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Although I have been lurking around these forums for quite some time now I haev just decided to sign up and join the conversations I am quite a number geek, and have keen interest in a number of topics that are often discussed here. Geography, culture, cities, architecture... etc.
Anyway I thought I'd share my thought on one of the topics that I have always been interested in, the diveresity in "traditional immigrant countries" such as the United States, Canada and Australia and are there any differences between immigrantion and cultural history. Do they have specific ties to certain European countries that generate greater interests? Questions like these have driven me to do some simple research of my own. I have put together statistics from US Census Bureau, Statistics Canada and Australian Bureau of Statistics trying to compile their data on reported ancestry/ethnicity.
In Australia for example, Malta and Macedonia are the only two European countries that sent more immigrants to the country than either USA and Canada, based on their 2006 census statistics. Australia also has sizable Serbians, Greek, Crotian, and English relative to its overall population (in that order). People from the British Isles still dominates the overall European population in Australia, with Italians, Germans being the next major ancestry groups.
In Canada, the only two countries that sent more immigrants to the country are Iceland and Ukraine. Scotland, Estonia and France is not far behind. The country has sizable Belgium, Romanian, Autraian, Dutch, Finnish, Swiss, Danish communities relative to its overall population. People of French and British/Irish ancestries comprises the majority of the population, but we start to see sizable communities of people of Dutch, German, Scandinavian and Ukrainian ancestry.
The majority of the Europe emigrants, of course, choose the United States. With the exception of the formentioned Malta, Macedonia, Iceland and Ukraine, the country has recieved the majority share of the emigrants from other European countries. People of German, British, Irish origin comprises made up the majority of the population. But it also has sizable Scandinavian, Italian, Polish, Spanish and French comunities.
I am still in the process of putting these numbers together and trying to see what they really mean lol. But it is interesting for me to see how the similiarities and differences between these three countries, in terms of where all those European emigrants went and settled in the last few centuries. I am also interested in looking at people from other backgrounds but that will take a while.
I just thought I'd share these information with you guys. I am not sure if there's any real interests in these topics, but I can try and upload some statistics and data in later posts if anyone is interested in finding out more
I think it's interesting that due to the highland clearances, vast numbers of Gaelic speaking highland Scots were sent to the Canadian Maritimes, where they at one point nearly equalled the number of Gaelic speakers in Scotland herself. A unique dialect called Canadian Gaelic developed, and in the West, Canadian Gaelic settlers ended up creating a new language called Bungee, a creole language that is a mix of Cree and Canadian Gaelic spoken by several of the Metis settlements prior to the eventual Metis defeat in the late 19th century. Unfortunately, hardly anyone speaks these languages anymore because their speakers considered them lower class and shameful, so as soon as they could learn English many enthusiastically abandoned their former tongues for this more prestigious language.
I think it's also interesting that Canada is the second most Sikh country in the world, only barely less Sikhs per capita then India herself, as about ~1.5% of the people are Sikh.
Australia’s immigrant population is of course the lowest in total numbers but proportionately is actually the highest of the three. The countries/area of birth of Australia's population in 2011 were.
Australia 73.5%
North West Europe 7%
Southern Europe 3.5%
South East Asia 3.5%
North East Asia 3%
New Zealand and The Pacific Islands 3%
Central and South Asia 2.5%
Middle East and Northern Africa 1.5%
Sub-Saharan Africa 1.5%
North and South America 1%
Of course up until the end of WW2 , the Australian government did its very best to keep its population as white and British as possible, to that time the population came almost exclusively came from the British isles ( with a few German’s thrown in). Hence the reason why European Australians lack the big diversity in ancestries that European Canadians and Americans do.
Asians did not really start immigrating to Australia in large numbers until the Vietnamese Refugee Crises in early 1980’s.
I don't really have any startling facts for you really, I might be able to dig something up
Last edited by danielsa1775; 03-19-2013 at 01:51 AM..
It is always interesting to know the push and pull factor for each cases. The highland clearance is an very interesting case, and it is easy to see those influences in the area you have mentioned like Cape Brenton or Prince Edward Island. Another example is the volcanic eruption in Iceland in the laste 19th century, which forced many to emigrant. Eventually the majority of them ended up in Manitoba.
It will be interesting to look at each group more closely! If you guys have any tips or experience please post them here! I understand that Asian population have exploded in recent decades, along with the general population a whole, it will be interesting to see how the numbers and pattern compare to the old world immigrant!
It would be interesting to look at the country of birth/language data as well. They probably reflects more accurately on how different cities looks today´, but so far I have only been looking at the ancestry/enthic origin data (as they were classified in the different census bureau).
In regards to Australia in particular, I think the immigrant parttern is very different than its counterpart in both the United States and Canada. Asides from the French/Spanish/African American influences, and perhaps some religious emigration I think there're some parallel to the immigrantion history between United States and Canada. For example, they both experienced the block settlement in the midwest/prairies that attracted more Northern Europeans (based on their experience in agriculture in harsh climates I'd assume) than say Australia did in the same period.
These settlers also moved across the border in great numbers as well.
But I do think we see the pattern shifting after WWII, and the groups who emigrated in great numbers during this period are well represented in all three countries. The Italians and Dutch are two examples of such that I can think of.
Here are some charts illustrating where the old world emigrants ended up settling. They were based on the actually numbers (total number of repsonse on the different ancestry reported) and how they are distributed among the three countries. The last chart roughly illustrates the total population of each country, so it is easy to compare when one country recieves more than its share of the emigrants relative to its population. I tried to grouped each group by cultural similarities but they are more arbitrary than not. Unfortunatley I have only realised after I have made these chart that they doesn't really say much lol. It only shows where and how many old world emigrants and their descendants ended up living today (ie there are 100 million people of English/Irish/Scottish/Welsh ancestry living in these three countries today).
But I would also like to note that since these numbers are taken from three different souces, they may not be very accurate. I have also tried to find the numbers for New Zealand but it seems like their have started to classify their survey differently in their latest census which made it hard to make the comparsion. I have also excluded groups like Americans, Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders.. etc, but these numbers, or the percentage of such are fairly consistent between the three census.
When the Canadian government wanted to settle the vast Prairies, the man responsible was by the name of Clifford Sifton. He was looking for tough and hardy people who were used to cold weather and hard work in difficult conditions. Good homesteaders. This is why you have a high proportion of central and northern Europeans in the Prairie provinces of Western Canada. Especially Ukrainians.
Sifton was not fond of southern Europeans, African-Americans and even French Canadians from his own country, and often made it harder to these groups to move to the Prairies even though some were interesting in going and did eventually settle there.
On Wikipedia there are many interesting articles on ethnic and racial minorities in various countries, with thumbnail portraits of individuals in that group. On Wikipedia's home page, just type in the ethnicity name, followed by the host country name. For example, Japanese-Canadian, Greek-Australian, Polish-American, Afro-German, Afro-Canadian, Mexican-American, Greek-American, Korean-German, Turkish-German, Afro-British, Franco-American, Cuban-American, and many other combinations. Who would have guessed, for example, that the Governor General of Canada is a Haitian-born woman ?
Who would have guessed, for example, that the Governor General of Canada is a Haitian-born woman ?
Was, Michaelle Jean retired and has been replaced by David Johnston. She was preceded by Adrienne Clarkson, an ethnically Chinese woman born in Hong Kong who arrived as a refugee fleeing the Second World War. Of the three, Michaelle Jean was far the most popular and the one who had to make the most important decisions during her tenure.
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I am quite a number geek, and have keen interest in a number of topics that are often discussed here. Geography, culture, cities, architecture... etc.
