Ethnicity and Race in Canada: Past and Present

Abstract

The ethnic and racial landscape of Canada in the twenty-first century is significantly different from its earliest demographic history. Aboriginal peoples, English and French settlers are the original founding pillars of Canada, but over the centuries, immigration has made Canada more diverse with arrivals from many Western, Northern, Southern and Eastern European countries. Migrants and their descendants from areas other than Europe now are transforming Canada’s ethnic and racial composition again. The ethnic composition of Canada is continually changing, not only as the result of immigration but also because of fluctuation by individuals in their choices of ethnic labels. Nonetheless, ethnicity continues to be a defining characteristic of Canada, particularly because it is related to language use among Anglophone and Francophone populations. Additionally, race is salient in discussions of “what Canada is and what it will become.” Race, or rather its social construction, now is an important component of demographic change and highly correlated with socioeconomic advantages and disadvantages experienced by newcomer groups and by Aboriginal peoples. Following a brief orienting overview of Canada’s geography and demography, this chapter reviews ethnic flux in Canada, English -French populations and their language origins and use, changes in immigration sources and the growth in people of color, and the demographic and socioeconomic profiles of Aboriginal groups.