A snapshot of Canada's ever-broadening cultural mosaic was provided in a Statistics Canada report released Wednesday, showing that each wave of immigration to the country has increased the diversity of the population.
In an analysis of data from the 2006 census on ethnic origin and visible minorities, the agency reported that Canada now has more than 200 different ethnic origins.
In the 1901 census, only about 25 different ethnic groups were recorded in Canada. At that time, people who reported Aboriginal ancestries and those of British and French origins made up the largest share of the population.
A century later the list of ethnic ancestries includes Aboriginal peoples — North American Indian, Métis and Inuit — and the European groups that first settled in Canada, such as the English, French, Scottish and Irish.
It also includes origins reflecting immigrants who came to Canada over the past century, including German, Italian, Chinese, Ukrainian, Dutch, Polish and East Indian.
Just over 10 million people, over a third of the population, declared themselves Canadian, either alone (5.7 million) or with other origins (4.3 million), down slightly from the last census.
Doug Norris, senior vice president and chief demographer with Environics Analytics, says the number of people who consider themselves Canadian has been increasing with each new census, with a dramatic increase in the last decade.
"After your family's been here for many years, and you've intermarried so many times, if you go through all your origins you may have eight or nine. So at some point you say, 'I'm just Canadian now,'" says Norris.
After Canadian, the other most frequently reported origins were English, French, Scottish, Irish, German, Italian, Chinese, North American Indian, Ukrainian and Dutch.
These ancestries were either reported alone or in combination with other origins, reflecting the increasing diversity of Canada's population. The Stats Can analysts said that the concept of ethnicity, being fluid, is complex and difficult to measure.
"Respondents' understanding or views about their ethnicity, awareness of their family background, number of generations in Canada, the length of time since immigration, and the social context at the time of the census can all affect the reporting of ethnicity from one census to another."
Randall Hansen, Canada research chair in immigration and governance at the University of Toronto, says if Canadians themselves had a stronger sense of identity, more immigrants would identify as being Canadian.
"There's lots of anecdotal and harder evidence of a problem with the assumption of Canadian identity and with a sense of belonging among immigrant communities. Frankly this is partly our fault — we don't have a sense of what it is ourselves, or at least we've never cared to articulate a sense of what Canadian identity is."
However, public attitudes toward immigration remain positive, says Hansen. Canada is currently taking in one per cent of the population in immigrants each year making it, along with Australia, the biggest multicultural centre in the world.
* More than 200 different ethnic origins were reported in the 2006 Census, contrasting with 25 in the 1901 Census.
* One in six Canadians is a visible minority.
* Just over 10 million people reported Canadian as their ethnic ancestry.
* By 2006, 11 ethnic origins had passed the 1-million population mark.
* South Asians became Canada's largest visible minority group in 2006, surpassing Chinese for the first time.
* By 2006, 11 ethnic origins had passed the 1-million population mark.
* Newer groups reported in 2006 were Montserratan from the Caribbean and Chadian, Gabonese, Gambian and Zambian from Africa.
* The number of interracial marriages and unions rose by a third between 2001 and 2006.
— Statistics Canada
By 2006, 11 ethnic origins had passed the 1-million population mark. Among newer groups reported in the census were Montserratan from the Caribbean and Chadian, Gabonese, Gambian and Zambian from Africa.
Visible minorities
For the first time in 2006, Canada's visible minority topped the five-million mark. One in six Canadians is now a visible minority, with South Asians surpassing Chinese as the largest visible minority group. The populations of both were well over a million.
An estimated 1,262,900 individuals identified themselves as South Asian, up from 917,100 individuals in 2001, a growth rate of 37.7 per cent. They represented one-quarter of all visible minorities, or 4.0 per cent of the total population in Canada.
The number of individuals who identified themselves as Chinese increased from 1,029,400 in 2001 to 1,216,600 in 2006, accounting for 24.0 per cent of the visible minority population and 3.9 per cent of the total Canadian population.
Maisie Lo, director of immigrant services at Woodgreen Community Services in Toronto, says 50-60 per cent of Woodgreen's clientele is from China, with the second largest group being South Asian.
In operation for 70 years, Woodgreen offers a wide range of services to support newcomers and help them get settled in their new country, including job search support, work programs, language classes, counseling and classes on Canadian culture.
"Very closely related to language is culture and how they can integrate into Canadian culture in general," says Lo. "Also how they can integrate into the workplace culture and into culture that is specific to their professions. So culture to them is a huge thing."
Stats Can found that those identifying themselves as black, Canada's third largest visible minority group, rose from 662,200 individuals in 2001 to an estimated 783,800. They accounted for 15.5 per cent of the visible minority population and 2.5 per cent of the total population in 2006.
Other visible minority groups included Filipinos, who represented 8.1 per cent of the visible minority population, Latin Americans (6.0 per cent), Arabs (5.2 per cent), Southeast Asians (4.7 per cent), West Asians (3.1 per cent), Koreans (2.8 per cent) and Japanese (1.6 per cent).
Lo says most of the newcomers using Woodgreen's services are young professionals ranging in age from 25-45, typically married with one child.
This exactly describes Frank Liu, 36, who emigrated from China to Vancouver almost a year ago with his wife and six-year old daughter. After completing a training course on how to find employment and attend an interview, he got a job right away as a software developer.
Liu says he chose Canada because it has three qualities that appealed to him.
"The first is that Canada is a free country, its people live freely and the government cares about its people; second is that Canada has a very nice natural environment in which we can live a better life; third is children growing up in Canada can have a better childhood and do not need to be burdened so much about test results.
"I think Canada is a very good country."
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