Immigration, diversity and Chinese Canadian history

Canada is often called a land of immigrants. The citizenship test asks which groups came, when and why they came, how some of them were treated unfairly, and which values hold a diverse country together. This guide follows that story from the Loyalists to today. It includes a full section on Chinese Canadians and ends with the dates people mix up most.

Many of these events are also on our key dates timeline. For the chapter itself, read the Who We Are primer.

The founding peoples and the first settlers

Discover Canada describes three founding peoples: Aboriginal, French and British. The ancestors of Aboriginal peoples are believed to have come from Asia many thousands of years ago, long before any European explorer arrived.

• French colonists began settling in today’s Maritime provinces in 1604. Their descendants are the Acadians.
• Most Quebecers descend from about 8,500 French settlers who came in the 1600s and 1700s.
• From the 1600s into the 20th century, English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish settlers, soldiers and migrants shaped life in English-speaking Canada.

One fact surprises many learners: even though Canada is called a land of immigrants, most Canadians have been born in Canada since the 1800s. The name comes from the role newcomers have played in building the country, generation after generation.

The Loyalists, including Black Loyalists

When the American colonies declared independence in 1776, many people who wanted to stay loyal to the Crown moved north to British North America. More than 40,000 of these United Empire Loyalists came, mainly to Nova Scotia and Quebec. About 3,000 of them were Black Loyalists, both free people and slaves. Joseph Brant led thousands of Loyalist Mohawks into Canada. Upper Canada, created in 1791 and later called Ontario, was mostly Loyalist, Protestant and English-speaking.

Ending slavery and the Underground Railroad

• 1793: Upper Canada, under Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe, became the first province in the British Empire to move toward abolishing slavery.
• 1807 and 1833: Britain banned the buying and selling of slaves in 1807 and abolished slavery across the whole Empire in 1833.
• The Underground Railroad was not a real railway. It was a secret network of people and safe places that helped slaves escape from the United States to freedom in Canada.
• Mary Ann Shadd Cary, an anti-slavery activist, became the first woman publisher in Canada in 1853, with a weekly newspaper called The Provincial Freeman.
• William Hall of Nova Scotia, whose parents had been slaves in the United States, became the first Black person to receive the Victoria Cross, in 1857.

Chinese Canadians: the railway and the head tax

British Columbia joined Canada in 1871 after the federal government promised to build a railway to the West Coast. The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) was built by European and Chinese workers. In 1885 the “last spike” was driven, and the railway crossed the country. It helped unite Canada and opened the West to settlement.

After the railway was finished, Chinese immigrants were made to pay a head tax, a fee to enter Canada that was charged because of their race. It was a clear case of discrimination. In 2006 the Government of Canada apologized for the head tax.

Other facts that matter for Chinese-speaking learners:

• Canadians of Asian descent were not allowed to vote for a long time. Japanese Canadians were the last Asian Canadians to win the vote, in 1948.
• In 1941, Canadian soldiers fought to defend Hong Kong against Japan and suffered heavy losses. See Canada at war.
• Since the 1970s, most immigrants to Canada have come from Asian countries.

Questions on this topic usually ask who helped build the CPR (European and Chinese workers), what Chinese immigrants had to pay (a head tax), or when the government apologized (2006). Learn the English words “head tax”, “discriminatory” and “last spike”.

Settling the West

The railway opened the Prairies to farmers. Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the first French-Canadian Prime Minister after Confederation, encouraged immigration to settle the West, and many newcomers made their homes on the Prairies. As settlers filled the land, Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Manitoba is still an important centre of Ukrainian culture.

During the First World War, from 1914 to 1920, more than 8,000 former subjects of Austria-Hungary, most of them Ukrainian men, were held in labour camps as “enemy aliens”.

The Depression, the Second World War and Japanese Canadians

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, immigration fell and many refugees were turned away. In 1939 this included Jewish refugees who were trying to escape Nazi Germany.

In the Second World War, because of the war and public opinion in British Columbia, Japanese Canadians were forced to leave their homes, and their property was sold without compensation. In 1988 the federal government apologized to Japanese Canadians and compensated the victims.

After 1945: refugees and a more diverse Canada

• In 1956, Canada took in about 37,000 Hungarians who fled Soviet rule.
• After the Communist victory in Vietnam in 1975, more than 50,000 Vietnamese refugees found safety in Canada.
• By the 1960s, about one-third of Canadians had origins that were neither British nor French.
• Gerhard Herzberg, who came to Canada as a refugee from Nazi Germany, later won the Nobel Prize.
• Governments have long worked with faith communities on schools, health care, social welfare and the resettlement of refugees.
• Today immigration is a responsibility that the federal and provincial governments share.

The Modern Canada primer covers these years in more detail, and the Canada’s History primer covers the earlier ones.

Multiculturalism and shared values

The Charter of Rights and Freedoms treats multiculturalism as a basic part of Canada’s heritage and identity. Canadians try to respect pluralism and live in harmony. Newcomers do not have to give up their culture. John Buchan, Lord Tweedsmuir, Governor General from 1935 to 1940, put the idea this way: each group can keep its own identity and still share a common loyalty to Canada.

Diversity also has clear limits. Newcomers are expected to accept democratic values such as the rule of law. Women and men are equal under the law. Spousal abuse, “honour killings”, forced marriage and other gender-based violence are serious crimes. Conflicts and hatreds from other countries have no place in Canada.

Diversity today: languages and religions

• Languages. English and French are the two official languages, and federal services are offered in both. New Brunswick is the only officially bilingual province. Aboriginal languages such as Cree and Inuktitut are important, but they are not national official languages. Many Canadians also speak other languages at home, but the citizenship test is offered only in English or French.
• Religions. Most Canadians are Christians, and Catholics are the largest religious group. The numbers of Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs and people of other faiths are growing, and many people have no religion. Freedom of conscience and religion belongs to everyone.
• Equal treatment. Gay and lesbian Canadians are fully protected and treated equally under the law, including the right to civil marriage.

The test does not ask for current population numbers. If you are curious about them, Statistics Canada publishes the latest census results.

Common mix-ups: three apologies and more

• Head tax vs relocation. The head tax was charged to Chinese immigrants. Forced relocation happened to Japanese Canadians. A question that mixes the two is false.
• Two events in 2006. The head tax apology, and the House of Commons recognizing that Quebecers form a nation within a united Canada.
• First World War vs Second World War. Ukrainian “enemy aliens” were held in the First World War. Japanese Canadians were relocated in the Second.
• 1948 vs 1960. Japanese Canadians won the vote in 1948. Aboriginal people won it in 1960.
• 40,000 vs 3,000. More than 40,000 Loyalists came north; about 3,000 of them were Black Loyalists.
• 1793 vs 1833. Upper Canada moved against slavery in 1793. Slavery ended across the British Empire in 1833.
• Two “railways”. The CPR was a real railway, built partly by Chinese workers. The Underground Railroad was an escape network, not a railway.
• 1956 vs 1975. About 37,000 Hungarians in 1956; more than 50,000 Vietnamese after 1975.
• Europe, then Asia. Earlier waves of immigrants came mostly from Europe. Since the 1970s, most have come from Asia.
• Largest religion. Catholics, not Protestants, are the largest religious group.

Now practise with the starter questions in the Who We Are chapter, then try the Canada’s History chapter.