but the suggestion is offered that the new 
arrivals, finding themselves in a strange country with a strange language and strange ways, 
require two or three years to adjust themselves to the new environment before falling 
into the error of mistaking liberty for license. That this seems reasonable is confirmed 
by the figure for the United States immigrants, which differs from that of all other foreign 
countries. The largest proportion of immigrants from that country commit offences almost 
immediately on arriving here. The majority of them are of British stock, and have been 
reared on this continent under conditions very similar to those existing in Canada. A period 
of adjustment is consequently not necessary. They are not strangers in a foreign country, 
like the European and especially the Asiatic immigrants, and if they have criminal tendencies 
they are not deterred from giving expression to them on account of unfamiliarity with the 
language and ways of the country. 
It also seems probable that more criminals come from the United States for the express 
purpose of committing crime than from other foreign countries; Canada appears to be 
somewhat off the beat of the international criminal from other foreign parts. 
FABLE 125.—DISTRIBUTION OF THE IMMIGRANT MALE POPULATION OF PENITENTIARIES, BY 
BIRTHPLACE AND YEAR OF ARRIVAL. CENSUS OF 1921. 
Birthplace 
Total...... -. 
British born........ 
Foreign born........ 
Zuropean born...... 
Austria............. 
aly. coven. 
Zoland.............. 
Qoumania. ......... 
Basil, cove cunvnvna 
Asiatic born........ 
United States born. 
Immigrant male population in Canada 
by date of arrival 
| Rate per 100,000 immigrant male population 
in penitentiaries by date of arrival 
Jan. 
919 tol 1915. | 1911- | 1901- [ Before | 
Juss 18 14 10 1901 Totals 
Jan. 
1919 to | 1915- | 1911-' 1901- 
June 18 14 10 
1621 
Before 
1001 | Totals 
03,086 
59, 563 
43,526 
15,154 
438 
© 965] 
171 
346 
694 
5,210 
24.957 
58,590 
17,400, 
11,195 
8,799 
355 
104 
283, 68 
145,598 
38,084 
93,452 
0 599 
Qa 
138, 631 
125,900, 
212,731 
21,068 
'¢,888 
=1 
=g 
ee! 
187,04. 
110,845 
77,007 
12,620 
= 457 
161 
483 
644 
“ap 1,629 
5 i 7.970 
7% 594) 26.241 
1,188,565." ce lea il. 
567,072 24] 118 7 54 
519,470 1790 194] L8 105 
273,892 921 409] 210 117 
34,034) 1,142} 1,408; 330] 225 
24,219 49) 815] 370) 400 
16,864 0 56] 230, 156 3 i 
13,228 289) 483) 388; 121 1 sae 
56,967) 1181 667] 193 801 42 1° 
47,211 0) 19 60 65 38 ; 
196. 427, 256] 155 83 94 114 
ri 
9 
177 
zy 
a 
4. 
5,204 
27.041 
Et...