Being an immigrant myself and looking forward to the reopening of the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 (on March 2022), I find it interesting to know more about the history and life of other people just like me, that for a variety of reasons, during the past few centuries searched for another land to call it their Home.
Immigration, the international movement of people from their native regions into other countries to live, is a fundamental aspect of the human history.
Due to lack of access to resources, the desire for economical prosperity, to better the standard of living, climate or the environmentally induced migration, escape from prejudice, conflict or natural disaster, people have always sought of changing and improving their quality of life.
According to Wikipedia, as of 2015, the number of international migrants reached 244 million worldwide, which reflects a 41% increase since 2000. One third of the world's international migrants are living in just twenty countries, with the largest number living in the U.S.A - 19% of the world's total.
Nearly half of all international migrants originate in Asia (43%), followed by Europe (25%) and Latin America (15%). India has the largest diaspora in the world (16 million people), followed by Mexico (12 million) and Russia (11 million).
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Coming to America:
Thousands of years before the Europeans started crossing the Atlantic Ocean by ship and chose to settle, the first immigrants arrived in North America and the land that later became the United States: the Native American ancestors. They crossed a narrow spit of land connecting Asia to North America some 20,000 years ago, during the last Ice Age.
By 15th century and the beginning of the 16th, the Europeans, firstly led by the Spanish and French, had already begun establishing settlements: the Spanish in Florida, the British in New England and Virginia, the Dutch in New York, and the Swedes in Delaware. In 1607, the English founded their first permanent settlement in present-day Jamestown, in the Virginia Colony.
Later, in 1620, a group of about 100 people, known as the Pilgrims, fled religious persecution in Europe and arrived at present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, where they established a colony. They were soon followed by the Puritans, establishing the Massachusetts Bay Colony. By some estimates, 20,000 Puritans migrated to the region between 1630 and 1640.
Also, due to the high price of the journey itself to America, an estimated half of the white Europeans who made the voyage, became indentured servants. Some voluntarily indentured themselves, while others were kidnapped in European cities and forced into servitude. Additionally, thousands of English convicts were shipped across the Atlantic as servants.
Another group of immigrants who arrived against their will during the colonial period were the enslaved people from West Africa. The earliest records of slavery in America include a group of 20 Africans who were forced into servitude in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619.
By 1680, there were about 7,000 Africans in the American colonies, a number that, according to some estimates, grew to 700,000 by 1790.
It is believed that 500,000 to 650,000 Africans were brought to America and sold into slavery between the 17th and 19th centuries, but their real count can be higher.
In January 1776 Thomas Paine writes in its “Common Sense” pamphlet: “Europe, and not England, is the parent country of America. This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe”.
But later, according to the 1790’s first U.S. census, the English are being known as the largest ethnic group among the 3.9 million people counted, nearly one in five Americans being of African heritage.
Between 1820 and 1860, the Catholic Irish were estimated as one-third of all immigrants to the United States, while the Germans were counted as five million, many of them buying farms or settle in cities including Milwaukee, St. Louis and Cincinnati.
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As America began a rapid period of industrialization and urbanization, between 1880 and 1920, more than twenty million immigrants arrived, including four million Italians and two million Jews.
Starting with 1850s, Chinese workers were counted as American immigrants; they worked in the gold mines, garment factories, built railroads, and did agriculture.
Also it’s worth mentioning that between 1892 and 1954, more than twelve million immigrants entered the United States through Ellis Island.
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Canada:
Canada is known as the “land of immigrants”.
When Canada became a country in 1867, even its first Prime Minister, Sir John Alexander Macdonald was an immigrant, being born in Scotland in 1815 and came to Upper Canada as a child.
Although responsible for bringing about Confederation and building a rail line across Canada, in this present era of truth and reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, Sir John Alexander Macdonald’s image has become a symbol of oppression to some, a controversial figure in our modern times.
Sadly, before Canada became known as very open and welcoming to immigrants and refugees, the country had restrictive immigration policies, especially during the Second World War, when around 23,000 Canadians of Japanese descent were rounded up and imprisoned.
Also, in 1939, it turned away 930 Jewish refugees on board St. Louis, and because of this, the ship was forced to return to Europe. Consequently, many died killed by the Nazis.
Firstly, the French settlement were in Quebec and Acadia. A fewer number of American and European entrepreneurs, and British military personnel came from Mid-Atlantic states as well.
There were initially forty-six people and ended up to be 50,000 who flew from the American revolution. All of them were British loyalists that immigrated to today’s southern Ontario, the eastern townships of Quebec. 36,000 went to the Maritimes provinces, among them some of returned to Ontario.
Then, between the late 1780s to 1812, other Americans arrived in Ontario. During this period, some of the Gaelic-speaking Scottish migrated to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and Eastern Ontario.
The second wave of immigration is considered after the war of 1812, when British and Irish immigrants inspired to come to Canada, including the British Army regulars. 250,000 (80%) English speakers, most of them were Americans or their ancestors migrated to Canada in 1815.
During this time, the number of Irish immigrants was growing, with the highest value being during the Irish Potato Famine, from 1846 to 1849. More than 800,000 immigrated between 1815 to 1850. 60% were British (English and Scottish); the rest of them were mainly Irish.
“The Great Migration” increased the population of Canada from 500,000 in 1812 to 2.5 million by 1851.
Most of them spoke in English and the people who spoke French were approximately 300,000 in 1812 and it became 700,000 by 1851.
Later, during World War I, over 400,000 immigrants came to Canada in 1912 from continental Europe, Eastern Europe, and Southern Europe.
Another wave of immigrants reached Canada from Europe after World War II. In 1957, the number was 282,000, migrating from Italy and Portugal.
Pier Halifax, Nova Scotia, played an important role in European immigration. Pier 21 accepted 471,940 Italians in 1928, and by the time its operations got canceled in 1971, it already had made Italian the 3rd biggest group in Canada.
Today, the Halifax pier represents the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, hosting thousands of books, films and archival images about Canada’s immigration history. It is also a National Historic Site.
Recent Times:
Since 1970s, a smaller number of immigrants has been migrating to Canada from developing countries, even though Immigration continues to play a central role in Canada’s growth.
Based on IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada) data, the proportion of foreign-born Canadians was 19.8% of the total population in 2006, this figure being expected to constantly grow.
Today, most immigrants come from China, the Philippines and India, this being reflected in the country’s top immigrant home languages – Tagalog (Filipino), Chinese, and Punjabi.
According to Statistics Canada, more than two hundred languages were reported in the 2011 census as the mother tongue.
Also, Canada's population rose to 37 million people in 2021, up 5.2% from 2016, driven mostly by immigration, according to official data released in February 2022, with the downtowns and distant suburbs of large cities seeing the strongest growth.
Therefore, Canada added 1.8 million people between 2016 and 2021, with nearly 80% of those new residents arriving from elsewhere in the world, retaining its position as the fastest growing G7 country (Canada, the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Japan), Statistics Canada said in its Census 2021 release.
According to canada.ca, to support Canada’s post-pandemic recovery and chart a more prosperous future, the Government of Canada set a target of welcoming new permanent residents, as part of the 2021–2023 Immigration Levels Plan.
The Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, announced in December 2021 that Canada has reached its target and welcomed more than 401,000 new permanent residents in 2021. Surpassing the previous record from 1913, this is the most newcomers in a year in Canadian history.