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<aside> ℹ️ In Canada, Multiculturalism refers not only to sets of policies codified into law, but also to the presence of people from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds as the reality of Canadian demographics and society. Ideologically, multiculturalism aims for the celebration of Canada's cultural diversity. Canada's history of settlement and colonization has resulted in a multicultural society made up of three founding peoples – Indigenous, French, and British – and over its history, many other racial and ethnic groups have made their mark and enriched the country.
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French and British colonizers began arriving in the early 1600s, and for long constituted a minority on Canadian soil. However, by the time of Confederation, Canada's demographics had changed dramatically:
Canada's early years in nation-building are culturally dominated by British Canadians, especially through the institutions that are set up at the political and legislative level. For more information on this, read ‣. The large French minority drove the need for compromise and led Canada on the path to bilingualism and greater accommodation. For much of this time, immigration into Canada was heavily restricted to British emigrants, to preserve their cultural and political homogeny. However, the higher birth rates among Catholic Francophones and low rates of immigration (as a result of these restrictions) would keep the balance between anglophones and francophones relatively stable.
<aside> 🌍 'An unexpected by-product of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism , multiculturalism was intended as a policy solution to manage both rising francophone nationalism'
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(Canadian Encyclopedia)
At the turn of the 20th century, immigrants from other European countries were allowed entry into Canada. The proportion of the population born outside the country dropped during the Great Depression and the Second World War, but has been rising since the early 1950s. The sources of immigration have also shifted to locations such as Asia, the Caribbean, and South and Central America.
Back in 1991, 11% of all Canadian citizens were first-generation Canadians born outside the country. Fas-forward to 2016, and this figure has increased to 17%. Focusing on individuals that classify as 'first generation' as a rough indicator of the plurality of origins in Canadian society reveals that ethnic and racial diversity is not uniformly distributed from coast to coast. Rural areas, small towns, Atlantic Canada and the province of Quebec are home to fewer foreign-born than the rest of the country. In rural Quebec, this shift is dramatic. Nearly 95% of the population was born in Canada, and so were their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. By contrast, approximately 90% of the foreign-born are today living in Canada’s fifteen largest urban centres, especially Toronto and Vancouver. For instance, in Vancouver, approximately 30 percent of all residents are foreign-born, and in Toronto, 38% – over one million residents – were born outside of the country.
<aside> 🌍 This increased diversity is evident from the data from the 2016 Census carried out by Statistics Canada, in which more than 250 different ethnic origins or ancestries were reported. The most common reported ancestries were Canadian, English, Scottish, French and Irish, followed by German, Chinese, Italian, First Nations, Indian (from India), Ukrainian, Dutch and Polish. The census data also found that 21.9% of the population was born outside Canada – the highest proportion since the 1921 Census. In 2016, the largest number of immigrants was from Asia, representing 48.1% of the population born abroad.
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(Library of Parliament)
Skyline of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, with the CN Tower lit in red.
Largely as a consequence of immigration, Toronto has become a city of ethnic and racial minorities. Those born outside Canada and their children constitute a majority of the population. Over ninety different languages are commonly spoken in the city today. Tens of thousands of the children entering public schools each year do not speak English as a mother tongue.